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Thomas Pellow
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Thomas Pellow (1704–1745) was a Cornish author and who spent around 20 years as an enslaved person in the Sultanate of Morocco, on the Barbary Coast. He is best known for the extensive captivity narrative entitled The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow in South-Barbary.
Early life and education
[edit]Thomas Pellow was born in 1704, the son of Thomas Pellow of Penryn, Cornwall and his wife Elizabeth (née Lyttleton).[1]
Captivity
[edit]Pellow's captivity began at the age of eleven when sailing abroad in the summer of 1716 when his ship was attacked by Barbary pirates after crossing the Bay of Biscay travelling with his uncle, John Pellow, who was the ship's captain, along with five Englishmen. Pellow and his shipmates were taken captive and delivered to Sultan Moulay Ismail (aka Ismail Ibn Sharif) of Morocco as prisoners. Pellow was one of the individuals handpicked by the sultan along with three others.[2]
Pellow, after being pulled aside by the Sultan, was led into the armoury, where he and others were tasked with cleaning the arms and cases belonging to the Sultan and his army, although he did not stay doing that for long as he was soon given by the emperor to his son, Muley Spha.[citation needed] Muley Spha was known as an unsavoury individual who gave his slaves futile tasks to perform, such as running morning to night after his horse's heels. When Muley Spha noticed how bright Pellow was, instead of beating him as was his custom, he tried to convince him to convert to Islam, promising him gifts and a better life as one of his esteemed friends. After Pellow had refused all of his bribes, Muley Spha became infuriated and began to torture Pellow. "[He] committed me prisoner to one of his own rooms, keeping me there several months in irons, and every day most severely bastinading me". Eventually, after weeks and weeks of horrendous torture, Pellow gave in and was forced to convert. After a time, Moulay Ismail ordered his son to bring Pellow so that he could go to school and learn the Moorish language. When Muley Spha disobeyed this order, he was summoned by the sultan, his father, and killed right in front of Pellow.[2]
Life as an elite slave
[edit]With time, Moulay Ismail assigned Pellow into the Abid al-Bukhari ("Black Guard"). According to Pellow's text, white European converts could rise within the Moroccan military system, but were confined to their own separate fighting units. These units were generally much less important to Ismail's government and military operations than their counterparts in the ‘Abid.[3]
Pellow's extensive slave narrative The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow chronicles his life from his captivity as a captain's boy to his eventual military role as a preeminent captain in the Moroccan Army. Elite slaves like him played a vital role in the armed forces, often serving as soldiers and as officers, leading to the acquisition of important roles in administration, politics, and all aspects of public affairs.[citation needed]
Pellow was only one of many European males who were taken and placed into military slavery. Pellow was part of a "band of European slaves mixed among other races that formed an elite army corps".[4] Pellow fought on the frontlines with ferocious proficiency, and his role in combat was primarily as an infantryman,[5] as were most of these slave soldiers. The monarchs viewed their role in their armies as "an integral, perhaps a primary, part of the conquering Ottoman army".[5] However, despite their value, these soldiers were regulated as servile classes and were not allowed to carry a sword or iron spear, "these being distinctions of a free man", but they did carry some kind of weapon.[4]
Soon after Pellow's Barbary capture and conversion to Islam, Pellow was educated to speak Arabic, as well as how to perform Moroccan social customs. From roughly the age of 12, Pellow was given the responsibility of managing 80 slave boys. He excelled in his new position and eventually was transferred into the palace to work as a personal attendant for Moulay Ismail's son, Mulai Zidan. Pellow's close proximity to the monarch's family exposed him to the many forms of capricious violence the Mulai family often employed. During his time there he witnessed the murder of Zidan, his favourite black slave, for disturbing two pigeons that Zidan was observing.[clarification needed] His role as Zidan's personal attendant was a preparatory grooming technique that tested Pellow's ability to care for the monarch.[citation needed] In his narrative, Pellow expresses the daily anxieties he was forced to live among, compared to how law is enforced in England.[citation needed]
Pellow was considered a valuable slave. He was conditioned to live in constant fear of his life being ended at a moment's notice. This mental conditioning compromised all relationships Pellow had with the Mulai family. Slavery scholar Orlando Patterson describes Pellow's anxieties about master relations as follows: "No authentic human relationship was possible where violence was the ultimate sanction. There could be no trust, no genuine sympathy; and while a kind of love may sometimes have triumphed over this perverse form of interaction, intimacy was usually calculation, and sadomasochistic".[citation needed]
Slave army
[edit]After being the personal slave for the Sultan's son, Pellow eventually joined the Sultan's army—an army that consisted almost entirely of slave-soldiers who had been captured as young children and indoctrinated. Pellow was made an officer in the slave army. Unlike all other military slaves, who spend their lives training for war,[6] Pellow joined the sultan's army later in life. He led other slave-soldiers into battle and once took part in a slave-gathering expedition in sub-Saharan Africa.
