Barbary Captives: An Anthology of Early Modern Slave Memoirs by Europeans in North Africa

415 Pages·2022·29.634 MB·English

by  Mario Klarer (editor)

BARBARY CAPTIVES

Barbary Captives
AN ANTHOLOGY OF EARLY MODERN
SLAVE MEMOIRS BY EUROPEANS
IN NORTH AFRICA
Mario Klarer
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2022 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Klarer, Mario, 1962– editor.
Title: Barbary captives : an anthology of early modern slave memoirs by Europeans in
North Africa / Mario Klarer.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021033280 (print) | LCCN 2021033281 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231175241
(hardback) | ISBN 9780231175258 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780231555128 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Slavery—Africa, North—History—Sources. | Captivity narratives—
Africa, North. | Slaves—Africa, North—Biography—Sources.
Classification: LCC HT1345 .B37 2022 (print) | LCC HT1345 (ebook) |
DDC 306.3/620961—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033280
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033281
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee
Cover image: Engraving of early modern Tunis. Georg Braun and
Frans Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, vol. 2 (Cologne, 1575),
Mario Klarer, private collection.
For Marjorie Perloff

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Narratives
i Balthasar Sturmer, Account of the Travels of Mister Balthasar Sturmer
(1558 German manuscript; captivity in Tunis 1534–1535;
complete text) 51
ii Antonio de Sosa, Topography of Algiers: Attempted Escape of
Miguel de Cervantes (1612 Spanish print edition; captivity in
Algiers 1577; selection) 91
iii Ólafur Egilsson, The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
(undated Icelandic manuscripts; Icelandic raid and captivity in
Algiers 1627–1628; selection) 101
iv Emanuel d’Aranda, Short Story of My Unfortunate Journey
(undated Dutch manuscript; captivity in Algiers 1640–1641;
complete captivity narrative) 117
v Antoine Quartier, The Religious Slave and His Adventures
(1690 French print edition; captivity in Tripoli 1660–1668; selection) 161
[ vii ]
vi Andreas Matthäus and Johann Georg Wolffgang, Travels and Wonderful
Fortunes of Two Brothers in Algerian Bondage (1767 German print edition;
captivity in Algiers 1684–1688; complete text) 187
vii Isaac Brassard, The Tale of Mr. Brassard’s Captivity in Algiers
(1878 French print edition; captivity in Algiers 1687–1688;
complete captivity narrative) 201
viii Thomas Pellow, The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures
of Thomas Pellow ([1740?] British print edition; captivity in Morocco
1715–1738; selection) 211
ix Hark Olufs, The Remarkable Adventures of Hark Olufs
(1747 Danish print edition; captivity in Constantine 1724–1735;
complete text) 233
x Maria ter Meetelen, Miraculous and Remarkable Events of Twelve
Years of Slavery (1748 Dutch print edition; captivity in
Morocco 1731–1743; selection) 255
xi Marcus Berg, Description of the Barbaric Slavery in the Kingdom of Fez
and Morocco (1757 Swedish print edition; captivity in Morocco
1754–1756; selection) 281
xii Elizabeth Marsh, Narrative of Elizabeth Marsh’s Captivity in Barbary
(undated British manuscript; captivity in Morocco 1756;
complete captivity narrative) 307
xiii Felice Caronni, The Account of an Amateur Antiquarian’s Short Journey
(1805 Italian print edition; captivity in Tunis 1804; selection) 339
Appendix: Selection of European and
American Barbary Captivity Narratives 357
List of Works Cited and General Works on
North African Piracy and Captivity 369
Index of Persons and Locations 389
[ viii ] CONTENTS
Preface
A
bducted by pirates,1 sold on the slave market, and enslaved in North
Africa—such was the fate of hundreds of thousands of Europeans,
both male and female, in the early modern period. A large number
of returnees from Muslim captivity on the “Barbary Coast,” as the North
African shore was called, wrote and published accounts of their experiences.2
This anthology brings together, for the very first time, English translations
of a selection of Barbary captivity narratives from nine different European
regions and languages. The linguistic and geographic spectrum of these
texts includes narratives in Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch, English,
Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic. The diverse European national specimens
of the Barbary captivity narrative also span three centuries, from the mid-
sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, during which these texts assumed
1. pirate: in this anthology, the terms “corsair,” “pirate,” and “privateer” are used in a broad sense.
While “corsair” and “privateer” usually refer to pirates operating with state sanction, it should be
noted that the distinctions between these terms are often blurred by the authors of the early mod-
ern narratives in this anthology.
2. Muslim captivity: in this anthology, the terms “Muslim captivity” and “North African captivity”
are used in a broad sense and encompass persons who were captured by North African pirates, those
who were sold in North African slave markets, those who were held for ransom (without necessar-
ily having to work as slaves), and those who were forced into slave labor, among other things. For
more on terminological aspects of captives and slaves, see Peter Mark, “ ‘Free, Unfree, Captive, Slave’:
António de Saldanha, a Late Sixteenth-Century Captive in Marrakesh,” in Piracy and Captivity in the
Mediterranean, ed. Mario Klarer (London: Routledge, 2019), 99–110.
[ ix ]