Aimée de Rivery was not the only person to be kidnapped by Barbary pirates. Abduction was a common occurrence at that time. In 1790 an attempt was made to rescue 17 Americans being held for ransom. Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, recommended going to war against Algiers but President George Washington preferred to pay the ransom, arguing it would ultimately cost less than a war in both money and lives lost. The sum of $144,000 was approved to pay the ransom and the Americans were eventually released. However, corsairs continued to plunder goods as well as people and four years later, in September of 1794, Washington signed a bill authorizing the sum of $688,888 to build six frigates “adequate for the protection of the commerce of the United States against Algerian corsairs.” These six vessels ultimately became the first ships of the American Navy.

In September of 1800, the first American frigate entered the port of Algiers carrying $500,000 in gold; tribute to be paid to the Dey of Algiers, Baba Mohammed Ben Osman. I suspect that Ben Osman, in turn, used that money to increase his own fleet of ships; vessels that would eventually be used to fight the Janissaries in their attempt to bump Sultan Selim off the throne.

You can read more about the ransom of the 17 Americans in 1790 here