There aren’t a lot of narratives about women captured by Barbary corsairs. This week, we’ll look at the story of one such woman—as told by Francis Brooks.
In the Year 1685, a ship was bound from London to Barbados, in which were four women, two of them being mother and daughter. One of those heathenish pirates meeting this ship, gave chase, and coming up to it, demanded to know from whence they came, and whither bound? They told the pirate they were from London, bound for Barbados. The pirate was Captain Venetia the younger, who had 300 Men, and 18 Guns. When the Captain of the English ship inquired the same of the pirates, they told him that they came from Algiers. They then demanded that he show his Pass, and said he must hoist out his boat, for they saw that he was not provided with any guns with which to defend himself, and so could make no resistance.
When the English Captain and some of him men came aboard, the pirate Captain took them into his cabin and showed himself to be kind to them, giving them dates. In the meanwhile, the Lieutenant and Moors girded their pistols and cutlasses on their waists, and with the Englishmen’s boat went aboard their ship and captured all who were aboard, including the four women.
And the Pirate Captain asked who the young woman was, and whether she was married. Account being given him concerning her, he ordered her to be put in his cabin, lest any of his own barbarous crew should offer to lie with her, and after that sailed away for Salé.
Being come there, the pirate Captain arranged for all the men from the ship and the four women to be brought up to Meknes. The women were brought before the Emperor’s Eunuchs, and an account given to the Chief of them by the pirate Captain that one of them was a virgin, and she was immediately sent to the Emperor’s women. The Eunuch went to the Vice-Roy, acquainting him of how he had disposed of the virgin. The Vice-Roy ordered the other women to be brought to his house, and ordered the Negroes to drive the poor Christians to hard labor.
At night, they were locked up amongst the other Christian captives, having no sustenance allowed them for that day, and what their poor brethren offered them, they could not eat, it being bread so bad that the beasts in that place refused to eat it. Between their diet and lodging on the cold ground, together with the Negroes’ hard usage, many of them fell sick. And to add to their extremity, were threatened and abused by the Negroes to turn Moors. They daily prayed to God to strengthen them in their afflictions, and that in his great mercy he might work some way for their deliverance out of this dreadful bondage.
Afterwards the chief Eunuch sent word to the Emperor that he had a Christian virgin amongst the rest of his women. The Emperor ordered him to send her up to the Camp where he was staying, with a parcel of his Eunuchs to guard her thither. When she came to the Camp, the Emperor urged her, tempting her with promises of great rewards if she would turn Moor and lie with him. She earnestly desired of the Lord to preserve and strengthen her to resist his persuasions and proposals, which he offered in order to have his desires fulfilled.
When he could not prevail upon her, he fell to threatening her, and put her amongst his Negro women, and threatened to kill them if they offered to show her any kindness. These women kept her, beating and abusing her for several days. She prayed still to the Lord to strengthen her, and maintained a resolution to withstand him.
The Emperor again sought to prevail with her, tempting her and promising her great things if she would turn, which she still refused. So he caused her to be striped and whipped by his Eunuchs with small cords, for so long till she lay for dead. He then caused her to be carried away out of his presence and charged his women that none of them should help her till he sent for her, which was not till two days after. In the meantime, she had no sustenance but that black rotten bread.
At length, the Emperor sought again to prevail with promises and threats, which she still withstood, praying to the Lord that she might be preserved from him, and be delivered from his cruel hands. Then he pricked her with such things as commonly his women use instead of pins, being just as sharp. Thus this beastly and inhuman wretch, by all ways he could invent, sought to force her to yield, which she resisted so long, till tortures and the hazards of her life eventually forced her to yield and resign her body to him, though her heart was otherwise inclined.
So he had her washed and clothed in their fashion of apparel, and he lay with her.
Having his desire fulfilled, he inhumanly, and in great haste, forced her away out of his presence. She being with child, he sent her by his Eunuchs to Meknes, who delivered her to the chief Eunuch. After that, she was delivered of two children.
That’s the whole of the story Brooks relates.
It’s telling that he doesn’t revel to us anything about the other women, and that he doesn’t continue the “virgin’s” tale much past her deflowering and impregnation. In fact, he doesn’t really seem all that interested in the women themselves. He never provides their names or says anything at all about their characters. The only information about them that matters is that one of them is a virgin.
What Brooks seems to really be doing here is recounting a melodramatic morality tale: one in which a pure Christian heroine is besmirched by a wicked Muslim villain. Despite that, however, the general outlines of this story are probably pretty accurate. The Moroccan Sultan, Moulay Ismail Ben Sharif, was renowned for several things: his grand architectural ambitions, his cruelty, and his large harem. By all accounts, he treated his women no better that he treated anybody else, and the poor “virgin’s” treatment was probably pretty common—including her abrupt dismissing once Moulay Ismail had had his way with her.
The general outlines of this tale are accurate in another, more general, sense as well: in North Africa, young and attractive female captives—anywhere from as young as eleven or twelve to thirty or so—were much sought after as sex toys. Young boys were as well. Both fetched high prices in the slave markets, and both were offered as presents to curry favor with important men—in this case, no lesser a personage than the Sultan himself.
Such were the times.
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For those who may be interested…
The above extract is excerpted from pages 28 through 34 of Francis Brooks’ Barbarian Cruelty: Being a True History of the Distressed Condition of the Christian Captives under the Tyranny of Mully Ishmael Emperor of Morocco, and King of Fez and Macqueness in Barbary.
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