Children of the Chios Massacre
by
Miljan Peter Ilich
The Turks have passed here. Destruction is everywhere.
Chios, the isle of vines, lies black and bare --
Chios, in the leaves shade,
whose seas used to reflect its wooded height,
Its slopes and villas, and sometimes at night
The girls who danced and played.
Deserted. No: beside the blackened stone
A blue-eyed child, a Greek child, sits alone,
And bows his downcast head.
His only stronghold and security
Is a white hawthorn -- a bloom equally
Ignored among the dead...
L'Enfant (The Child)
-Victor Hugo1
It is March 1822.
A great popular revolt has engulfed many of the Greek people. But the fires of revolution were being extinguished one by one by the massive forces of the Ottoman Empire. The "civilized" states of Europe had little sympathy for the Greek rising. They condemned it as an unwanted disturbance of the stability of Europe and the Levant and stood by, doing nothing to aid suffering Greece.
Meanwhile the revolt had spread to the island of Chios. Despite the fact that the Turkish authorities knew that most Chiotes did not wish to revolt, they devastated their island with brutality unparalleled in Greek regions. According to an official United States Naval history, 80,000 to 90,000 Greeks lost their lives due to Turkish actions on Chios.2 It was not just one massacre but a chain of massacres that befell the Chian people. This was a Hellenic holocaust -- perhaps the first true holocaust of the modern age.
The martyrdom of the Chians was a decisive factor in saving the Greek revolution. It persuaded many leading elements of European and American society to shift from a relative apathy on the Greek struggle, into an outpouring of sympathy for Chios and Greece. The result was a flood of volunteers, financial aid and eventual military intervention by European countries against the might of Sultan Mahmud II. Without all of the new assistance, it is very likely that the dream of an independent Greek nation would have been crushed for many years to come. Instead, the proceeding resurrection of Greece was witnessed by an amazed world.
The great change in European and American attitudes towards the Greek revolution owes much to the children of Chios and its environs. Though the deaths and sufferings of all the Chiotes was a great tragedy, the fate of thousands of young people, whose lives or liberties did not survive the massacres, shocked the conscience of a large part of the Western world more than could have the travails of adults. Just as importantly, many of the surviving children who found refuge in Europe and America helped turn the tide of public opinion in favor of Greece. Though they were strangers in strange lands, they left such a profound impression that they galvanized support for Chios and the Greek revolution. Their intelligence, character, bearing, faith in God, and courage, despite what they had undergone, excited admiration in highly influential quarters. Many Europeans and Americans found these children so very admirable that the loss of a great many other young Chians was made even more poignant. A common Western reaction was to feel that if the survivors were so impressive, who knows how many other wonderful spirits had been crushed by Turkish brutalities.
A number of these children became spokesmen for the Greek cause. They spoke with wisdom greater than their years. Their past ordeals made these young voices beacons for the liberation of Greece. Such survivors had undeniable credibility.
Turkish forces had exterminated most of the adults of Chios with a policy of killing all males over 12 and all women over 40. Those who remained alive were mainly women and children, largely enslaved, to be sold like cattle in the slave markets of Turkey, Africa and the Middle East. Some managed to escape slavery or were redeemed from it. Only a minority eluded it altogether.
Since most of the adults of Chios were dead within two months of that unhappy 1822 Easter, it was left mainly to the children who managed to get away from the island to bear witness to the horrors inflicted on an innocent Christian population. This they did through their writings and in personal appearances in the centers of Europe and America. The bravery with which they had faced extreme adversity and exile thousands of miles away from their homes on Chios won the hearts of much of the social elite on two continents. The Chian children inspired artists, poets and political leaders. They were an indispensable catalyst for the change of minds in the West that led to the provision of crucially needed assistance for the Greek Independence movement. These children were heroes who achieved greatness with words and spirit rather than with guns.
One of the first reports to reach the French papers about what happened in Chios came from a young Chian survivor in early July, 18223:
"Throughout [the town of] Chios only fifteen houses are standing, containing our mothers, our sisters, and our daughters, reduced to the most dreadful slavery. Upwards of forty villages have been consumed by the flames.
The ferocious incendiaries then scoured the mountains and the forests, and they are now at the twenty-fourth village of Mastic. Every day women of the first families in the island are exposed for sale in the public markets."
In 1823, at Marseilles, France, a small school was opened especially for young boys who had fled the Greek revolution. Most of the Hellenic children in attendance were from Chios. They left a wonderful impression on the French community.
Much of the French intelligentsia became concerned with Chios and the destinies of Greece, the two being inextricably intertwined. Delacroix - probably then the greatest painter in France, was inspired to paint his masterpiece, "The Massacres at Chios". He had previously not been very interested in the Greek Revolution but his concern with the suffering of Chian children changed all of that. The painting's exhibition at the Louvre in 1824 impassioned even more of the French elite into sympathy for Greece.
Victor Hugo, the greatest literary talent of 19th century France, was prompted to write "L'Enfant" (The Child) about a Chian boy who survived the massacre, dreaming of freedom from the Turks. The first part of that poem precedes this essay.
The enthusiasm for Chios in France played a large part in obtaining aid for the Greek cause from that country. It is not an accident that only a few years later Col. Fabvier, a French officer who volunteered to fight for Greece, almost succeeded in liberating the island.
The Chian Children spread their story in a number of countries, but they were especially well received in the United States. A few examples will suffice. George Colvocoresses was born on Chios in 1816 as a member of a prominent family. His family's fortunes were devastated by the massacre. Most close relatives, including six brothers were killed. He was enslaved at less than 6 years of age, but his father managed to buy back his freedom. By 1824 Colvocoresses was in Baltimore, Maryland.
