Horrors of Slavery: Or, The American Tars in Tripoli

ISBN-13: 9780813544137 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 240 str.

William Ray; Hester Blum; William Ray

Opis

"William Ray's Barbary captivity narrative takes us on a wide-ranging journey through genres and geographies: from Philadelphia to North Africa, in prose and in poetry, Ray narrates the remarkable history of his experiences as a sailor, prisoner, and keen political observer during the Tripolitan War. This superb edition of Ray's text marks a key contribution to the genre of the captivity narrative in early American literature and provides a window onto an important historical episode of the early national period-namely, the earliest military encounters between the United States and Islamic states." -Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, author of The Gender of Freedom: Fictions of Liberalism and the Literary Public Sphere Barbary pirates in Africa targeted sailors for centuries, often taking slaves and demanding ransoms in exchange. This threat was especially acute to American sailors, whose young nation could scarcely afford such an expense, especially after the navy had been decimated during the Revolutionary War. First published in 1808, Horrors of Slavery is the tale of William Ray, one such sailor, captured during the United States's first military encounter with the Islamic world, the Tripolitan War. Imprisoned after the ship Philadelphia ran aground, Ray witnessed key military engagements and various injustices of the U.S. Navy as well as Barbary pirates. Ray's work is a captivity narrative, a naval memoir, an ethnographic study, political and diplomatic history, and a poetry collection. Hester Blum's introduction situates Horrors of Slavery in its literary, historical, and political contexts, bringing to light a crucial episode in the early history of our country's relations with Islamic states.