The first U. S. peace negotiator with Algiers : captain John lamb : March 1786

Abstract EN

The American captives in Algiers were unlikely participants in the Republic of Letters.

Most were common seamen with little literary ability, and none had any experience in public affair.

Furthermore, they were held in what they described as slavery, far from their homeland.

Yet, despite confinement, distance, and lack of education, the Algerian captives manage to become active and, in some cases, shrew manipulators of public opinion .They wrote many letters home.

More than ninety arrived in the United States or were delivered into the hands of Americans abroad, probably hundreds more were sent but subsequently lost .These letters and their authors did much to shape the way the American public thought about Algiers and their country’s place in the world.