He was still not yet 8 years old, having undergone more terrors than most people go through in a lifetime. Yet he was able to speak effectively about his experiences and Chios to a number of highly influential Americans. At that tender age he participated in the work of committees trying to help the Greek cause. At the time, the public meetings of these groups often had Greek refugee children as the main attraction and Colvocoresses was one of them. He spoke about the massacres and impressed so many with his bravery and intelligence that the President of the United States offered him an appointment at West Point. However, he became an American naval officer instead, remaining in the United States Navy for many years. The sympathy he garnered for Greece in America was immeasurable.
Christophorus Plato Castanis was even more effective as an advocate in America of Greek liberty. He was eight years old when the Chios massacre took place. Many of his relatives were killed by rampaging Turkish forces. The young Chian was enslaved and forcibly proclaimed to be a Muslim. Even his name was taken from him and he was called Mustapha. Castanis was sold several times like an animal. He suffered many indignities, but retained the spirit to escape and found refuge in the British consulate.
Several years later, at about 13 years of age, Castanis arrived in New York City. Together with other young Chians, he participated in public meetings of committees to aid Greece. He would attend dressed in Chian fashion.
Eventually, the youth also went to Yale University for a visit. Several other young men from his native island were already in attendance there. They included Stephanos Galates, Constantine Ralles and their brothers. To be accepted at Yale even then was a triumph and indicated the very favorable attitude that Americans had developed toward Chians.
Castanis was active in Boston. Wherever he went, he told the tragic tale of his island. The public appearances by Castanis profoundly affected many Americans. After studying at Amherst for an interval, Castanis went back to Greece. But he returned to America, where he settled. Upon his return, the Chian exile redoubled his efforts on the behalf of Greece. He lectured at Harvard and elsewhere, making a tour of America in 1837 and 1839. Castanis' destinations included, among other places, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington DC. Though still a young man, he was listened to respectfully by many senior American leaders, including Secretary of State Forsyth. In the Nation's capital he thanked the great Henry Clay for his long lasting support of Greece.
The young Chian became a noted American scholar and published the best existing eyewitness account of the Chian massacre in his 1851 book, the Greek Exile. The importance of Castanis' role as a spokesman for the Greek cause was recognized by J.H. Hill, a leading American clergyman, who in 1841 wrote to Castanis: 4
"I have no doubt that your public lectures on the condition and character of your countrymen, and the prospects of that interesting portion of the world, will contribute very much to keep alive the strong sympathy which the sad events of the Greek Revolution so powerfully excited in the minds of my fellow countrymen."
The 1822 holocaust on Chios led to the 1824 Turkish massacre on the island of Psara, which Turkey considered part of the Chios district. The new atrocities were inflicted as revenge for the aid that its people gave to Chians who had fled there earlier. George Sirian's mother put him on a boat that was pushed out to sea from Psara, just before she was killed by the Turks. According to some sources, he witnessed her death. He was only 6 years old. At 9 years of age he enlisted in the American Navy aboard the USS Constitution, which had periodically patrolled the area for years. The ship had been near Chios during a part of the earlier massacre. Its captain had orders not to interfere in the Greek struggle with Turkey and was not allowed to shelter refugees. The only way that Sirian could remain aboard was by joining the United States Navy - as he did. The ship's officers were greatly taken by him. He remained in the American Naval Forces for 53 years - possibly the longest term of enlistment in U.S. history. During the American Civil War he distinguished himself as a gunnery instructor at the United States Naval Academy.
Though Chian Children represented most of the early youthful ambassadors of struggling Greece, other young Greeks also participated in trying to touch the conscience of the world and followed their example. The cumulative effect of all these efforts was immense and continued for many years. In America the tragic fate of Chios was ardently discussed in Congress by Daniel Webster and other friends of Greece. Material assistance was obtained. William Cullen Bryant, one of America's greatest poets, after whom the High School in Astoria, New York was named, wrote several poems dealing with aspects of the Greek Revolution, including "The Massacre at Scio." Bryant was so moved by Christos Evangelides, a young refugee from revolutionary Greece, who toured America telling the story of his people's tragedies under Turkey, that he wrote another poem to celebrate the children of Greece as offspring of a great people who would revive the glories of the past".5
The Greek Boy
-William Cullen Bryant
... Boy! Thy first looks were taught to seek
Their heaven in Hellas' skies;
Her airs have tinged thy dusky cheek
Her sunshine lit thine eyes;
Thine ears have drunk the woodland strains
Heard by old poets, and thy veins
Swell with the blood of demigods,
That slumber in thy country's sods.
Now is thy nation free, though late;
Thy elder brethren broke -
Broke, ere thy spirit felt its weight -
The intolerable yoke.
And Greece, decayed, dethroned, doth see
Her youth renewed in such as thee:
A shoot of that old vine that made
The nations silent in its shade.
1 - Victor Hugo, Poesie. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1972, p. 234-5
2 - Tyrone G. Martin, A Most Fortunate Ship, A Narrative History of Old Ironsides. Annapolis, MD.: Naval Institute Press, 1997, p. 230.
3 - Lee Johnson, The Paintings of Eugene Delacroix, A Critical Catalogue, Vol. 1 Oxford: at The University Press, 1981, p. 86.
4 - Christophorus Plato Castanis, The Greek Exile Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1851, p. vii
5 - The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant, NY:AMS Press, 1969, p. 120-121
Miljan Peter Ilich is a Juris Doctor, New York University and PhD. City University of New York. He teaches Law at Technical Career Institute in New York City. Dr. Ilich is currently researching at Columbia University for the documentary "Chios Massacre of 1822: Martyrdom and Resurrection of a People" and writing a history dealing with the Balkans.
©2001 - Miljan Peter Ilich
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