There was a stark difference between the independent renegades encountered in the narrative and their slave counterparts. According to Daniel Pipes in his 1979 article "The strategic rationale for military slavery", "As the mercenaries or allies, they retained their own loyalties, but as slaves, they could be subjected to reorientation. Prior to enrollment in the army, they were prepared for service; the government secured their loyalty and fitted their military skills to the needs of the army".[7] Unlike the free-thinking allies and mercenaries for hire, a slave's life depended on their masters. They were trained to fight and forced into combat against their will. As such, the process of making them submissive to their masters was a long and arduous one by which they were beaten into shape and into a fearful loyalty to their masters. The alien soldiers were isolated figures whose isolation and alienation caused them to adopt what they were left with as normality.[7]
As well as being kept in poor living conditions, they were also beaten. The emperor would say that he would do these cruel acts to the slaves to see if they were hard enough, if they were prepared to fight in his army. Even after this type of treatment the soldiers were completely loyal to their emperor, who would give them such incentives as distributing money among them to make them eager to march on expeditions they were ordered on.[citation needed]}
Marriage
[edit]Pellow, in his book, describes the collective wedding where he received his wife as a reward from Moulay Ismail,[8] and mentions his wife's family and the status of his new brother-in-law, but he references his wife and children only a few other times in the latter portions of his narrative.[citation needed]
Pellow's wife and daughter both died while he was campaigning as a slave-soldier. In response to the news that his family was dead, he wrote "I thought them to be by far better off than they could have been in this troublesome World, especially this Part of it; and I was really very glad that they were delivered out of it, and therefore it gave me very little uneasiness".[8]
Escape and return to Penryn
[edit]Pellow eventually fled Morocco by boarding an Irish ship and returned home in the summer of 1738.[citation needed]
After his years as a slave had finally come to an end, Pellow was faced with the daunting task of finding his way home to Penryn. He managed to secure himself passage aboard a ship bound for Gibraltar, but once the ship had docked, Pellow was forbidden to go ashore. Pellow's attire, tanned skin, and thick beard, caused the harbour guards to mistake Pellow for a Moor, and initially refuse to let him disembark. Pellow called out to them to convince them he was as much a Christian man as them. The guards did not believe Pellow until his identity was at last verified, and he was able to leave the ship. While in Gibraltar, a man named Mr. Abramico threatened to take Pellow back to Barbary. Pellow then physically assaulted Mr. Abramico in the street before some of his friends convinced him to stop the attack.[8]
A few days later he found himself a ship bound for London and managed to secure himself a ride. After a brief stint in London, Pellow made multiple trips to eventually find his way back to Penryn,[citation needed] in October 1738, at the age of 34.[1]
Pellow's disorientation and feeling of apprehension carried over into his arrival at his hometown of Penryn. Even though he was happy to be back in his homeland, Pellow admitted that everything was foreign to him. He did not recognise anyone. Not even his parents, who, in turn, only recognised him because they had heard of his impending return, were recognisable. Pellow was treated as a returning hero of sorts, even given a celebration, but unfortunately the roles of his home countries had reversed. His native home had become a strange place to him and the land of his captivity had become more like home.[citation needed]
Pellow found himself tormented by his twenty years of fighting, and upon his return he found great difficulty in acclimatising back into English society. "Thomas Pellow had not just been captured by Barbary: he had in the process been changed. He was never able to make a satisfactory life for himself on return to Britain."[9] Pellow's difficulty with reintegration is severely administered by his life in Barbary. Not only was he far from home, but he was indoctrinated into the Arab world and accepted his reality and their religion. Pellow's irreversible change was what made him an outsider, and made finding meaning in a place that was once his home impossible. "Pellow's inability to settle back in and make good, may have been due to more, however, than his own alienation. In his absence, not only he but his country had been transformed."[9]
Pellow was a man with only one particular set of skills, and found himself completely lost in a place that was once his home. The world at home was not the place he had once become accustomed to; instead, it was a place that he felt distant from, and felt unable to relate to the people at home. Even when he spotted his cousin after his escape, he chose to avoid him because he felt so distant due to his many years away from his people and his blood. "I looked sharp out for a vessel, but could not find anyone to my Mind; not but here were two, and one belonging to Joshua Bawden,…my first Cousin, we being Sisters Children; however, tho' I met him twice, and my Blood boiled in my Veins at the Sight of him, yet we did not speak on either Side, which was no doubt a very great Misfortune to me; for had he known who I was, he would, I am well satisfied, have carry'd me with him."[10]
Pellow died in 1945, and was buried at St Gluvias in 1745, unmarried in England.[1]
Book
[edit]Pellow wrote an extensive captivity narrative entitled The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow in South-Barbary.[11] Pellow's book chronicles his many adventures spent during his 23-year-long captivity (summer 1715 – July 1738) giving a detailed account of his capture by Barbary pirates, his experiences as a slave under Sultan Moulay Ismail, and his final escape from Morocco back to his Cornish origins.
