As part of our celebration of America at 250, we’ve started a weekly newsletter by historian Jonathan Horn. Learn what happened this week in American history, why it matters, and what else you should see and read in The Free Press and beyond. This week, Jonathan looks at Thomas Jefferson’s decision to take on the Barbary pirates. To get this newsletter in your inbox every week, sign up here. —The Editors
The despotic and desperate regime clung to power by terrorizing ships on one of the world’s most vital arteries of trade. It seized foreign vessels, enslaved and held hostage their crews in the name of Islam, played European powers off one another, and demanded the United States pay extravagant sums for peace as part of deals that would inevitably be broken.
Two hundred twenty-five years ago this week, the American president had enough. At a cabinet meeting on May 15, 1801—just a couple months after delivering his first inaugural address (discussed here)—Thomas Jefferson made the decision to dispatch a naval squadron to the Mediterranean Sea after the ruler of Tripoli, Yusuf Karamanli, threatened to renege on a treaty and declare open season on American ships. It was the beginning of the Barbary Wars. Though very different from the struggle against Iran today, America’s first fight in the Islamic world is worth remembering.
