Rewriting the Barbary Captivity Narrative: The Perdicaris Affair and the Last Barbary Pirate

Abstract

In 1904, Teddy Roosevelt sent seven U.S. warships to Tangier to demand the release of the millionaire Ion Perdicaris, who had been captured and held for ransom by Raisuli, a sworn enemy of the Moroccan sultan. Rumors of invasion filtered into the national headlines and, at the Republican National Convention that summer, Roosevelt's secretary of state, John Hay, called for Raisuli's death. What later became known as the Perdicaris Affair stirred public outrage and rekindled memories of the nation's first postrevolutionary war when, in 1801, Thomas Jefferson sent the U.S. Navy to combat Barbary privateers. At that time, Barbary abduction was almost commonplace, and the genre of the Barbary captivity narrative flourished. While held hostage, Perdicaris wrote his own Barbary captivity narrative, which circulated widely, first in Leslie's Magazine and later in the National Geographic Magazine. The crisis, however, was soon forgotten after Roosevelt's successful reelection. The public might have altogether forgotten about Perdicaris but for John Milius's 1975 film, The Wind and The Lion. Milius, who both wrote and directed the film, based his account on Perdicaris's 1904 captivity episode and, in many ways, he preserved the popular image of the savage North African, even calling Perdicaris's captor the “Last of the Barbary Pirates.”