Piracy, slavery, and redemption : Barbary captivity narratives from early modern England Responsibility selected and edited by Daniel J. Vitkus ; introduced by Nabil Matar. Every missing persons report is potentially newsworthy. Some were entirely fictional, created because the stories were popular. [7]. History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and the Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner In addition to seizing merchant ships, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands, and Iceland. Due to his account, as well as the high number of captives, this raid, unlike others of the time, was remembered and became an element in the American frontier story. Any expressions of ambivalence or residual attraction to the former organization are vigorously resisted and are taken as evidence of untrustworthiness. The missing person is almost always young; always a woman; always white; and always attractive. [6], Ann Eliza Bleecker's epistolary novel, The History of Maria Kittle (1793), is considered the first known captivity novel. Vaughan, Alden T., and Daniel K. Richter. The first Barbary captivity narrative by a resident of North America was that of Abraham Browne (1655). In this period, the English and their Indian allies were involved in similar raids against French villages along the northern area between the spheres of influence. [19] (They were kept by Pierre du Calvet who later released them to Halifax.) Monoco was a 17th-century Nashaway sachem (chief), known among the New England Puritans as One-eyed John. was an Englishman who was taken into slavery by Barbary pirates in Algiers, Algeria in 1678 at the age of fourteen or fifteen. Converting to Islam while a slave, Pitts was the first Englishman to record the proceedings of the hajj. In Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas writes: The basic structure of the captivity narrative concerns the rescue of "helpless" maidens who have been kidnapped by "natives"[.] As is true of the broader category, anti-cult captivity narratives are sometimes regarded with suspicion due to their ideological underpinnings, their formulaic character, and their utility in justifying social control measures. Wesley, Marilyn C. 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While detained on an island in the Merrimack River in present-day Boscawen, New Hampshire, she killed and scalped ten of the Native American family members holding them hostage, with the assistance of two other captives. Other types of captivity narratives, such as those recounted by apostates from religious movements (i.e. I will also examine how recovery narratives of sexual abuse evoke the discourse of domestic captivity in novels such as Alice Walker‟s The Color Purple From the voluminous critical literature on the early modern captivity narrative in recent years comes an insight that has transformed this crucial American genre: captivity fosters exchange. She claimed to have been born into a Protestant family, but was exposed to Roman Catholicism by attending a convent school. "cult survivor" tales), have remained an enduring topic in modern media. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. He is best known for securing the release of Mary Rowlandson from Indian captivity at Redemption Rock. Elizabeth's captivity narrative became popular because of its detailed insights into Native American captivity, which was a threat to the people in New England due to the almost constant wars with the Native Americans and French in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [4] During the decades-long struggle between whites and Plains Indians in the mid-19th century, hundreds of women and children were captured. These narratives (and questions about their accuracy) have an enduring place in literature, history, ethnography, and the study of Native peoples. Required fields are marked *. In it, Michelle Smith recounts horrific tales of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the "Church of Satan" over a five-year interval. First are studies of the experience of captivity; second are studies of captivity narratives and their authors. These narratives recount the harrowing experiences of Englishmen abducted by the Barbary pirates of North Africa. It is not unusual for anyone who grew up in a religious and culturally conservative household – and who later adopted secular mainstream values – to describe themselves as a "cult survivor", notwithstanding the absence of any abuse or violence. Genres that justify religious violence, notably martyrdom and hagiography, are closely related to the captivity genre. Not all anti-cult captivity narratives describe physical capture. 