The stolen village of Baltimore

Hi, this is Our Bloody History, where we sail the seven seas of the past looking for pearls of wisdom.

Today's adventure:

The almost forgotten story of the 107 English settlers who were stolen from Ireland by North African pirates this week, 391 years ago, on 20 June 1631.

Lessgo.

It's the 17th century and 'corsair hysteria' grips many parts of coastal Europe. People are genuinely scared of pirates, savvy?

It's not so much the pirates themselves that inspire fear, but what they herald: a lifetime of slavery on the Barbary Coast, the northwestern edge of Africa. The mere thought of being stuffed into a dirty, dark ship by Islamic corsairs and sold into servitude is absolutely terrifying to the Christian European.

Unlike many of the extraordinary popular delusions that thrived throughout history – witch hunts, religious crusades and haunted houses, just to name a few – this fear of pirates has real sea legs. White slavery is currently a booming market and fills the water with ambitious rogues. No vessel on the open sea or village on the coast is safe from the Barbary Pirates. Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, the British Isles, the Netherlands, and even Iceland, are all targets of the devastating razzias – raids to plunder and capture slaves.

Most of this action originates from the ports of Tripoli (modern-day Libya), Algiers (modern-day Algeria) and Tunis (modern-day Tunisa), unique-semi states, regencies loosely affiliated with the Ottoman Empire, but largely left to their own devices. Piracy thrives in these borderlands, attracting all manner of outcasts from across Europe. In Algiers alone, the corsair industry accounts for 25 percent of the workforce. It's a real-life den of thieves.

Some of the most notorious Barbary Pirates are actually European renegades. These former privateers bring deep naval experience to the region and in their hands the slave industry innovates. They push raiding beyond the narrow confines of the Mediterranean. Truly, no coastal town is off limits. If you have a nice sea view, then you're fair game, matey.

And this town in southern Ireland has a primo view.

Baltimore, or Dún na Séad (Fort of the Jewels), is a small village in western County Cork, the southernmost parish in Ireland. It was once the seat of the ancient Corcu Loígde dynasty and, more recently, home to the infamous O'Driscoll clan who were pirates and sea rovers themselves. However, in 1605, Fineen O'Driscoll, head of the clan, leases a chunk of land to a small group of English settlers. Despite resistance from the local Irish (who are pissed with Fineen's financial treachery), the English manage to establish a pilchard fishery, which thrives over the next 25 years.

But that's about to change big time.

Now let's meet a real pirate, shall we?

This handsome devil is Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, also known as Morat Reis the Younger. He is a Dutch renegadoe, a convert to Islam and one of the most famous 17th-century Salé Rovers – a dreaded band of Barbary Pirates. Morat has a fascinating background story, but that's for another day.

In the summer of 1631, Morat sets sail from Algiers with a crew of 200+ men and a fleet of two ships: a 300-ton Dutch-built man-of-war and a smaller vessel half the size. His main mission is to hunt humans and the tactics the pirates employ are normally pretty straightforward:

The pirates are also very opportunistic. They have to be. It's part of the game – you never know what the high seas will deliver. On 17 June, Morat encounters a lone ship between Ireland and England. He seizes the captain and his crew of nine, loots the valuables and sinks the ship. Then, on 19 June, the pirates capture two 12-ton fishing boats off the Irish coast near the Old Head of Kinsale. The poor captains and their five-man crews are added to the human bounty bag. This time Morat doesn't sink the boats; they're needed to carry an even greater prize home.

Then, in the early hours of 20 June 1631, our day in history this week, Morat and 230 musketeers land at The Cove, the lower part of Baltimore. The 26 cottages on the shoreline are fast asleep. On Morat's signal, the raiders divide into small groups and get to work with brutal efficiency. They smash open doors with iron bars, set thatched roofs ablaze with firebrands, and yank sleeping inhabitants from their beds. It's a terrifying way to be roused – shoved by bearded pirates, screamed at in foreign dialects, all while choking on the smoke of your burning home. In the chaos both Thomas Corlew and John Davis are hacked to death by corsair blades. The goal is live humans, but if you resist, you die.

It's a successful grab. One hundred settlers are forced onto the captured fishing boats. But there's more to be had...

The pirates push on towards the main town where another forty houses await their turn. Fortunately, Baltimore resident William Harris alerts the town by firing a musket. Another neighbour chips in by banging an old military drum. This gives many of the residents just enough time to escape. Morat's crew ransacks the houses and captures another seven unlucky individuals. With the element of surprise now completely ruined, the pirates retreat.

