British Barbary Slaves

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

**Contains historical language which may cause offence**

Between the early 1600s and late 1700s, thousands of British sailors, fishermen, merchants, and coastal villagers were captured and enslaved by North African pirates, known as Barbary Corsairs. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Professor Bernard Capp delve into the harrowing experiences of these captives, their treatment, and the broader implications on British society. Their exploration of the similarities and differences between Barbary and African slavery, reveal a nuanced and complex history filled with compelling stories of survival, escape, and unexpected turns.

MORE:

Women Pirates of the Caribbean

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LC4MXJQZloEoYHkVb3WSL

Escaping Slavery in London

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LC4MXJQZloEoYHkVb3WSL

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music used courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.6	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:10.5	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:16.0	including my own recent two-part series, A World Torn Apart, The Dissolution of the Monastries, and enjoy a new release every week.
0:25.2	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:32.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise.
0:46.8	Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. Not in other words just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:17.3	Between the early 1600s and the late 1700s, thousands of Britons,
1:24.9	sailors, fishermen, merchants and unlucky coastal villages were captured and enslaved by North African pirates.
1:31.5	Known as Barbary Corsairs, these raiders proud the Mediterranean and even the English Channel,
1:37.2	seizing ships, storming beaches and dragging their captives back to the slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.
1:40.0	This August marks the 400th anniversary of one such attack, the 1625 raid on Mounts Bay in Cornwall,
1:48.8	where 60 men, women and children were taken into slavery.
1:58.7	Faced with brutal conditions, back breaking labour, forced conversion and the constant threat of violence,
2:05.6	these men, and sometimes women and children, endured years, even decades in captivity.
2:11.6	Some escaped, some were ransomed, many were never heard from again.
2:27.3	Their fates became a source of fear and fascination across Britain,
2:31.4	inspiring sermons, plays, pamphlets and parliamentary debate.
2:34.8	How, many asked, could a proud Christian kingdom allow its people to be enslaved by Muslim powers?
2:39.0	At a time when Britain was expanding its maritime reach,
2:42.4	this trade in white Christian slaves was a national humiliation and a moral crisis.
2:47.9	It spurred rescue missions, diplomatic wrangling,
	...

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