Enslaved Icelander Describes Horror of Barbary Pirate Raid (1627) // Diary of Ólafur Egilsson

while news of the pirates approach first reached grinderwick and southern iceland at the end of june there were many grandiose words and much fearless boasting not in the least by the danish authorities a defensive rampart was built around the danish merchant houses on the westmon islands and ships prepared for defence the danes boasted that the icelanders would all flee at the first sign of trouble preparations stood like this until people heard that the pirates had gone away and that they no longer posed any threat to the westmon islands after that people became careless despite some warnings that they had been given and this went on until the 16th of july which was a monday then people saw three ships early in the morning off the south coast one of which was very large when the first ships were seen that morning all the people were called to the danish merchant houses for defence and strongly prohibited from leaving they stayed there all that day until evening when night had come however the people went away because the danes began to say that they thought the three ships must be part of the defensive force that had been sent to protect iceland then all the people went back to their homes and laid aside their preparedness and so these servants of satan the father of all ungodliness god their will [Music] this video is sponsored by magellan tv what is the key difference between wyverns and dragons a their size b the number of legs or c their manners correct in british heraldry wyverns are often depicted with two legs and so my recommendation on magellan tv this week is a great new documentary series called myths and monsters 4k a six-part work that explores the bizarre history behind some of our greatest myths and legends from troy to ragnarok it is maximum epic and has some beautiful imagery and of course magellan have more than 3000 other documentaries to check out too it's a sort of netflix for documentaries so click on the link in the description for an exclusive month-long free trial for voices of the past viewers thanks the next day when the had dropped the evil pirates lowered overboard three boats which they called sluffer and which are quite large and very quickly put 300 men into them and rushed ashore there were english fishermen in these boats who guided the pirates to an unusual landing place where nobody in living memory had ever before managed to come ashore the pirates landed so suddenly that the people found it hard to escape them they rushed with violent speed across the island like hunting hounds howling like wolves and the weak women and children could not escape especially on the farms above the lava because the pirates had a shorter way there only a few of the people who were strongest or had nothing to carry or did not pay attention to anyone else managed to avoid capture i with my weak group was quickly taken some of my neighbours managed to escape quickly into the caves or down the cliffs some were able to gain their freedom again but who exactly i cannot tell for i and my poor wife were amongst the first to be captured we struggled for a long time until we were beaten and struck with the butts of their spears and had to give in i've since wondered that they did not kill us all with their beatings i think most of those attacking us were english what follows i have heard from four men who were left behind when the pirates departed they saw the evil pirates first divide themselves into three groups the group which was the biggest perhaps 150 strong carried three red banners they went straight to the danish merchant houses and immediately attacked this was easy for them because the danes had all fled half an hour earlier the other two pirate groups quartered the island capturing people wherever they found them young and old women and men in infants the pirates captured people in their houses on the mountain slopes in caves and in holes and even in inaccessible places where the icelandic folk could not go except very carefully they killed everybody who fought against them and anybody who made the sign of the cross were named the name of jesus the dead lay everywhere four people were shot to death in caves four others were lured from there and deceived by the turkish pirates the reverend john was killed down by the seashore close to his home at this time the wind turned to the east so that the scoundrel pirates got all they could wish as the prophet says you let them free so they should be slaughtered and saved them for killing one of the turkish ships which had never reefed sail took advantage of the changed wind to sail at once into the harbour where it shot off three cannon the lander kirkche church stood in flames on tuesday as those of us already captured sat in the danish house where we had been driven the evil pirates gathered together everyone else whom they had taken and in that crowd i saw my children it was by now midday the three houses where we were kept could no longer contain all the people so the pirates ordered us to stand on the pavement in front of the houses where we were surrounded by these evil men when i came out of the house and saw their commander i went up to him with my poor wife and we fell on our knees in despair in front of him and his undercapped in and begged for mercy but our begging did no good when i saw their headgear i knew that these pirates were turkish then all those taken prisoners who were considered to be in acceptable condition were transferred to the pirates ship in two ten-owed boats the icelanders were ordered to row against a sharp easterly wind and they were beaten and flogged with ropes then we were forced onto the pirate's biggest ship which had lain there at anchor in the deepest part of the harbour and never come near shore when the pirates on that ship saw us climb miserably aboard they rejoiced a short time thereafter i was called to the stern of the ship and commanded by the pirate captain to sit down at once two of the turks took my hands and bound them tightly together while others bound my feet the captain then beat me striking and kicking me along my back while i screamed helplessly with the pain of it i do not know how many blows he gave me but he beat me as hard as he could until i was too hoarse to scream any longer then a man was brought forward who spoke german he asked me if i knew about any money that might be anywhere i said forcefully that i knew of none and wanted only that they beat me to death quickly and have done they left me alone then raised me up and ordered me back to the bow of the ship i could hardly stand or walk so badly they had hurt me my fellow icelanders had compassion for my poor plight but the evil pirates just laughed [Music] for the whole of the next day the evil pirates were continually coming and going from the ship and on each trip they came back with more wretched people as prisoners but so that you honest reader should know the truth i must say that after the people came aboard the ship at this time the pirates did not annoy anyone except me but behaved well towards them all and were even kind to the children though this does not make the story any happier now it may happen that you would like to know what these vile pirates look like both in personal appearance and in dress truly speaking they are like other peoples different in size and look some small some large some black some are not of turkish origin at all but are christian people of other countries such as england germany or denmark or norway the turks all have black hair and they shave their heads and their beards except on the upper lip in truth they are not very wicked looking people rather they are quiet and well tempered in their manner if it is possible to describe them like that but the ones who have been christians and have forsaken their religion although they dress like the turks are by far the worst of people and cruelly brutal to christians it was they who bound those taken captive and wounded and killed