Most of the names in the official report sound English, but it is likely that there were also a few native Irish among the prisoners. What is certain is that very few of the were ever heard of again three women at most, who were ransomed up to 14 years after their abduction.
The fate of the rest is unknown, but for many it would have been to end their days as galley slaves or concubines in the harems of Algiers. For his part Hackett was arrested and hanged on a clifftop outside the village. The Sack of Baltimore is fertile ground for conspiracy theories. They generally point the finger at the rapacious Sir Walter Coppinger who had been seeking to prise the village away from the O'Driscolls, oust the settlers and secure it for himself. Whether by accident or design, the pirates carried out part of this plan for him.
In the aftermath of the raid the surviving villagers moved inland to Skibbereen and elsewhere in search of greater security and Coppinger's designs on the village were realised. The Sack marked the end of the year reign of the O'Driscolls as overlords of Baltimore.
We use cookies to improve your experience on this website. Read More Allow Cookies. Among the captives ransomed by Edmond Cason in were three children, all male, who were redeemed along with their mothers. Of the total number repatriated by Cason the majority were men, with only eighteen women, whose average price far exceeded that of the men: Elizabeth Alwin of London cost and a quarter dollars, while Mary Bruster of Youghal fetched dollars, the average price for a man being dollars.
The ransom prices were determined by the original cost price, though Cason did suspect that the figures had been inflated. Hands were inspected to see whether they were calloused, and captives were tortured to reveal the identity of any wealthy individuals.
White women were highly valued, and most would have been bought as items of prestige, destined to spend their lives as concubines; for many of them this would have been a life of comparative luxury, any drudgery being assigned to black slaves. There are few references to women being raped, although there is a report of a young woman being despoiled while still ashore during the Icelandic raid of Whether the lack of records is due to such attacks being considered unremarkable and thus going unrecorded or because they did not occur is a matter for conjecture.
Library of Congress. The children, usually raised as Muslims and by all accounts treated with the utmost gentleness, would eventually form the bulk of a highly efficient slave corps within the Ottoman army; others were purchased and raised in the homes of local people, seemingly becoming members of the family. Of all the Baltimore captives there are few of whom it can be stated with any certainty that they were eventually ransomed. Edmund Cason reported paying the sum of dollars for the release of Joan Broadbroke, either the wife or daughter of Stephen Broadbroke, and a paltry 86 dollars for Ellen Hawkins.
The two women, having spent fifteen years in captivity, returned safely to England. Their eventual fate is as yet unknown, as is the fate of the other people, and merits further investigation. In addition to the two Baltimore captives, Cason secured the emancipation of ten of the captives taken from the packet ship John Filmer off Youghal in Epilogue By the late eighteenth century the balance had shifted, and the North Atlantic sea powers, in particular England, owing to growing naval pre-eminence, were beginning to occupy the dominant position.
The widely held belief that the Ottoman empire was in decline gave impetus to European colonial attempts to form outposts in North Africa and to challenge the Ottomans militarily. The expanding power of the Royal Navy allowed it to successfully combat Islamic slave-raiding, an activity which, ironically, had been kept viable by a British policy of exchanging arms for captives. Initially, Baltimore seems to have recovered. By small units of cavalry were stationed along the coast, beacons were erected on strategic headlands and the town was beginning to rebuild.
That same year, however, there were rumours of a planned return by corsairs. For many of the inhabitants of Baltimore the fear was too great, and the majority of those who elected to stay in West Cork moved further inland to Skibbereen.
In one visitor to the town described it as being nothing but a decaying fishing village and rotten borough. For the captives life was never the same again. Those who were ransomed usually ended their lives in destitution, viewed with suspicion and unable to resettle. A small minority profited from their experiences through the sale of lurid captivity narratives. Of those who remained Christian, most quickly succumbed to overwork and hard usage, their identities and fate unknown.
Whatever their fate, all the captives had one thing in common: their lowly status as pawns in a global power game that had been played between Islam and Christianity since the eighth century. Further reading: H. Cason, A relation of the whole proceedings concerning the redemption of the captives in Argier and Tunis London, Davis, Christian slaves, Muslim masters Basingstoke, Login Subscribe To renew a subscription please login first.
Search for:. That field of glory. The story of Clontarf, from battleground to garden suburb Read More. Personal Histories is an initiative by History Ireland, which aims to capture the individual histories of Irish people both in Ireland and around the world. As for the views of the harbor, the Irish one is more scenic and the beer served in restaurants is better than what is found in most restaurants in the United States. As for dock-watching, waterfront visitors in Baltimore, Md. All competition of best scenery ceases when a visitor travels a short distance from downtown Baltimore, Ireland.
There, on heather-covered cliffs about the same distance from Federal Hill is from City Hall, visitors meet the Atlantic Ocean. Hence the name Lord of Baltimore. Since the only Baltimore in Ireland is one in county Cork, the researcher continued, then it must be the one that Lord Baltimore and Baltimore, Md.
A woman at the Irish Tourist board in New York put it differently. As for Lord Baltimore, she said it was common practice for the English to name themselves lords of lands they had confiscated from the Irish. The pirates were so ornery they even carried some Baltimoreans back to Algeria where, according to legend, they were sold into slavery. Up to then, they were supposed to have been a pretty powerful bunch. Brian Marten Nov 09, Thank you for posting these wonderful evocative pictures of our village!
I have a press cutting from our local newspaper dated March about the visit of a Mr Frank Hennessy and his wife Marguerite of Maryland. A reporter from the Baltimore Sun covered his reception here on St. Your Website. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
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