Horrors of Slavery
Or, The American Tars in Tripoli
SERIES:
Subterranean Lives
Rutgers University Press
Barbary pirates in Africa targeted sailors for centuries, often taking slaves and demanding ransom in exchange. First published in 1808, Horrors of Slavery is the tale of one such sailor, captured during the United States's first military encounter with the Islamic world, the Tripolitan War. William Ray, along with three hundred crewmates, spent nineteen months in captivity after his ship, the Philadelphia, ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli. Imprisoned, Ray witnessed-and chronicled-many of the key moments of the military engagement. In addition to offering a compelling history of a little-known war, this book presents the valuable perspective of an ordinary seaman who was as concerned with the injustices of the U.S. Navy as he was with Barbary pirates.
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.
A volume in the Subterranean Lives series, edited by Bradford Verter
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 RayÆs 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 periodùnamely, the earliest military encounters between the U.S. and Islamic states.
HESTER BLUM is an assistant professor of English at Penn State University. She is the author of The View from the Masthead: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chronology
A Note on the Text
Horrors of Slavery; or, The American Tars in Tripoli
Exordium
I. Introductory Remarks
II. Commencement of Service
III. A Sketch of Biography
IV. Suicide Attempted
V. Embarkation—Celebration of Independence—Exemplary Punishment, &c.
VI. A Voyage
VII. Exercising Ship
VIII. Remarks on Dr. Cowdery's Journal
IX. A Petition
X. Commodore Preble's Engagement with the Tripolitans
XI. Elegy
XII. Description of the Place
XIII. Manners, Customs &c. of the Tripolitans
XIV. Public Transactions of the United States with the Regency of Tripoli; Including General Eaton's Expedition
XV. Sketch of General Eaton's Expedition
XVI. Return Home
Poetry, Published in The Albany Register, during the summer of 1807
Explanatory Notes
Further Reading
Introduction
Chronology
A Note on the Text
Horrors of Slavery; or, The American Tars in Tripoli
Exordium
I. Introductory Remarks
II. Commencement of Service
III. A Sketch of Biography
IV. Suicide Attempted
V. Embarkation—Celebration of Independence—Exemplary Punishment, &c.
VI. A Voyage
VII. Exercising Ship
VIII. Remarks on Dr. Cowdery's Journal
IX. A Petition
X. Commodore Preble's Engagement with the Tripolitans
XI. Elegy
XII. Description of the Place
XIII. Manners, Customs &c. of the Tripolitans
XIV. Public Transactions of the United States with the Regency of Tripoli; Including General Eaton's Expedition
XV. Sketch of General Eaton's Expedition
XVI. Return Home
Poetry, Published in The Albany Register, during the summer of 1807
Explanatory Notes
Further Reading