Commentary
[edit]Allen R. Meyers wrote a paper in 1998 that "describes the development of a slave army, the 'Abid al Bukhari, which enabled Ismail ibn al-Sharif (aka Moulay), to establish a large and relatively durable Moroccan state". Ismail created the slave army in an effort to "consolidate his power, to expand the kingdom, to suppress internal dissent, and to repulse the European and Ottoman threat".[12] Meyers states that with the army's support, Ismail was able to collect taxes, suppress rebellion, and maintain public order. Ismail first created his army by confiscating three thousand male slaves from the residents of Marrakech, which he would later increase to around 50,000 slaves, many of whom were part of a group of people called Haratins.[12] Creating this self-sufficient army could also have its drawbacks, with uprisings and rebellions, such as a poor relationship with Islamic scholars due to his enslaving of fellow Muslims, an act that was considered to be blasphemous.[13]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "The Pellowes of Penryn By Dr E.F.Pellowe, The Pellowes of Mabe, PAGES 17 to 31". pellew.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2025. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
- ^ a b Milton, Giles (2005). White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves. Macmillan. pp. 80–86. ISBN 9780374289355.
- ^ Beach, Adam R. (2013). "African Slaves, English Slave Narratives, and Early Modern Morocco". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 46 (3): 333–348. doi:10.1353/ecs.2013.0023. ISSN 0013-2586. JSTOR 23524203. S2CID 162187619.
- ^ a b Fischer, Allan (1970). Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa. London: C. Hurst & Company. p. 130.
- ^ a b Brown, Christopher (2006). Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Modern Age. London: New Haven. p. 67.
- ^ "Military Slaves: A Uniquely Muslim Phenomenon".
- ^ a b Pipes, Daniel (1979). "The strategic rationale for military slavery". Journal of Strategic Studies. 2 (1): 42. doi:10.1080/01402397908437012. ISSN 0140-2390.
- ^ a b c Pellow, Thomas (1973). The history of the long captivity and adventures of Thomas Pellow, in South Barbary. New York: Garland Pub. p. 338. ISBN 978-0824005832. OCLC 672884.
- ^ a b Colley, Linda (2004). Captives. New York: Anchor Books. pp. 96–97.
- ^ Pellow, Thomas (1739). The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow in South Barbary. London: Temple-Bar. p. 338.
- ^ The Adventures of Thomas Pellow: Three and twenty years in captivity among the Moors. Suffolk & Watt. 28 May 2015. ISBN 9780954598587.
- ^ a b Sikainga, Ahmad Alawad (1 August 1998). "Slavery and Muslim Jurisprudence in Morocco". Slavery & Abolition. 19 (2): 57–72. doi:10.1080/01440399808575239. ISSN 0144-039X.
- ^ El Hamel, Chouki (2010). "The Register of the Slaves of Sultan Mawlay Isma'Il of Morocco at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century". The Journal of African History. 51: 89–98. doi:10.1017/s0021853710000186. S2CID 44360063.
Further reading
[edit]- Blunt, Wilfrid. Black Sunrise; the Life and times of Mulai Ismail, Emperor of Morocco, 1646–1727. London: Methuen, 1951.
- Celinscak, Mark. "Captivity and Encounter: Thomas Pellow, The Moroccan Renegade." University of Toronto Art Journal 1 (2008): 1–10.
- El Hamel, Chouki. "The Register Of The Slaves Of Sultan Mawlay Isma'Il Of Morocco At The Turn Of The Eighteenth Century." The Journal of African History, 51.01 (2010): 89–98.
- Meyers, Allen R. "Slave Soldiers and State Politics in Early 'Alawi Morocco, 1668–1727." The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 16.1 (1983): 39–48. JSTOR. Web. 2 April 2013.
