University of California

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara The United States and the Barbary Pirates: Adventures in Sexuality, State-Building, and Nationalism, 1784-1815 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Jason Raphael Zeledon Committee in charge: Professor Patricia Cohen, co-chair Professor John Majewski, co-chair Professor Salim Yaqub Professor Mhoze Chikowero June 2016 The dissertation of Jason Raphael Zeledon is approved ______________________________________________ Mhoze Chikowero ______________________________________________ Salim Yaqub ______________________________________________ Patricia Cohen, Committee Co-Chair ______________________________________________ John Majewski, Committee Co-Chair June 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my eleventh-grade American History teacher, Peggy Ormsby. If I had not taken her AP class, my life probably would have gone in a different direction! At that time math was my favorite subject, but her class got me hooked on studying American History. Thanks, too, to the excellent teachers and mentors in graduate school who shaped and challenged my thinking. At American University (where I earned my M.A.), I’d like to thank Max Friedman, Andrew Lewis, Kate Haulman, and Eileen Findlay. I transferred to UCSB to finish my Ph.D. and have thoroughly enjoyed working with Pat Cohen, John Majewski, Salim Yaqub, and Mhoze Chikowero. I’d especially like to thank Pat, who provided insightful feedback on early drafts of my chapter about the Mellimelli mission (which has been published in Diplomatic History). Additionally, I’d like to thank UCSB’s History, Writing, and English Departments for providing Teaching Assistantships and the staffs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room, and the Huntington Library for their help and friendliness. On a personal level, I deeply appreciate my parents, brother, grandparents, and in-laws for their love and encouragement and my friends for our dinner parties and game fests (without which graduate school would have been a lot more stressful!). Above all, I thank my wife, Aurora. She enthusiastically supported me throughout graduate school and I can’t wait to begin a new adventure with her in Denver. I dedicate this manuscript to her. iii Jason Raphael Zeledon Curriculum Vitae, June 2016 EDUCATION Ph.D. University of California at Santa Barbara, History, 2016 Areas: Early U.S. Republic, U.S. Foreign Relations, Gender & Women’s History Dissertation: “The United States and the Barbary Pirates: Adventures in Sexuality, State- Building, and Nationalism, 1784-1815” M.A. American University, History, 2011 B.A. University of California at Berkeley, English and History, 2006 PUBLICATIONS “‘As Proud as Lucifer’: A Tunisian Diplomat in Thomas Jefferson’s America,” Diplomatic History (currently available on the DH website, print publication forthcoming) AWARDS AND HONORS 2016 Regent’s Dissertation Fellowship University of California at Santa Barbara 2015 DeConde/Burns Prize University of California at Santa Barbara 2014 Wilbur R. Jacobs Prize University of California at Santa Barbara 2014 History Associates Fellowship University of California at Santa Barbara 2011 Greenberg Seminars Conference Grant American University 2010 Greenberg Seminars Conference Grant American University CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS 2016 “Thomas Jefferson’s Leadership during the Tripolitan War: A Critical Reappraisal,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, (accepted, but had to withdraw) iv 2014 “American Manhood and the Barbary Pirates: Gender, Sodomy, and Women’s Rights during the Algerian Captivity Crisis,” Society for Historians of the Early American Republic 2011 “‘This Barbarous Coast Called Barbary, the Weakness of their Garrisons, and The Effeminacy of their People’: American Attitudes toward the Barbary Pirates, 1796-1805,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations TEACHING EXPERIENCE University of California at Santa Barbara “America in the Early Republic,” (summer 2014, instructor of record) “Writing 2: Academic Writing,” (three quarters, instructor of record) “The American People: Colonial through Jacksonian Era” (three quarters, teaching assistant) “The American People: Sectional Crisis through Progressivism” (three quarters, teaching assistant) “The American People: World War I to the Present” (three quarters, teaching assistant) “World History: 1700 CE to Present” (one quarter, teaching assistant) “English 22: Intro to Literature and the Environment” (one quarter, teaching assistant) “English 10: Intro to Literary Studies” (one quarter, teaching assistant) v ABSTRACT The United States and the Barbary Pirates: Adventures in Sexuality, State-Building, and Nationalism, 1784-1815 by Jason