Horrors of Slavery

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

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. - Elizabeth Maddock Dillon (author of The Gender of Freedom: Fictions of Liberalism and the Literary Public)

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChronologyA Note on the TextHorrors of Slavery; or, The American Tars in TripoliExordiumI. Introductory RemarksII. Commencement of ServiceIII. A Sketch of BiographyIV. Suicide AttemptedV. Embarkation—Celebration of Independence—Exemplary Punishment, &c.VI. A VoyageVII. Exercising ShipVIII. Remarks on Dr. Cowdery's JournalIX. A PetitionX. Commodore Preble's Engagement with the TripolitansXI. ElegyXII. Description of the PlaceXIII. Manners, Customs &c. of the TripolitansXIV. Public Transactions of the United States with the Regency of Tripoli; Including General Eaton's ExpeditionXV. Sketch of General Eaton's ExpeditionXVI. Return HomePoetry, Published in The Albany Register, during the summer of 1807Explanatory NotesFurther Reading