ICELANDERS IN ALGIERS – PART 5 – Corsairs & Captives

(This post is a continuation of Icelanders in Algiers – Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4. If you haven’t done so already, it’s best to read that post before continuing on here.)

This week continues the series of excerpts from Stolen Lives (the book my Icelandic colleague, Karl Smári Hreinsson, and I published last year) dealing with the captive Icelanders’ experience in Algiers.

Last week described how the captive Icelanders were sent to the Badestan—the slave market—to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. This is where we pick up the story.

The only description of the Algiers Badestan that exists in the Icelandic texts is provided by Reverend Ólafur Egilsson (who penned a lengthy narrative describing his experiences in Algiers). His description is quite brief, though: “We poor Westman Islands people were taken to the marketplace in groups, each of thirty. The Turks guarded each group in front and behind and counted heads at each street corner because the inhabitants of that place will steal such captive people if they get the chance”

Reverend Ólafur adds that “the other Icelanders were moved from there to another place, and one of the Turks led two groups of ten around a stone column with loud screaming which I did not understand.”

Brief—and confused—as this description might be, the basics if it still seem to correspond quite well with other descriptions of the auctioning process.

Father Dan, a Trinitarian friar who was in Algiers on a ransom expedition in the summer of 1634, witnessed first-hand the sale of slaves. Here is his description:

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Recently taken captives are brought out of the prison where they are kept under guard and brought to the Badestan, along with the Raïs, or Captain, of the vessel that has captured them, as well as other officers deputized expressly in order to ascertain how much the captives will be sold for.

There are brokers, like horse dealers, who, well versed in this business, walk beside the captives the length of the market, loudly shouting that they are for sale to whoever wants to buy them. This I have seen multiple times, with so much unhappiness that I must confess I had tears in my eyes and my heart went cold. The buyers carefully scrutinize these poor Christian captives, whom they strip naked as they like, without regard for their shame. No matter what, the captives must obey every command immediately or be struck with truncheons, which these inhuman people are always quick to use.

The buyers look to see if the captives are strong or weak, healthy or sick, or if they have any wound, or some disease that can prevent them from working. After this, using blows of their truncheons, the buyers make the captives walk, jump, and cavort about in order to determine how healthy they are. The buyers also look at the captives’ teeth, not to know their age, but to see if they have tooth decay, which would make them less valuable. In addition, they look into the captives’ eyes and study their faces in an effort to divine their natures, whether good or bad.

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The French Consul in Algiers in the 1670s described something very similar:

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There are auctioneers or brokers who take the slaves by the hand and walk them from one end of the Badestan to the other, shouting aloud the price that is offered. This is an auction where everyone can bid, and where the merchandise is delivered to the last and highest bidder, provided he has the cash to pay for it.

Merchants who trade in slaves (there are many who have no other occupation) do all they can to find out if the slaves they are buying are of good family and what they can give for their ransom. The buyers examine the slaves’ teeth, and also the palms of their hands, to judge by the delicacy of their skin to determine if they are working people.

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Here is a description by a captive, who was enslaved in Algiers in the early 1640s, of how he and his companions were sold:

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We were taken to the market where it is customary to sell Christians. A very old man, with a staff in his hand, took me by the arm and led me around. Those who wanted to buy me asked about my country, my name, and my profession. They felt my hands to determine if they were hard and calloused from work, and they made me open my mouth to see if my teeth were able to gnaw biscuits on the galleys.

They then made us all sit down, and this same old man took the first of us in the line by the arm and walked with him three or four times around the market, shouting, “Arrache! Arrache!”—meaning “Who offers more?” Once the first man was sold, he was made to sit on the other side of the market, and another was brought up.

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For more on how slaves were sold in the Badestan, see the next post in this series here in this blog.

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For those who may be interested…

Reverend Ólafur Egilsson’s brief description of the Badestan comes from Karl Smári Hreinsson and Adam Nichols, The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson, p. 27-28 and p. 29.

Father Pierre Dan’s description of the process by which slaves were sold comes from his Histoire de Barbarie, et de ses corsaires, des royaumes, et des villes d’Alger, de Tunis, de Salé, et de Tripoly (History of the Barbary and its Corsairs and Kingdoms, and of the Cities of Algiers, Tunis, Salé, and Tripoli), second edition, published in 1649, p. 392.

The French Consul’s description of the selling process comes from Laurent d’Arvieux, Mémoires du Chevalier D’Arvieux, Tome 5 (Memoirs of the Chevalier d’Arvieux, Volume 5), published in 1735, p. 266.

The captive’s description of the selling process comes from Emmanuel d’Aranda, Relation de la captivité et liberté du sieur Emanuel d’Aranda, mené esclave à Alger en l’an 1640, & mis en liberté en 1642, (The Story of the Captivity and Liberation of Emmanuel d’Aranda, Enslaved in Algiers in the Year 1640 and Liberated in 1642), published in 1665, pp. 13-14.