Milton's story of Pellow's enslavement by Muslim pirates, his service with the notoriously cruel Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco, and his subsequent return to England after two decades in captivity, is both compelling and eloquent. Employing the letters, journals, and manuscripts of Pellow and other escaped and redeemed English captives, Milton describes the white slave trade as "one of individuals caught up in a nightmare far beyond their control" (p. In White Gold, Giles Milton suggests that such fear was not without cause, as nearly one million white Europeans were captured by Muslim pirates between 15, and sold in the slave markets of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.Īuthor of several well-received works, Milton recounts the harrowing tale of Thomas Pellow, an eleven-year-old Cornish cabin boy captured at sea by "Barbary corsairs" in 1716. The "Islamic threat" nourished the European fear of the dangerous other, and distant Islam became an overbearing symbol of menace.
Medieval and early modern Europeans dreaded Islam as the infidel faith of a brutal enemy intent upon destroying the mother church. A combination of fear and loathing, European attitudes towards Islam have deep roots in the western historical consciousness. In the aftermath of September 11, Islam has often been tarred with the brush of fanaticism. More than a Cabin Boy's Ripping Good Yarn
Refford (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves.
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