2 Bernadette Diane Andrea, Women and Islam in early modern English literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 5 (Emphasis in original). In The Politics of Religious Apostasy , Bromley writes: [T]here is considerable pressure on individuals exiting Subversive organizations to negotiate a narrative with the oppositional coalition that offers an acceptable explanation for participation in the organization and for now once again reversing loyalties. Certain North American captivity narratives related to being held among Native peoples were published from the 18th through the 19th centuries. Metacom, known by English colonists as King Philip, was a Wampanoag sachem involved in leading and organizing Wampanoag warriors during the war. [17] [18], During the Petitcodiac River Campaign, the Acadian militia took prisoner William Caesar McCormick of William Stark's rangers and his detachment of three rangers and two light infantry privates from the 35th. She escaped her captors by pretending to cooperate, then returned to the Krishna temple in Potomac, Maryland. "Native American Religion in Early America". Printer was the first Native American printer's devil in America as well as one of John Eliot's most accomplished interpreters who assisted in the creation of the Eliot Indian Bible. Title: Alterity and Hagiography in the Early Modern Captivity Narrative: "Naufragios", "Wahrhaftige Historia", and "Peregrinação" Author(s): TenHuisen, Dwight E.R. As long as we’re recommending books, Linda Colley’s Captives is excellent. Of early Puritan captivity narratives, David L. Minter writes: First they became instruments of propaganda against Indian "devils" and French "Papists." Together, these analyses suggest that some of the common elements we may encounter in different types of captivity narratives include: The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of enslaved Africans, particularly in the Americas. Early American Captivity Narratives. Although modern Gothic novels narrated by psychopathic men, like John Fowles’s thriller “The Collector” (1963), have inspired actual crimes, the genre of the The main purpose of their attacks was slaves for the Ottoman slave trade as well as the general Arab slavery market in North Africa and the Middle East. Included among them are the tales of Jeronimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Juan Ortiz, Hans Stade, and Francisco Nunez de Pineda y … The Barbary Wars were a series of two wars fought by the United States and Sweden against the Barbary states of North Africa in the early 19th century. Later, ... the narratives played an important role in encouraging government protection of frontier settlements. Barbary captivity narratives had a history of popularity amongst Europeans, especially the British, before Native American captivity narratives gained traction. Some were entirely fictional, created because the stories were popular. These questions were hotly debated at the time. Just as Where the Spirit Lives may be viewed as a "reverse" captivity narrative concerning Native peoples, the story of Donna Seidenberg Bavis (as recounted in The Washington Post [31] ) may be viewed as a "reverse" captivity narrative concerning new religious movements. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Learn how your comment data is processed. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, in reference to the Berbers. [30]. She claimed the Abenaki had killed her baby during the journey to the island. ", https://archive.org/details/historyoflifesuf00grac/page/n6/mode/1up, "Collection de documents inédits sur le Canada et l'Amérique, "Documentary history of the state of Maine . I am often amazed at how brazen the MSM can be in selecting what types of missing persons reports it selects as leading stories, especially on websites and TV. A Short Narrative of My Life is an autobiographical account by Rev. is exactly what it says in the Overly Long Title. There had already been numerous English accounts of captivity by Barbary pirates. Still, a person who followed the MSM uncritically might think that the only missing people in America are young attractive white women. MacKinley Cantor’s 1961 novel, Spirit Lake, was a fictional account of Abbie’s story. Among anti-cult captivity narratives, a subgenre is the Satanic Ritual Abuse story, the best-known example being Michelle Remembers . Seven captivity narratives are known that were written following capture of colonists by the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet tribes in Nova Scotia and Acadia (two other prisoners were future Governor Michael Francklin (taken 1754) and Lt John Hamilton (taken 1749) at the Siege of Grand Pre. [5], Many narratives included a theme of redemption by faith in the face of the threats and temptations of an alien way of life. Barbary captivity narratives, accounts of English people captured and held by Barbary pirates, were popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. They burned part of the town and killed 47 villagers. Sweden had been at war with the Tripolitans since 1800 and was joined by the newly-independent US. North African slave narratives were written by white Europeans and Americans who were captured, often as a result of shipwrecks, and enslaved in North Africa in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Bromley notes that apostates from such movements frequently cast their accounts in the form of captivity narratives. The conflict between the English colonists and the French and Indians led to the emphasis of Indians' cruelty in English captivity narratives, to inspire hatred for their enemies. However, Donna Seidenberg Bavis was a Hare Krishna devotee (member of