- Milton, Giles. White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
External links
[edit]
Thomas Pellow
View on GrokipediaEarly Life and Capture
Family Background and Voyage to Sea
Thomas Pellow was born in 1704 in Penryn, Cornwall, England, to parents Thomas Pellow and Elizabeth, who belonged to a family of humble origins long established in the region.[1] His early years reflected the modest circumstances typical of coastal Cornish families during the early 18th century, with limited documentation beyond basic vital records. Pellow received a rudimentary education at the local school in Penryn, where he spent his initial childhood before family circumstances prompted his entry into maritime life. Following the death of his father, the eleven-year-old Pellow sought and obtained permission to accompany his uncle, Captain John Pellow, on a trading voyage departing England in 1715 bound for Genoa, Italy.[6] This journey represented a common path for young men from seafaring communities like Penryn, where involvement in merchant shipping offered opportunities amid economic pressures at home. The voyage proceeded westward initially, crossing the Bay of Biscay as the ship navigated toward southern European ports, embodying the routine risks of Atlantic trade routes in an era plagued by piracy.[7]Seizure by Barbary Corsairs
Thomas Pellow, born around 1704 in Penryn, Cornwall, to a family of mariners, departed Falmouth in 1715 at the age of eleven aboard the merchant vessel Francis, captained by his uncle John Pellow, en route to Genoa. Shortly after crossing the Bay of Biscay, the ship encountered two corsair vessels dispatched from Salé, a Moroccan port notorious for its raiding fleets under Sultan Moulay Ismail.[8] [2] The corsairs, operating as state-sanctioned raiders to capture slaves and prizes for the Moroccan economy, swiftly overwhelmed the Francis in a violent engagement, seizing the entire crew without significant resistance reported.[3] The captured crew, comprising approximately 52 men including Pellow, were bound and transported aboard the corsair ships to Salé, where they disembarked amid the port's slave markets.[9] Pellow's account details the immediate brutality of the seizure, including the stripping of possessions and initial confinement, as the raiders prioritized Christian captives for sale into servitude to fund Morocco's military and imperial ambitions.[2] This raid exemplified the Barbary corsairs' systematic predation on European shipping in the early 18th century, driven by economic incentives and religious motivations to expand the Islamic slave trade, which ensnared tens of thousands of Europeans annually during the period.[8] From Salé, the prisoners, including Pellow and five other Englishmen, were marched inland under guard, marking the onset of their enslavement in the sultan's domains.[8]Enslavement and Adaptation in Morocco
Initial Captivity Under Sultan Moulay Ismail
Thomas Pellow, aged eleven, was captured in the summer of 1716 by Barbary corsairs operating from Salé while serving aboard the English trading vessel Francis under his uncle's command. The ship and its crew of fifty-two were seized off the Moroccan coast, and the prisoners were promptly conveyed inland to the imperial capital of Meknes for presentation to Sultan Moulay Ismail, whose regime relied heavily on enslaved Europeans for monumental construction projects.[1] Upon arrival in Meknes, Pellow and his fellow captives underwent inspection by the sultan, who selected individuals for various roles based on perceived utility; many, including the young Pellow, were consigned to grueling forced labor in the expansion of the sultan's sprawling palace complex, a project that demanded the exertion of an estimated 25,000 Christian slaves quarrying limestone, hauling colossal stone blocks over distances exceeding ten miles, and erecting defensive walls and ornate structures amid the city's arid environs.[10][1] Labor commenced at dawn and persisted for twelve hours daily under the oversight of the sultan's Abid al-Bukhari guards—elite black troops known for their ferocity—who meted out punishments with whips, bastinadoes, and chains for any perceived slackness, resulting in widespread exhaustion, malnutrition, and death among the slaves from disease and overwork.[5] Pellow's initial months involved such unrelenting toil, marked by physical degradation and psychological strain from separation from kin, linguistic isolation, and the constant threat of execution or mutilation for defiance or escape attempts, as the sultan's court enforced absolute subjugation to extract maximum productivity from its human chattel.[11] Refusal to renounce Christianity at this stage subjected him to intensified beatings and privation, delaying any preferential treatment until submission, while the broader slave population suffered epidemics and attrition, with thousands perishing annually to sustain the sultan's architectural ambitions.[12][1]Conversion to Islam and Cultural Assimilation