people the most accurate reckoning of the number of icelandic people killed is 34. there were 242 people captured in all and by wednesday evening all were aboard the turkish ships when the poor icelandic people saw their homeland disappearing behind them there was much wailing and lamentation all that first day when finally the wailing diminished they tried to comfort each other and the plight with god's words women as well as men both young and old on the 30th of july my poor wife gave birth after the proper time to a boy child who was named after the blessed reverend john i myself baptized the child as if i were back on land but my heart was filled with grief when the evil pirates heard that a child had been born and heard the child crying they gathered in a crowd two of them gave old shirts to wrap the child in on that voyage there was one of the pirates on our ship who washed himself normally every day in water he was also washed by others during the month that we were travelling the honest woman margret said that this pirate had killed her husband all this washing could not make him clean during our month of travel two or three old women died who had been taken captive in east iceland their bodies were wrapped in old sail cloth and they were quickly tossed overboard on the 16th or 17th of august we came to algiers the place where our captors lived straight after the anchor it hit bottom the captured people were put on land in a great hurry and our sufferings which god alone can redress continued when the poor icelandic people were put on land such a huge crowd gathered that i think it was impossible to count their number they did not come for any cruel purpose but only to look at the poor captives we icelanders were separated from each other friend from friend children from their parents and driven through the streets from one house to another to the marketplace where we were put up for auction as if we were sheep or cattle the people who'd been captured in east iceland were the first offered for sale the men being kept separate in some houses the women in other houses this went on until the 28th of august by which time most of the east iceland people were sold we poor westman islands people were taken to the marketplace in groups each of 30. 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 when we came to the marketplace we were placed in a circle and everyone's hand and face were inspected then the king chose from this group those whom he wanted every eighth as i mentioned earlier his first choice amongst the boys was my own poor son 11 years old whom i will never forget as long as i live because of the depth of his understanding and knowledge when he was taken from me i asked him in god's name not to forsake his faith he said with great grief i will not my father they can treat my body as they will but my soul i shall keep for my good god [Music] i and my wife and our two young children a one-year-old and a one month old were taken from that place up to the king's hall and there we sat with the children in our arms for two hours from there we were then taken to the king's prison where we spent that night from that time on i do not know what became of the rest of the icelandic people i would like to comfort and strengthen the people with my words but i cannot and whether i speak of such things or not my suffering does not lessen whatever happens we are the lords to tell the truth we captives were given ample food evenings and mornings we had bread warm from the oven and good porridge groats with fat put into it nothing else was given us to drink other than lukewarm brackish water what i saw in this place of evil people is difficult for me to describe because i was so disoriented and grief-stricken at that time the first thing that we captives met on the streets when we came ashore were the donkeys heavily laden these animals are small by our standards no bigger than a two-year-old mare but they are very strong for carrying things in that town i also saw five camels which are strong and enormous i saw a dwarf man and also a dwarf woman because they are so common in that town he looked to me to be less than two l's tall and she one and a half l's tall he had a short trunk and was long legged with long arms reaching almost down to his knees he was black as pitch with a big head she was astonishingly fat with short fat legs and a long trunk the town itself is built upon the slope of a mountain it is narrower near the upper end at the top of the mountain seen from a distance it seems to be about a mile wide many there are who look fair and embellish themselves in order to better carry through their evil business as david says whatever happens we are the lords [Music] during the time that we three icelanders were in our house yes but christiansen and i felt unwell but john became truly sick then my honest wife was allowed to visit me but not stay there very long oh lord our transgressions deserve punishment but you help for your name's sake during that time i was barefoot and had no shoes then god awakened one frenchman who had been there for a long time the man gave me new shoes and some aqua vitae when i was sick and then that same man told me many icelandic people were lying sick and dying all around the town which did not make us happy he also told me that in the christian cemetery there were already 31 people buried the icelanders could not endure the terrible heat of that place the same frenchman also told me that a girl who had been my servant who was very good-looking had been sold first for 700 but then a rich man came from jerusalem 38 miles to the northeast and paid a thousand for her and took her back with him to jerusalem where he gave her to a christian man in that place christian men cannot have intercourse with turkish women nor turkish men with christian women otherwise they lose their lives about such things i do not need to write further except to say that i witness these things and that they are truth [Music] on the 20th day of september i was taken from the house where i was imprisoned by four men and brought to the street where the house containing my wife and babies was located i begged with all humbleness and prayer of the men who had fetched me that i might be allowed to say goodbye to my wife and the children who were with her all of whom were deadly sick i was hardly allowed ten words with them however and then my captors callously pulled me away oh distress on distress after this painful meeting with my family i was taken to the street where the official who was to issue me a safe conduct lived this safe conduct written in many different languages i was to give to any turkish pirates who might capture a ship on which i was a passenger the document explained that i should neither be killed nor interfered with because i was acting as a messenger i still have this document and have shown it to several people including the archbishop of copenhagen in order to receive this safe conduct i had to kiss the pirates hands again and that same day i was put aboard an italian ship on this voyage i suffered great hardship and distress and at one point for lack of proper food and water i was reduced to drinking water which a lion a bear an ostrich and some monkeys and poultry had drunk from and befouled even so i was glad so thirsty was i we came in sight of iceland on the 4th of july and on the 6th to the westman islands when i came there the poor people received me as if i had been their own best friend returning again from death some of these honest men and women proved themselves to be kindly and generous my poor daughter took me in and cared for me the seventh day of that month i went to the mainland and there met my beloved neighbours relatives and good friends who received me with complete joy and did everything for me that they could so much that i cannot write it all all the people were very kind and generous towards me god opens the hearts of men and showers mercy upon those who most need it all good gifts come from our father in heaven above [Music] you

