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Richard O'Bryen to the Congress, July 12, 1790
(Courtesy of the National Archives)
DHFFC Transcription, DHFFC v. 2, p. 446-449
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When the First
Federal Congress convened, several American citizens, who had been taken off the ship
Dolphin and the schooner Mary in July of 1785, were being held captive in Algiers, a
Barbary state. One of the hostages, Captain Richard O'Bryen, represented the group
when communicating with the U.S. government. In a letter to the Congress O'Bryen pled
with the government to ransom the hostages, saying that the plague had wiped out a large
number of slaves and thus the ransom on the remaining hostages had gone up.
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