Thomas Jefferson And The Tripoli Pirates

Plenty of early American authors used religious content or ideas for political purposes. These authors wanted to change the political world around them through publishing works with religious content. Two of these writers were Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Jefferson. Equiano and Jefferson crafted letters and stories that shaped then political climate during early American times that eventually helped to build a great nation. In the biography of Thomas Jefferson it states “that he wished to be remembered for only three things; drafting the Declaration of Independence, writing and supporting the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786), and founding the University of Virginia.” Fortunate for him that is what he remembered for to this day. As for Olaudah Equiano, he has caused a great deal of debate as to where he grew up. There has been evidence to support him growing up in the Carolinas and there has also been evidence to support him coming from Africa. One thing is certain that he has produced high quality written material that is read to this day.

Thomas Jefferson encountered many obstacles during his presidency, in which one of the issues was the First Barbary War, in which the United States and Sweden fought against the Barbary States. One of Jefferson's first actions as president was to reduce military establishments, in hope of transcending wars and peaceful era. The First Barbary War or Tripolitanian War lasted from 1801 to 1805 in the United States. The reason for waging the war was that pirates of the North Barbary States were intercepting American merchant ships and retaining the sailors for ransom, demanding the U.S. to pay tribute to the Barbary rulers. Jefferson declined to pay the price and ordered the American Navy to attack the Barbary Pirates. Even though Congress never

During the early formation of our nation, many great authors were putting their thoughts and feelings down on paper. These early American writers were the foundation upon which the literary culture of America was founded. Among these are the early writings of John Smith, Anne Bradstreet and Thomas Jefferson. Their writings were completed during a time of exploration and colonization characterized by many historical political and cultural transitions, and their literature accurately describes the events of that period. The literary works of these important authors convey the hardships that they experienced in a new land, as well as the evolution of the government and culture.

Thomas Jefferson was elected in the 1800’s as the President of United States. During the years of being a president, Thomas Jefferson executed the job very well. He was a great leader for his accomplishments and his philosophies that affected politically as well in other ways; he also showed a lot of affection against slavery. Firstly, Thomas Jefferson was an opponent of slavery. According to research, Thomas Jefferson had said slavery was “moral depravity and hideous blot” (Thomas Jefferson and Slavery Monticello).

Works Cited Sadosky, L. J. (2016). Jefferson, Thomas. Worldbookonline.com. Retrieved from http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar286800&st=thomas+jefferson#tab=homepage Thomas Jefferson. (2009).

The Royal Navy then seized neutral vessels bound for the Continent that did not first call at a British port to pay duties and unload cargo. By these means, Great Britain could simultaneously wage economic warfare against France and control American trade to its advantage. British ministries justified these tactics as fair retaliation against Napoleon's equally antineutral Berlin and Milan decrees, promulgated in December 1806 and December 1807, respectively; but American merchantmen suffered more heavily from British seizures than from French, and the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison never accepted British blockading practices as valid under the law of nations. It was the seriousness of this dispute that ultimately raised the question of whether the United States should go to war to defend its neutral

Thomas Jefferson composed Notes on the State of Virginia in 1781 during the time of political uncertainty that the United States faced after it declared independence and each state operated its own unique government under the Articles of Confederation. The notes were composed as the answers to a series of questions posed by a “foreigner of distinction” who was residing in Virginia. As Jefferson has a clear bias towards Virginia, it can be concluded that he took offense to the questions posed which likely undermined the value of the state and possibly the country. Jefferson’s status as a notable, wealthy, white man makes his opinions in regard to freedom, slavery, race, and resources the accepted answers to whatever questions had been presented.

Thomas Jefferson believed the Shay’s Rebellion was a very significant event. In the year 1787, he wrote a letter, conveying his idea of rebellions. “Yet where does this anarchy exist?” a line written in Jefferson’s letter. This tells us his idea of Shay’s rebellion. From this one line we can conclude that he does not believe there is a real chaos going on. “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.” What he means by this is that rebellions sometimes do need to happen. It makes up what helps us learn and improve. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” When he says this he means that sacrifices have to be made in order for us to

The thing that draws us to Thomas Jefferson is his knowledge of the way things were and where things needed to go. In declaring he was the author of the Declaration of Independence gives us something we can trust. The two “all men are created equal” and the fact that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves are irreconcilable. Granted that he is forgiven in the sense that he is human and not much else. His level of understanding and the commitment he gave to it, absolutely is the story of America. With “equality” meaning they should be given the same opportunity to fulfill their dreams as others are. It’s is with that great privilege this country or other counties have an obligation to make sure a person has the skills necessary to live a full life. Thomas Jefferson was a great man, no not at our time, but his own time. Though, he didn’t set his slaves free upon his death as some of his friends had. Even though slavery didn’t end until the 19 th century, Thomas Jefferson was concerned that if they had let the slaves go free it would somehow backfire. Racist is a term we use but in Thomas Jefferson’s life it was unheard of. In a very normal way Thomas Jefferson gave us very up-lifting words and inspiration but at the very same time had beliefs that were that were against what he said. Not only Thomas Jefferson is human, but also to say “forgive him” is allowing him an easy way out. We hold him close as a man who did some extraordinary