Following his enslavement and presentation to Sultan Moulay Ismail in Salé upon arrival in Morocco in 1716, the 11-year-old Pellow was assigned to the household of the sultan's son, Muley Spha, where efforts to convert him to Islam began with temptations and bribes that he rejected.[1][12] This resistance prompted severe physical coercion, including prolonged chaining in irons, repeated bastinado (suspension upside down and whipping of the soles of the feet), and burning of his flesh with fire, as detailed in Pellow's own account.[1][5] After enduring weeks to months of such torture, Pellow relented and formally converted to Islam, undergoing circumcision in the process, which he later recalled with deep remorse and pleas for divine forgiveness.[5] The conversion rendered him ineligible for ransom by English authorities, who viewed apostasy as disqualifying captives from redemption.[1] Pellow described the act as superficial and compelled by survival imperatives rather than conviction, a common outcome for European slaves facing similar pressures in Barbary states.[1][5] Post-conversion, Sultan Moulay Ismail directed that Pellow receive instruction in Arabic and Islamic tenets, though Muley Spha initially defied these orders, resulting in the prince's eventual execution for disobedience.[1] Pellow subsequently mastered Arabic, enabling him to serve as an interpreter for English diplomats, and adopted Moroccan attire and folk practices—such as using red pepper remedies—after further beatings for non-compliance.[5] This linguistic and customary adaptation marked his deeper cultural assimilation, positioning him as a renegade slave integrated into the sultan's service apparatus, though his narrative underscores the coercive foundations of this process.[5][1]Military Rise and Service
Entry into the Sultan's Guard
Following his initial enslavement and forced labor in the construction of Sultan Moulay Ismail's palace at Meknes, Thomas Pellow was presented to the Sultan in early 1716 along with his uncle and other English captives. Impressed by the boy's physical strength and resilience at age 11, Moulay Ismail personally selected Pellow and three other young English slaves for incorporation into the imperial household, distinguishing them from the general pool of laborers destined for harsher exploitation.[1] Pellow's early duties within this service were menial, including cleaning the royal armory, before he was reassigned to attend Moulay Spha, one of the Sultan's sons, where he performed personal errands and gained proximity to the court. Despite an imperial order for the boys to receive formal instruction in Arabic and Islamic doctrine—intended to facilitate their assimilation—Pellow's immediate overseer, Moulay Spha, neglected this, though Pellow independently acquired fluency in the language and familiarity with local customs over time.[1] After his conversion to Islam around 1717, Pellow underwent basic military training and was integrated into the Abid al-Bukhari, the Sultan's elite guard primarily composed of black African slave soldiers numbering up to 15,000, known for their discipline and role in suppressing rebellions. This unit, loyal to the Sultan through rigorous indoctrination and isolation from free society, marked Pellow's formal entry into the armed service; as a rare white renegade recruit, his inclusion reflected Moulay Ismail's pragmatic use of European captives to bolster and diversify his forces amid chronic manpower shortages. By age 15, circa 1719, Pellow was entrusted with guarding the entrance to the royal harem, a high-stakes post where his strict adherence to protocol—denying even the Sultan entry during restricted hours—earned commendation and foreshadowed his rapid promotions.[1][6]Leadership in the Renegade Slave Forces
Following his conversion to Islam and integration into the sultan's service, Thomas Pellow underwent military training and advanced to the position of officer in Moulay Ismail's army during the 1720s.[1] As a renegade— a converted European captive—Pellow commanded units composed primarily of fellow slave-soldiers, who were valued for their discipline and lack of tribal loyalties that might hinder operations against Moroccan rebels.[1] By approximately 1725, Pellow was appointed to oversee a fortress at Tannorah, demonstrating his elevated status among the renegade contingents tasked with securing strategic coastal or inland positions.[1] He led these forces in at least three campaigns, directing slave-soldiers in combat against insurgent groups, where their role emphasized rapid suppression of uprisings that local levies often proved unreliable in quelling.[1][13] Pellow's leadership extended to tactical engagements, including one instance where he participated in quelling a slave uprising, leveraging the coerced loyalty of renegades to maintain order within the sultan's diverse military apparatus.[1] These forces, numbering in companies under officers like Pellow, operated as an elite vanguard, distinct from the larger Abid al-Bukhari (Black Guard) by their European origins and utility in expeditions requiring technical or navigational skills alongside combat prowess.[1] His command reflected Moulay Ismail's strategy of arming assimilated captives to bolster central authority amid chronic provincial revolts.[13]Personal Life and Family
Marriage and Offspring
Pellow entered into marriage with a Moroccan woman arranged by Sultan Moulay Ismail, who initially offered him eight black women and subsequently seven mulatto women before providing a veiled individual of agreeable complexion whose hands and feet were artificially darkened with el bhenna.[14] The ceremony included a formal certificate and a payment of 15 ducats (equivalent to £5) from the sultan, after which Pellow led his bride by the hand to her brother's residence, where they initially cohabited; her brother commanded 1,500 Kaidrossams.[14] The union adhered to local customs, featuring a three-day wedding with provisions but no intoxication due to religious prohibitions.[14] The couple resided together amicably for several years, interspersed with Pellow's military obligations, and his wife accompanied him on expeditions such as the one to Tamnsnah.[14] They had two children: a daughter born approximately six weeks before Pellow's return from the Tamnsnah campaign, whom he found cared for by a midwife and who displayed affection toward him, and a son born during a subsequent three-month absence, who died at ten months of age.[14] The family enjoyed a period of relative peace in Tamnsnah for about four months following the daughter's birth and nearly two years after the son's death.[14] In 1728, while Pellow was wounded and en route to a hospital in New Fez following a failed escape attempt, his wife and daughter both perished within three days of each other; he learned of their deaths from a Moorish informant and expressed minimal grief, reasoning that they were "better off" in the afterlife.[14] No further marriages or offspring are recorded during his remaining years in Morocco, and upon his escape and return to England in 1738, Pellow left no known descendants behind.[14]Daily Existence as an Elite Captive