Channel: Voices of the Past

Views: 2,971,258

Keywords:

Id: M2EJChRdxL0

Length: 18min 37sec (1117 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 24 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/texachusetts]

There is a reason that “Rule Britannia” (1740) has the line about Britons never ever being slaves. And in the chorus no less.

[u/[deleted]]

The abolitionist Quakers of 17th and 18th century America frequently alluded to Turkish enslavement of Europeans when trying to get their fellow Americans to oppose slavery. George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, actually wrote a sermon titled, "To Friends that are Captives at Algiers."

Text from the 1688 Germantown, Pennsylvania petition against slavery:

"These are the reasons why we are against the traffik of men-body, as followeth. Is there any that would be done or handled at this manner? To be sold or made a slave for all the time of his life? How fearful and fainthearted are many on sea, when they see a strange vessel should be a Turk, and they should be taken, and sold for slaves into Turkey. Now what is this better done, as Turks doe? Yea, rather it is worse for them, which say they are Christians... Now, tho they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty to have them slaves as it is to have other white ones."

The Turkish empire and their North African allies had a terrible track record all around.

The Turkish Atrocities In Bulgaria https://archive.org/details/MacGahanTurkishAtrocitiesInBulgaria

The Thirty-Year Genocide https://u1lib.org/book/5005025/8b1369

SLAVE HUNTING AND SLAVE REDEMPTION AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE: THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA REGION IN THE SIXTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES https://www.jstor.org/stable/25818051

"Tatar raiders made almost annual forays into Slavic agricultural communities in the north searching for captives to sell as slaves... between 1605 and 1633... over 100,000 Ukrainians and Poles were abducted from Ruthenia alone, adding another 100,000 for the remaining provinces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Thus we arrive at an annual average of 7,000 captives, abducted by the Tatars from Poland-Lithuania.

The Etymology of Slave https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16zk023.7

"Latin servus means a free person, an unfree person, or both. Similarly, Latin sclavus and related words in other languages (French, Italian, Greek, Arabic, etc.) means an enslaved person, a person of Slavic origin, or both. And, servus often designates an enslaved person of Slavic origin as well... after 1301 the majority of enslaved people in Italy were Slav and/or Tartar."

Shameless self-promotion: For anyone whose interested in Quaker abolitionism, I made a very amateur video on it for a class https://youtu.be/CYZDKdnt3hc?t=11

[u/BillsDownUnder]

Voices of the Past is a fantastic Youtube series, I highly recommend it

[u/Ifch317]

IIR Icelandic people are descendants of Nordic Vikings and the Irish slaves they captured in various raids.

[u/Gothsalts]

there's a weird subset of conservatives that would love to know this in order to 'gotcha' people who are against white privilege. "See! europeans were enslaved too! by BROWN people!"

Anyway, ottoman slavery is a really interesting subject.

the sultan created it in order to have direct control of the most powerful people under him. the devshirme was basically a tax of young boys of non-muslim communities who would either become government clerks or personal soldiers for the sultan. the clerks could rise to the rank of Vizier, the council that advised the sultan, or even just regional directors. muslim citizens would try to pass their boys off as non-muslim in order to get them enslaved and have a shot at real power.

source: took a history class on the ottoman empire in college. the milet and devshirme were an essay question on the final.

[u/[deleted]]

This will probably be* an unpopular post

[u/shitgnat]

I just watched this the other day. Weird.

[u/Klarko2003]

Yep don't hear them bang on about it every ten minutes

[u/dethb0y]

There's two bizzare tie-ins to modern american history with the Barbary pirates.

Basically, there were 2 wars against the pirates that the US was engaged in - The Barbary Wars, though there were relations and such before that.

Anyway, the modern effect:

In the marine corps official song, the "shores of Tripoli" are a reference to the barbary pirates

the USS Constitution, oldest ship still afloat anywhere in the world, was built in response to the barbary pirates (which she fought against, along with many other actions).