ISKCON) who – according to a lawsuit filed on her behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union – was abducted by deprogrammers in February 1977, and held captive for 33 days. True stories of New England captives carried to Canada during the old French and Indian wars. In some accounts, British soldiers were the primary antagonists. He was captured in the Siege of Pemaquid (1689). National Humanities Center. [23], In his book Beyond Geography: The Western Spirit Against the Wilderness (1980), Frederick W. Turner discusses the effect of those accounts in which white captives came to prefer and eventually adopt a Native American way of life; they challenged European-American assumptions about the superiority of their culture. Children who had assimilated to new families found it extremely painful to be torn from them after several years' captivity. Susannah Willard Johnson was an Anglo-American woman who was captured with her family during an Abenaki Indian raid on Charlestown, New Hampshire in August 1754, just after the outbreak of the French and Indian War. His account, The Redeemed Captive (1707), was widely distributed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and continues to be published today. They employ the devices of the captivity narrative in dramatic fashion, typically pitting mainstream secular values against the values held by some spiritual minority (which may be caricatured). ", "Patty Hearst: A Media Heiress Caught in Media Spectacle" (2013). General Overviews. This text is considered a formative American work in the literary genre of captivity narratives. They have regarded the genre with suspicion because of its ideological underpinnings. The Modern Captivity Narrative. Elizabeth Meader Hanson was a colonial Anglo-American woman from Dover, New Hampshire, who survived Native American Abenaki capture and captivity in the year 1725 alongside four of her children. [27], "Cult survivor" tales have become a familiar genre. The war is named for Metacom, the Wampanoag chief who adopted the name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Mayflower Pilgrims. White, Lonnie J. Piracy and Captivity in the Mediterranean explores the early modern genre of European Barbary Coast captivity narratives from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, but they primarily operated in the western Mediterranean. It went through four printings in 1682 and garnered readership both in the New England colonies and in England, leading some to consider it the first American "bestseller". Daniel J. Vitkus (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2001). The biggest mystery remains: Why was the Capitol left unguarded? [3] Yet conservative estimates run into the thousands, and a more realistic figure may well be higher. by intermarriage? The "captive" may be someone who claims to have been "seduced" or "recruited" into a religious lifestyle which he/she retrospectively describes as one of slavery. [ citation needed ]. In the captivity narrative, the author relates her trials of captivity, escape or rescue, and, in some cases, her assimilation into a Native community. The Johnsons were held for ransom until being sold off into slavery to the French. [21], North America was not the only region to produce captivity narratives. In addition, critics of the genre tend to reject the "mind control" thesis, and to observe that it is extremely rare in Western nations for religious or spiritual groups to hold anyone physically captive. [13] Anthony Casteel was taken in the Attack at Jeddore during the same war, and also wrote an account of his experience. [9] [ page needed ], During Queen Anne's War, French and Abenaki warriors made the Raid on Deerfield in 1704, killing many settlers and taking more than 100 persons captive. Teaming up with Nipmucs and Narragansetts, Wampanoag warriors were able to successfully raid the town of Lancaster, securing provisions and prisoners to help them carry onward into their winter offensive. The typical contemporary anti-cult captivity narrative is one in which a purported "victim" of "cult mind control" is "rescued" from a life of "slavery" by some form of deprogramming or exit counseling. View Early Modern Captivity Narratives Research Papers on Academia.edu for free. "White Women Captives of Southern Plains Indians, 1866–1875". And, like the “captives” of the 18th century captivity narratives, at least some of whom found better lives with the Native American tribes than the ones they left behind, today's female missing persons are sometimes victims, but sometimes runaways…a situation which may, in some cases, be more threatening to segments of the established order than when women are victims. "Review of Colin Caolloway, 'North Country Captives: Selected Narratives of Indian Captivities'". A captor portrayed as quintessentially evil, A romantic or sexual encounter occurring in an "alien" culture, Matthew Brayton (1860), The Indian Captive, Cello-rock band Rasputina parodied captivity narratives in their song "My Captivity by Savages", from their album. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature describes it as, "in many respects the best of all the captivity tracts."