Pellow's elevation to elite status within Sultan Moulay Ismail's court afforded him relative privileges compared to common slaves, yet his daily existence remained circumscribed by servitude, military discipline, and the sultan's unpredictable tyranny in Meknes. As a trusted renegade, he frequently attended the imperial audiences, where Moulay Ismail held lengthy sessions—often lasting hours—demanding reports from officials and slaves alike, during which Pellow served as an interpreter leveraging his command of Arabic and familiarity with court etiquette.[1][9] These routines involved rising early for prayers, as required post-conversion, followed by oversight of armory maintenance and supervision of younger European captives assigned to menial tasks like polishing weapons.[1] Military duties dominated much of his time, particularly after his appointment as captain in the Abid al-Bukhari, an elite unit of black guards augmented by converted European slaves; daily training regimens included weapons drills, formation exercises, and strategic briefings to counter threats from Ottoman forces or internal rebels, with Pellow responsible for enforcing strict loyalty among 500–1,000 subordinates.[1] Guard shifts at the royal harem added to his obligations, where he upheld protocols barring unauthorized entry and relayed the sultan's commands, a role demanding constant vigilance amid risks of summary execution for lapses. Living quarters near the palace provided better sustenance—barley bread, dates, and occasional meat—than initial captivity, but isolation from family and homeland persisted, compounded by the sultan's capricious punishments like bastinado for minor infractions.[1][10] Personal routines intertwined with these duties; post-marriage, Pellow balanced court service with limited family time, though epidemics claimed his wife and daughter during his campaign absences around 1720–1725, leaving him to grieve amid unrelenting obligations.[1] Evenings often entailed debriefings or solitary reflection on escape prospects, underscoring his status as a favored yet unfree captive whose integration masked underlying coercion.[9] This existence, documented in his 1740 memoir, highlights the blend of autonomy in command with subjugation to imperial whim, shaping his 23-year ordeal until Moulay Ismail's death in 1727.[4]Escape and Repatriation
Opportunities and Decision to Flee
Following the death of Sultan Moulay Ismail on March 22, 1727, Morocco descended into a period of intense political instability marked by succession struggles among his numerous sons, which eroded central authority and loosened oversight on peripheral regions and military figures like Pellow.[1] As a high-ranking commander of the renegade slave forces, Pellow retained significant autonomy in his movements, including access to coastal ports such as Sallee (Salé), where European vessels occasionally docked for trade or piracy-related activities despite ongoing hostilities.[6] This combination of weakened imperial control and his elite status—affording him command over troops and permission for expeditions—created viable opportunities for escape that had been unattainable during Ismail's iron-fisted rule.[5] Pellow's decision to flee crystallized after the deaths of his Muslim wife and daughter, which severed his primary personal ties to Moroccan society and reignited his longing for repatriation to England after over two decades of captivity.[15] Having risen to lead campaigns suppressing tribal revolts and even a major slaving raid into sub-Saharan Africa in 1731–1732, he had previously contemplated escape but lacked the resolve or openings amid family obligations and professional duties.[16] By the mid-1730s, under the erratic reign of Moulay Abdallah, intermittent civil strife further diminished risks of pursuit, prompting Pellow to act despite his assimilated life, including fluency in Arabic and nominal adherence to Islam.[6] He made at least two prior unsuccessful escape bids, culminating in a third attempt in 1737 during which he was assaulted, robbed, and abandoned near death, yet survived to try again.[5] In July 1738, at age 34, Pellow exploited his position to reach the Portuguese-held enclave of Mazagan (modern El Jadida), from where he boarded an Irish merchant vessel bound for Europe, marking his final and successful departure from Morocco.[17] This calculated risk reflected a persistent undercurrent of homesickness and desire for Christian reintegration, as evidenced in his later memoir, outweighing the privileges of his rank.[1]perilous Journey Back to England
