Review of From Captives to Consuls

From Captives to Consuls: Three Sailors in Barbary and Their Self-Making Across the Early American Republic, 1770-1840 by Brett Goodin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The early days of a fledgling nation are a time of birth and rebirth, a time to establish both the identity of one’s nation and an individual. Such was the case when the United States shed its colonial yoke and emerged into a world where national character and liberty were relatively new concepts. It was also a time when the definition of manliness and intrusions into society’s hierarchical elite began to evolve. Freedom, however, came with consequences, one of which involved the hazards of maritime trade. Before the revolution, American sailors were protected by British treaties. After the war, seamen found themselves fair game for the corsairs who prowled the Mediterranean in search of slaves because the United States hadn’t paid annual tributes to safeguard their citizens. Three such Americans were Richard O’Brien (1758-1824), James Cathcart (1767-1843), and James Riley (1777-1840), who found themselves in this predicament. During their servitude, they had to learn to adapt and redefine themselves in order to survive. Each was eventually ransomed and published a narrative about his time and suffering in Algiers. From Captives to Consuls examines their experiences and writings to showcase how adaptation and reanalysis allowed them to weather captivity, as well as to subsist once they returned home to a country where nationhood, masculinity, and liberty continued to change.

From Captives to Consuls, the most recent title in the Studies in Early American Economics and Society series, is divided into six chapters that explore these men’s ability to adapt during the evolution of these three key concepts.

Introduction: Victims of American Independence
1. Farmers, Privateers, and Prisoners of the Revolution
2. Diaries of Barbary Orientalism and American Masculinity in Algiers
3. Captivity in Correspondence
4. From Captives to Consuls and Coup-Makers
5. Accidentally Useful and Interesting to the World
6. Sailing the Inland Sea
Conclusion: Opportunities of Empire

Goodin examines their lives before, during, and after captivity, as well as their narratives. He shares snippets from their correspondence, diaries, and government reports, and, when history is scarce, he supplements these with examples from other captivity narratives. He also incorporates maps and pictures into the text and includes an Essay on Sources, endnotes, and an index.

This is not an exploration of maritime history or piracy; rather, it is an insightful and scholarly analysis of what it meant to be a self-made American at a time when the nation and its place in the world were being defined. These three sailors who sold into slavery serve as the anchor that allows Goodin to accomplish this. O’Brien and Cathcart were taken when their ships were captured, but Riley became a slave after the ship he commanded wrecked on the African coast. After their releases, they became authors, diplomats, and politicians. Goodin deftly demonstrates how these men, time and again, overcame adversity to their benefit, showing others that it was possible to better themselves contrary to the prior belief that they must remain in the station of life into which they were born.



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