Raphael Zeledon Throughout the first three decades of its independence, the United States constantly experienced conflicts with the Barbary pirates. Indeed, weathering a hostage crisis or waging war against Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, or Tunis was commonplace from 1784 to 1815. Of these thirty-two years, twenty-five of them featured a serious conflict with the Barbary States. The majority of works about the Barbary conflicts focus on events in North Africa: the experiences of the American captives, the frustrations of the diplomats, the excitement of battles, and the courageous actions of naval and military officers. This manuscript reorients our attention to the United States and reveals the greater significance of the Barbary conflicts. They powerfully shaped the cultural and political development of the early U.S. republic and changed the way policymakers, newspaper editors, and the public saw their country’s place in the world. In the 1780s, problems with the Barbary pirates contributed to the movement to abolish the Articles of Confederation and create the Constitution. Also, American perceptions of North African men changed from the 1780s to 1790s: from fierce adversaries to effeminate pushovers. During the Tripolitan War of 1801-1805, both political parties (Federalists and Democratic-Republicans) believed that much was at stake for themselves— they were fighting for the public’s trust in their vision for keeping Americans safe from Barbary piracy. When the navy did win battles, Federalist and Democratic-Republican vi newspaper editors alike claimed credit for their party while denigrating their rivals as unpatriotic and not concerned with the public good. Also, although fought 5,000 miles away in the Mediterranean, the Tripolitan War was enormously popular and made a sizable cultural impact. After negligently running the war against Tripoli, President Thomas Jefferson mishandled another conflict, with Tunis. He controversially used federal funds to cover the travel and living expenses of Tunisian Ambassador Sidi Soliman Mellimelli and was ultimately outmatched in negotiations for peace and a new treaty. Another war in the Mediterranean (against Algiers) occurred during the presidency of James Madison, who learned from Jefferson’s mistakes and accomplished what policymakers had striven for since the 1780s: the subjugation of the Barbary pirates. By obtaining congressional support at the outset and by sending an overwhelming force to the Mediterranean, Madison obtained a fast and decisive victory and prevented Federalists from raising any viable challenge to his leadership. This manuscript concludes with an examination of the historical memory of the Tripolitan War, Mellimelli mission, and Algerine War. In making new arguments, this manuscript examines a plethora of primary sources written by Americans, North Africans, and the British and especially draws upon newspapers found via the online databases Early American Newspapers Series I & II and Nineteenth- Century U.S. Newspapers. Newspapers reveal exciting new voices and information, as they contain editorials, letters not found in published collections, advertisements for cultural events, transcriptions of speeches, toasts given at public events, poems, and election campaign ads. Altogether, this manuscript reveals how America’s conflicts with the Barbary pirates during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries affected the development of political parties, ideas about gender and race, and nationalism within the United States. vii Jason Zeledon Chapter 1: Introduction Throughout the first three decades of its independence, the United States constantly experienced conflicts with the Barbary pirates. Indeed, weathering a hostage crisis or waging war against Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, or Tunis was commonplace from 1784 to 1815.1 Of these thirty-two years, twenty-five of them featured a serious conflict with the Barbary States.2 How did policymakers and the public respond to these nearly perpetual problems? How did conflicts with North Africa (which took place 5,000 miles away in the Mediterranean region) shape events on American soil and affect the developing political party system? To what extent did wars against Tripoli and Algiers captivate the public’s imagination and generate artistic endeavors and commercial opportunities? These questions drive this manuscript, which breaks new ground by revealing how problems with the Barbary pirates fueled the growth of the political party system, shaped ideas about gender and race, and contributed to American nationalism. The majority of works about the Barbary conflicts focus on events in North Africa: the experiences of the American captives,

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