In 1737, amid ongoing political turmoil in Morocco following the fragmentation of Sultan Moulay Ismail's empire, Thomas Pellow initiated his successful escape after multiple prior failures, including disguises as a merchant and attempts during periods of instability.[1] Disguised as a traveling physician to avoid detection, he navigated through hostile territory, evading informers loyal to the Moroccan authorities who actively pursued renegade slaves and former elites like himself.[1] This overland flight to the Atlantic coast exposed him to severe risks, including recapture by patrols, betrayal by locals familiar with his high-ranking service in the sultan's forces, and the harsh physical demands of traversing rugged landscapes without reliable provisions or allies.[1][13] Reaching the coast undetected, Pellow boarded an Irish merchant ship, capitalizing on opportunistic trade voyages that occasionally docked despite ongoing Anglo-Moroccan tensions.[1][13] The vessel transported him to Gibraltar, a British stronghold, where his deeply tanned complexion, full beard, and Moroccan garb initially aroused suspicion among residents, who mistook him for a Moorish infiltrator or questioned his sudden appearance as a potential fugitive.[1] When one individual threatened to expose him as an escaped slave—potentially leading to extradition or violence—Pellow physically assaulted the man to prevent interference, highlighting the precariousness of his reintegration even in allied territories.[1] From Gibraltar, Pellow secured passage on another ship to London, completing the trans-Mediterranean and Atlantic crossing in the summer of 1738 without further recorded incidents at sea, though the route remained vulnerable to Barbary corsair interception.[1] He then proceeded overland to his native Penryn in Cornwall, reuniting with surviving family members in October 1738 after 23 years of captivity.[1] This return underscored the endurance required to survive not only the initial flight but also the social and evidentiary hurdles of proving his identity and ordeals to skeptical English audiences.[13]Later Life and Reintegration
Challenges in English Society
Upon his return to England in the summer of 1738, after 23 years of captivity beginning at age 11, Thomas Pellow faced immediate challenges in familial recognition and social reintegration. Arriving at his parents' home in Cornwall on October 15, 1738, he was initially unrecognizable due to his altered appearance, including Moorish garb and a prominent beard, which shocked observers and even his own family.[5] Despite a hero's welcome in local newspapers, Pellow encountered suspicion rooted in his visible Muslim influences and long service under Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail, raising doubts about his loyalty and national identity among the community.[5] Pellow's psychological torment from two decades of warfare and elite service in the sultan's renegade forces compounded these social barriers, leaving him haunted and unable to fully acclimate to English norms. His formative years spent in Moroccan society had profoundly shaped his worldview, rendering England—a land he had idealized during captivity—unfamiliar and alienating upon arrival.[1] This reverse cultural shock manifested as a persistent sense of displacement, with Pellow's heart and mind remaining indelibly marked by his experiences abroad, hindering emotional reconnection with homeland customs and kin.[1] Broader societal stigma toward former captives who had "gone native," including Pellow's temporary conversion to Islam and leadership in slave-raiding expeditions, further isolated him, as English society grappled with anxieties over religious apostasy and cultural contamination. Without institutional support for repatriated slaves, Pellow navigated these hurdles amid identity insecurity, trading his status as an outsider in Morocco for a precarious one in England, where his narrative of adaptation and survival evoked both fascination and wariness.[5]Efforts at Recognition and Subsistence
Upon his return to Penryn, Cornwall, on 15 October 1738, Thomas Pellow encountered severe financial difficulties amid broader challenges of societal reintegration after 23 years in captivity.[18] He petitioned the British government for relief, citing his prolonged enslavement and the hardships endured, and was granted a modest annual pension of £20, an amount deemed insufficient to sustain him adequately.[19] To secure both public recognition of his experiences and additional income, Pellow authored and published The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow, in South-Barbary in 1740. The narrative detailed his capture at age 11 in 1715, forced conversion to Islam, military service under Sultan Moulay Ismail, and eventual escape, aiming to leverage the popularity of captivity accounts for financial support through sales and subscriptions common to such publications.[19] Despite these initiatives, Pellow's efforts yielded limited success; he continued to subsist in poverty, with no substantial further aid or honors forthcoming from authorities or the public. He died in Penryn in 1747, aged approximately 43, remaining largely overlooked in his homeland.[19]Writings and Historical Account
Composition of His Memoir