Thomas Jefferson was believed to be a humble and respectful person, but not all accusations are true. Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States, he also created the Declaration of Independence which is a necessity for our country or government to run. Thomas Jefferson wanted everyone to be treated equally and some documents and information might disprove that fact. Some things he said disprove these different beliefs that he shared with the people. By studying this information, one might believe that Thomas Jefferson did not uphold his beliefs and had great inconsistency with them, you might consider him a hypocrite.

Crews from the ships would be held captive and tortured for years and months on end. The United States tried their hardest to keep the peace in line but nothing was working. So the United States army set off on the USS George Washington to Algerines and Tripoli to settle things. A man by the name of Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated as president in the year of 1801 and not long after he would send warships to Tripoli and confront the pirates face to face for their doings. This caused a blockade so no pirates would be able to attack the merchant ships. What this action would do was not what Jefferson thought would happen but as an outcome an all out war broke loose between Jefferson's army and the Tripoli pirates and their allies. The war would go on and on off the coast. The blockade only held for so long. Finally the pirates would make their way through and ships started to come up on shore. The USS Philadelphia hit shore in Tripoli's harbor and the pirates captured it. A young navy member then snuck onto the ship and set it on fire during an enemy gun fire, destroying any goods the pirates could get their hands on or even stop them from rebuilding the ship and turning it against the United States Navy. The war would continue for a while until finally peace agreements were made and the U.S Navy fled the scene. This whole action by Jefferson showed braveness in not only him but the U.S Navy to

Then Herrings continue with a second chapter from 1789 - 1801 a short period but it was titled "None who can make us afraid" but some of the most importance during this period was about the Barbarian Parates most of these pirates were from North Africa states as Algiers, Morocco, and Tripoli and Tunis they were demanding tribute, plundering ships even ensalving foreign salilors, but where would we stand here as a British Colony we had protection, but after the revolution war we were in our own so now it was more easily to get attacked by pirates so first the U.S. decided to paid the pirates monthly for them not to attacked, so when we were by our selves we could not make no economy we were just surving by trading so we had to make as deal we had to work with Foreign

This report will start out with a summary of what Thomas Jefferson did during this long war. Thomas Jefferson was the one man who began the war for America, but it was not as if he had a choice. The Barbary pirates were demanding too high a price for the young American government. The tribute for safe passage to trade with the Mediterranean Sea started under Washington, increased under Adams, but Jefferson thought the bribe was too much. As the vice president under John Adams, he fought congress, saying that they shouldn’t pay the insanely high tribute to the Tripoleans, who could easily still keep capturing US merchant ships. After Jefferson was elected president, he was faced with the task of releasing prisoners that the Barbary pirates had captured. Jefferson was forced to pay a hefty sum of money to release these prisoners. Meanwhile, Jefferson fought congress for the funding of warships to police the areas around the North African coast, and intimidate them into not being hostile to the Americans. After the first wave of ships, Jefferson kept up a steady flow of ships into the Mediterranean. Those ships added and the pirate ships captured made up a strong naval force. Because of Jefferson the Americans not only succeeded in regaining their prisoners, but in winning back their trade routes from the Barbary pirates

“From 1786 to 1815, the United States made tribute payments to the North African Barbary states to protect its shipping from pirate raids”(Kearney F, "Barbary pirates"). This ended when Jefferson was elected into presidency. He had been against the tribute of the Barbary States his whole life in office, and so when he was elected, he stopped paying tribute and refused to pay a ransom for many goods and men that the pirates had rummaged. This angered the pirates, and so war was unofficially declared, and Jefferson had a blockade

As Christopher Hitchens said,“We make no saint of Thomas Jefferson—we leave the mindless business of canonization and the worship of humans to the fanatics—but aware as we are of his many crimes and contradictions we say with confidence that his memory and example will endure long after the moral pygmies who try to blot out his name have been forgotten.” Jefferson was a great politician, and “beacon of liberty” for the early Americans, but he was also flawed. Sure he’s well known for the aspiring Declaration of Independence, but these flaws, also led him make some choices, that would leave a mark on his impressionable record, and lead to the problems with his presidency.