In total, 107 individuals are stolen from Baltimore: 20 men, 33 women and 54 children and youth, all destined for a lifetime of slavery on the Barbary Coast.

After 38 days of wretched conditions at sea, the residents of Baltimore finally arrive at Algiers. Land at last! They're unloaded like cattle and paraded around the city. After the Pasha, the local ruler, has his pick of women, the rest of the soon-to-be slaves are sent off to the auction blocks. A French priest witnessing this writes:

From here we lose track of our unlucky Baltimoreans and we can only guess at their fate. Des Ekin, author of The Stolen Village writes,"The individual tales of these stolen villagers may be unknown, but that does not mean that their story is unknowable."

We do have records of others who shared a similar fate. From the beginning of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th, it's estimated that over one million Europeans are enslaved by the Barbary states. Some of these stories give us a glimpse at what life might have been like as a slave in North Africa.

Men with military experience and valuable trade skills are put to good use. If not, they're condemned to a brutal (and very short) life of hard labour as a worker or galley slave. No one wants the galleys. It's the absolute worst fate – chained to a bench, to row and row under the burning sun and the cracking whip until you die of exhaustion, at which point your broken body is tossed into the sea as forgotten fish fodder.

Women are likely to be purchased as items of prestige (especially if they're white). The younger and more attractive ones would serve as concubines and the older ones as domestic servants.

And the children face diverse fates: pageboys, maidservants, spear carriers. Often the girls are bought by investors to be sold again at a later date.

Although most enslaved Europeans spend their days languishing in despair and pining for a rescue that almost never comes, some actually experience a life far better than the one they leave behind. Some marry, convert to Islam, blend in with the culture and even rise to positions of power and prominence in North Africa. The records tell us some interesting "chains to riches" stories.

But what about the residents of Baltimore? Do they thrive in their new lives? Do they rise to power?

Nobody knows.

Only three ever make it back to Ireland. The rest disappear into the black hole that is Algiers, never to be seen or heard from again.

What's chilling about this story is its suddenness. Corsairs had never raided Ireland before. The residents of Baltimore would never have expected such an act on their sheltered shores. Yet it happened. In one moment, everything changed.

Mel Robins, author of The 5 Second Rule writes “You are one decision away from a completely different life.” I like that. I think it also applies to the decisions of others. A single decision or act of someone else can radically flip our world upside down.

We often think we have more control over our lives than we really do. We're all teetering on the edge of order and chaos, between the life we think we're planning and a life we can't yet see or even imagine. And one decision, ours or someone else's, is all it takes to send us down a path of misery, or hey, maybe one of joy and unexpected adventure. Who knows. But that's life for ya – someone wise once said it's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. So maybe enjoy the sweet moments while you can.

3 quick facts:

• The Baltimore captives fetch the pirates more than £2,500 on the slave market, more than £230,000 in today's value.

• Due to corruption and bureaucracy, local naval forces are too slow to pursue the raiders. Morat leaves the British Isles on a Monday and a rescue mission departs on Friday. They never spot the pirate fleet.

• Although the Sack of Baltimore is the only recorded instance of a slaving raid by Islamic corsairs in Ireland, it was part of a much wider pattern of white slavery that occurred during the 16-18th centuries. Although extremely devastating and lucrative, this market was eventually eclipsed by the Atlantic slave trade, which saw 10-12 million enslaved Africans being shipped to the Americas. As a result, stories like Baltimore are an often forgotten and overlooked part of history.

Other conflicts that happened this week:

• 20 June 1756: A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta in India.

• 21 June 1732: In Montreal, New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death for setting a fire that destroys much of the city.

• 22 June 168 BC: The Romans defeat the Macedonians at the Battle of Pydna, ending the Third Macedonian War.

• 23 June 1594: The Portuguese carrack Cinco Chagas, loaded with slaves and treasure, is attacked in the Action of Faial and sunk by English ships with only 13 survivors out of over 700 on board.

• 24 June 1932: A bloodless revolution instigated by the People's Party ends the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand)

• 25 June 1876: U.S forces are defeated by allied Native American tribes at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand.

• 26 June 1794: The Battle of Fleurus, part of the French Revolutionary Wars, is the first battle in history to use aircraft for military purposes.

A historical quote about historical things:

See ya next week!

DisclaimerYou are reading my abstractions based on the abstractions of others. History is not always an accurate map of what really happened. The map is not the territory. Reality can be very different. We are like blind people groping an elephant, describing what we feel. It always pays to do your own research and ask questions.