These narratives recount the harrowing experiences of Englishmen abducted by the Barbary pirates of North Africa. After being sold into slavery, the narrators succeeded in returning to their homeland where their stories were printed. Never before available in a modern, annotated edition, these tales describe combat at sea, extraordinary escapes, and religious conversion, but they also illustrate the power, prosperity, and piety of Muslims in the early modern Mediterranean. Each narrative is preceded by a brief introduction, and Matar's genera introduction provides important new information about the historical context of captivity and slavery in North Africa.
These narratives recount the harrowing experiences of Englishmen abducted by the Barbary pirates of North Africa. After being sold into slavery, the narrators succeeded in returning to their homeland where their stories were printed. Never before available in a modern, annotated edition, these tales describe combat at sea, extraordinary escapes, and religious conversion, but they also illustrate the power, prosperity, and piety of Muslims in the early modern Mediterranean. Each narrative is preceded by a brief introduction, and Matar's genera introduction provides important new information about the historical context of captivity and slavery in North Africa.
List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Note on Editorial Method Introduction: England and Mediterranean Captivity, 1577--1704 1. John Fox, "The Worthy Enterprise of John Fox, in Delivering 266 Christians Out of the Captivity of the Turks," in Richard Hakluyt, AeMDULOPrincipal NavigationsAeMDNMO (1589) 2. Richard Hasleton, Strange and Wonderful Things Happened to Richard Hasleton... in His Ten Years' Travails in Many Foreign Countries (1595) 3. John Rawlins, The Famous and Wonderful Recovery of a Ship of Bristol, Called the Exchange, from the Turkish Pirates of Argier (1622) 4. News from Sally of a Strange Delivery of Four English Captives from the Slavery of the Turks(1642) 5. William Okeley, Ebenezer; or, A Small Monument of Great Mercy, Appearing in the Miraculous Deliverance of William Okeley (1675) 6. Thomas Phelps, True Account of the Captivity of Thomas Phelps(1685) 7. Joseph Pitts, True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans, with an Account of the Author's Being Taken Captive (1704) Appendixes Appendix 1. Two Ballads The Algerian Slave's Releasement; or, The Unchangeable Boatswain The Lamentable Cries of at Least 1,500 Christians (Now Prisoners in Algiers Under the Turks) Appendix 2. Letters from Captives to Their Families in England Samuel Harres to His Father (1610) Robert Adams to Captain Robert Adams (1625) Thomas Sweet and Richard Robinson (1647) Appendix 3. Letter and Depositions Describing "Turkish" Corsair Raids on the West Country Sent by Thomas Ceely to the Privy Council (1625) Letter to the Privy Council Deposition of William Knight Deposition of William Draper Deposition of William Court Appendix 4. Petition Sent by English Captives in Morocco to King Charles I (1632) Appendix 5. Laudian Rite for Returned Renegades (1637) Appendix 6. Parliamentary Ordinance for Collections to Be Made for the Relief of Captives in Algiers (Issued April 25, 1643) Appendix 7. Letter from Philip Lloyd, the English Factor in Tunis, to King Charles II (1680) Bibliography of English Captivity Narratives from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
At last available in a modern, annotated edition, these tales describe combat at sea, extraordinary escapes, and religious conversion, but they also illustrate the power, prosperity, and piety of Muslims in the early modern Mediterranean.
Daniel J. Vitkus is assistant professor of English at Florida State University. He is editor of Three Turk Plays from Early Modern England and lives in Tallahassee, Florida. Nabil Matar is professor of English at the Florida Institute of Technology. He is author of Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery and lives in Melbourne, Florida.
Piracy, slavery, captivity, and redemption were compelling subjects in the sixteenth and seventeenth century; Daniel J. Vitkus and Nabil Matar have, in this well-edited volume of early English images of the Islamic world, made them equally fascinating to twenty-first-century academic and lay readers... [This] books does a fine job of making primary source material available to, and readable by, a wide audience. -- Carolyn S. Knapp The Historian [T]his collection transcends geographical and disciplinary boundaries, and researchers... will find Piracy, Slavery, and Redemption to be both a useful and timely volume. -- Donna Amelia Vinson Renaissance Quarterly
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