Piracy, Slavery, and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early Modern England

by Daniel Vitkus, Nabil Matar

Overview

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 Nabil Matar's genera introduction provides important new information about the historical context of captivity and slavery in North Africa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231119054
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/17/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	1580L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel Vitkus is assistant professor of English at Florida State University. He is the editor of Three Turk Plays from Early Modern England (Columbia, 2000).

Table of Contents

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, ÆMDULØPrincipal NavigationsÆMDNMØ (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

What People are Saying About This

Michael Neill

An extraordinary collection of texts describing the experience of captivity and enslavement in the Muslim world, through the eyes of early modern Englishmen.

— Michael Neill, author of Putting History to the Question

James Shapiro

These extraodinary narratives make for compelling reading. This book is a must read for anyone interested in travel literature, in Renaissance culture encounters, and in rethinking Orientalism.

— James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare and the Jews

Editorial Reviews

[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

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.

Renaissance Quarterly - Donna Amelia Vinson

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.

The Historian - Carolyn S. Knapp