This chapter analyses the Swedish ransom system developed to recover enslaved seamen from the Barbary Coast during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Drawing on royal decrees, consular correspondence, financial records, and individual petitions, it explores how the logistics of redemption were organised, funded, and administered by the early modern Swedish state. Beyond the fiscal and diplomatic dimensions, the chapter highlights the ideological frameworks that justified ransom efforts—including Lutheran notions of royal responsibility and Christian charity, as well as emerging references to natural law. These arguments positioned ransom not merely as a moral obligation, but as a legal duty grounded in a broader European discourse of international norms. The chapter also examines the development of early slave insurance schemes as a means to mitigate economic risk and standardise the valuation of human lives. Additionally, the chapter underscores the gendered dimensions of ransom, showing how women acted both individually and collectively on behalf of their captured relatives. By tracing how moral, confessional, legal, and financial arguments were mobilised, the chapter sheds new light on the competing logics that shaped ransom diplomacy and expands our understanding of how Protestant states navigated the contested boundaries of sovereignty, justice, and unfreedom.