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White Women Captives in North Africa This page intentionally left blank White Women Captives in North Africa Narratives of Enslavement, 1735–1830 Khalid Bekkaoui Professor, Department of English, University Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Morocco Compilation, Introduction, translations and editorial matter © Khalid Bekkaoui 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-22198-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-30748-7 ISBN 978-0-230-29449-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230294493 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data White women captives in North Africa: narratives of enslavement, 1735–1830/ [compiled by] Khalid Bekkaoui. p. cm. Summary: “A fascinating anthology of historical narratives composed from the late sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries by European women abducted by Muslim corrsairs and enslaved in North Africa during the age of piracy. Many of the narratives are very rare and are by women coming from diverse social and economic backgrounds”— Provided by publisher. 1. Women slaves—Africa, North—Biography. 2. Captivity narratives—Africa, North—History. 3. Europeans—Africa, North—History. I. Bekkaoui, Khalid. HT1345.I5 2010 305.48'809061—dc22 2010027484 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 To my beloved parents To Amina, Soumayya, Tariq, Salaheddine, and Hamza This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xv A Note on the Texts xvii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Slave Hunting in the Mediterranean 1 1.2 Muslim Women Slaves in Christian Lands 6 1.3 White Women, Muslim Masters 12 1.4 Female Barbary Captivity Tales 28 1.5 Oriental Women and Christian Slaves 33 1.6 Desdemonas and the Heroes of the Black Tribe 37 2 Narratives 46 2.1 ‘Remarkable History of the Countess De Bourk’s Shipwreck, and Her Daughter’s Captivity’, 1735 46 2.2 ‘Notable History of a Spanish Girl, Slave to Ali Dey’, 1735 58 2.3 Maria ter Meetelen. Miraculous and Remarkable Events of Twelve Years Slavery, of a Woman, Called Maria ter Meetelen, Resident of Medemblik, 1748 62 2.4 Elizabeth Marsh. The Female Captive, 1769 121 2.5 Mary Velnet. An Affecting History of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs. Mary Velnet, 1806 162 2.6 Maria Martin. History of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs. Maria Martin, 1807 187 2.7 Eliza Bradley. An Authentic Narrative of the Shipwreck and Sufferings of Mrs. Eliza Bradley, 1820 206 2.8 Viletta Laranda. Neapolitan Captive: Interesting Narrative of the Captivity and Sufferings of Miss Viletta Laranda, 1830 243 Appendices 256 A.1 ‘Accusations and the Confessions of Ana de Melo, a Free Christianized Muslim Woman’, 1559 256 vii viii Contents A.2 ‘Maria de Morales’ Captivity, Release and Confessions before the Inquisitional Tribunal’, 1610 261 A.3 ‘Relation of the Fidelity of a Husband, and the Unfaithfulness of His Wife’, 1666 263 A.4 ‘My Corsair Emerges up above the Full Main’ 265 A.5 ‘The Bey Weds His Genovese Captive’, 1720s 267 A.6 ‘The Irish Mrs Jones and the Lascivious Turk’, 1747 268 A.7 ‘An Empress of Morocco Born at Mill of Steps, Parish of Muthill’, 1769 269 A.8 ‘A Particular Account of the Royal Harem’, 1791 270 A.9 ‘Letter from a Muslim Female Captive in Malta to the Sultan of Morocco’, 1790s 272 A.10 ‘Ali and the English Female Captive’, 1891 275 Notes 276 Bibliography 293 Index 299 List of Illustrations 1.1 Map of North Africa. Several voyages to Barbary (London: 1736). Courtesy of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University. 3 1.2 Barbary galley. Pierre Dan, Historie van Barbaryen (Amsterdam: 1684). Courtesy of the University of Leiden Library. 4 1.3 A white woman abducted by Barbary corsairs. H. Le Comte, ‘Les Pirates Algériens.’ G. Esquer, Iconographie historique de l’Algérie (Paris: 1929). Courtesy of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University. 14 1.4 European men, women, and children auctioned off at Algiers’ slave market. Pierre Dan, Historie van Barbaryen (Amsterdam: 1684). Courtesy of the University of Leiden Library. 15 1.5 Rabart and Salé. George Høst, Nachrichten von Marokos und Fes (Copenhagen: 1781). Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. 18 1.6 White and coloured women sold into slavery. H. Le Comte, ‘Un Bazar d’Esclaves à Alger.’ G. Esquer, Iconographie historique de l’Algérie (Paris: 1929). Courtesy of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University. 22 1.7 A White Sultana. A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations (London: 1757–72). Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. 39 1.8 Hiram Powers, ‘The Greek Slave’ at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. The Illustrated Exhibitorr (London: 1851). Courtesy of Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library. 43 ix x List of Illustrations 2.1 Meknès and Christian captives building. Several voyages to Barbaryy (London: 1736). Courtesy of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University. 70 2.2 Sultan Mohammed Ben Abdallah. Thomas Troughton, Barbarian Cruelty (London: 1751). Courtesy of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University. 92 2.3 Marrakech. Olfert Dapper, Description de l’Afrique (Amsterdam: 1686). Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. 140 2.4 Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah. Courtesy of the Royal Archive, Rabat. 145 2.5 Mary Velnet. The Captivity and sufferings of Mrs. Mary Velnett (Boston: 1828). Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society’s collection. 184 2.6 Maria Martin chained in a dungeon. History of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs. Maria Martin (Philadelphia: 1809). Courtesy of the Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. 202 2.7 Eliza Bradley conducted to her master’s encampment. Authentic Narrative of the Shipwreck and Sufferings of Mrs. Eliza Bradleyy (Boston: 1820). Courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library. 217 2.8 Miss Viletta Laranda’s punishment by her captors. Viletta Laranda, Neapolitan Captive (New York: 1830). Courtesy of the Library of Congress. 252 Preface On 23 March 2007, the Iranian navy seized a small British patrol boat for having allegedly trespassed into Iranian waters, and the 15 marines on board were taken hostage. The presence of a servicewoman, Faye Turney, among the captives attracted huge media coverage and the old story of white female captives in Muslim lands was immediately brought to the fore. In an article, significantly entitled ‘Captives Again’, published in the National Post (3 April 2004), British historian Niall Ferguson reacted to Turney’s abduction by drawing an analogy between her capture and that of a British woman, Elizabeth Marsh, by Barbary corsairs in 1756, insisting that the reigning king of Morocco owes the English an apology for this past incident. Ferguson goes on to urge Britain for a tough stance against the Iranians, arguing that Turney’s kidnapping has to be interpreted in the context of the seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries’ North African piracy when ‘Tens of thousands of Britons … fell into the hands of the so-called Barbary Corsairs, the Moroccan and Algerian raiders who infested the Western Mediterranean.’ It is, indeed, within this paradigm that upon her release Faye Turney frames her captivity tale. Deliberately echoing Linda Colley’s book The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh, whose publication coincided with the British- Iranian hostage crisis, Turney entitles her autobiography ‘Faye: My Ordeal’. The title appeared on the front page of The Sun tabloid newspaper (9 April 2007) and was accompanied in visible scripts with sensational phrases: ‘Stripped to Knickers in Dingy Cell’ and ‘I Feared Being Raped by Iranians’. Turney claims that when their vessel was intercepted and boarded by the outnumbering and heavily armed Revolutionary Guards, she feared rape, and, in the manner of Penelope Aubin’s English heroine in Life and Amorous Adventures of Lucinda (1722) when her vessel was given chase by Moorish corsairs, Turney tried to masquerade as a man to save herself from alien sexual predation.