Thomas Pellow composed his memoir immediately following his return to England in October 1738, drawing directly from his personal experiences during 23 years of captivity in Morocco from 1715 to 1738.[6] The resulting work, titled The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow, in South-Barbary, was published anonymously in 1739 or 1740 by R. Goadby in Sherborne, England, with the subtitle explicitly stating it was "Written by Himself" to affirm its authenticity as a firsthand narrative. [3] Spanning approximately 300 pages in its original form, the memoir details Pellow's capture at age 11, integration into Moroccan society, military service under Sultan Moulay Ismail, and eventual escape, structured chronologically with ethnographic observations interspersed.[3] Pellow, who had received education in Arabic and court protocols during captivity, likely penned the account personally amid financial hardship, using it as a means of subsistence upon repatriation.[20] No evidence indicates ghostwriting or dictation; the text's stylistic consistency and unpolished vernacular align with an unassisted composition by a former captive of limited prior formal English literacy.[4] Subsequent editions, including a 1751 reprint and the 1890 version edited by Robert Brown with added notes, maintained the core text while clarifying historical context, confirming the original's attribution to Pellow without substantive alterations to authorship claims.[4] [1] The memoir's composition reflects a deliberate effort to document Barbary slavery from an insider's perspective, prioritizing empirical recollection over literary embellishment.Content and Eyewitness Insights on Moroccan Society
Pellow's memoir provides detailed eyewitness accounts of Moroccan society under Sultan Moulay Ismail (r. 1672–1727) and his successors, drawing from his 23 years of captivity beginning in 1715, during which he rose from slave to military officer and court insider.[14] His observations emphasize the hierarchical structure dominated by the sultan's absolute authority, the integration of slavery into economic and military systems, and the enforcement of Islamic customs amid widespread cruelty.[14] These insights, based on direct participation in court life, labor, and expeditions, offer a rare internal perspective on 'Alawi dynasty Morocco, contrasting with external European reports.[3] Slavery and Labor ConditionsChristian captives, including Pellow himself at age 11, faced initial sale into harsh labor, such as constructing buildings in Mequinez where slaves stamped earth mixtures while harnessed alongside mules, housed in underground dungeons with scant rations of barley bread and water, leading to high mortality from exhaustion and beatings.[14] Pellow noted that slaves built entire towns, including one for Jews, under overseers who inflicted routine corporal punishment; exceptional survivors like himself could gain favor and semi-autonomy, but most endured perpetual bondage, with children of slaves inheriting the status.[14] Redemption occurred sporadically, as in 1721 when 148 English slaves were freed via British diplomacy and transported to Tetuan.[14] He observed the slave trade's scale during military campaigns, such as capturing children on the Guinea coast in the 1720s for transport to Morocco.[14] Court Life and Royal Authority
At the sultan's palace in Mequinez, Pellow witnessed extreme subservience, with officials prostrating and kissing the ground before Moulay Ismail, who maintained a harem of 8,000 wives and 900 sons funded by taxes on Jews.[14] Court rituals included lavish tributes, such as 140 quintals of silver, and enforced marriages arranged by the sultan, featuring henna dyeing, ceremonial attire, and feasts of couscous.[14] Under successor Moulay Abdallah, whom Pellow served, the court saw frequent executions, including the burning alive of a Jewish interpreter in the 1730s for perceived disloyalty.[14] Pellow described the Black Imperial Guard, numbering 13,000–15,000, as the sultan's elite enforcers, privileged yet subject to Ismail's whims.[14] Religious Practices and Conversion Pressures
Pellow detailed coercive conversion to Islam, recounting his own forced "turning Moor" after beatings and torture threats, including witnessing Ramadan's strict fasting where deviation invited punishment.[14] Moulay Ismail positioned himself as enforcer of sharia, executing law-breakers publicly to bolster his religious legitimacy, while Jews faced subjugation, barred from mosques and punishable by death for insulting Muslims, yet employed as interpreters.[14] Sacred sites like Fez were restricted, and pilgrims earned titles like "Elhash" for Mecca visits; Pellow contrasted this with his private Christian longings, viewing Moroccan "Mahometism" as antithetical to escape desires.[14] Military Organization and Expeditions
Moroccan forces under Ismail comprised vast armies, such as 42,000 troops in the 1720s siege of Guzlan where 15,000 died, employing tactics like wall-mining and beheading rebels post-victory.[14] Pellow commanded Tannonah castle for six years and led 300 men on raids, observing 70,000-horse expeditions to Itehuzzan and 100,000-man campaigns against rivals like Moulay Abdallah, with heavy losses from attrition.[14] Corsair piracy sustained slavery, capturing ships off Cape Finisterre in 1715, while inland, alcaydes (governors) plundered subjects.[14] Social Customs and Daily Existence
Daily life featured staples like couscous suppers, locusts (jerrodes), and tea; rural poverty contrasted urban centers like Mequinez (300,000 inhabitants) with its architecture and markets.[14] Customs included caravan travel with 60,000 camels, fortune-telling by native seers, and hunting risks from beasts; renegades drank wine covertly, while baking and fishing supplemented elite privileges.[14] Weddings and governance reflected patriarchal control, with the sultan dictating pairings to perpetuate loyalty.[14] Prevalent Cruelty and Punishments
Ismail's reign epitomized brutality, with acts like spearing captives, sawing rebels in half, nailing subjects to walls, or weaving prisoners into human bridges; Pellow saw 17 beheaded at once and 6,000 after the Fez siege.[14] Such violence extended to tossing subjects from heights or dragging them by mules, fostering a climate of fear that permeated society from court to provinces.[14] Pellow's accounts underscore how this despotism underpinned stability, with even ghosts of victims like Larbe Shott haunting the narrative.[14]