The Livornese Slaves in Algiers

Abstract

This essay analyzes a recently discovered French play, Les esclaves livournais à Alger, authored by François Gariel in Livorno in 1786. The protagonist of the piece, which is full of allusions to contemporary Tuscan and European events and subtle references to classics of French Enlightenment literature, is a virtuous, Algiers-based Jewish merchant who preaches toleration for all peoples and religions and greatly admires the grand duke of Tuscany. Important context for understanding Gariel’s play and the Jewish question in Livorno is provided by the relocation in the 1780s of prominent Algerian Jewish families who had built their fortunes on the ransom of captives, as well as the active but contested Jewish participation in the Livornese theatrical scene. Once the play’s many allusions are decoded and its layers are peeled back, Les esclaves takes us to the heart of Tuscan political debates about Jewish participation in the public sphere and illuminates widespread anxieties about Jewish power, intertwined with ambivalence about the prominent role of Jews in the commerce and ransom of captives. Livorno’s historical ties with the Maghreb are thus central to assessing the public discourse about the Jewish condition in Tuscany. A Mediterranean perspective in turn complicates our understanding of minority-majority relations as Enlightenment debates on toleration and Jewish integration flourished in Western Europe.