Through a series of fortunate accidents, Pellow not only managed to survive his ordeal but eventually escaped back to England to publish his adventures for a captive audience.Īlthough narratives like Pellow's have long been dismissed as part of a genre of deliciously scandalous 'Orientalist' fantasies wildly popular with the British upper classes, Milton notes that European and Arab chronicles of the time have corroborated many of the events and experiences recounted in these fanciful books. Pellow spent the next 23 years as a slave at the imperial court, where he was routinely beaten and starved, forced to convert to Islam and ultimately placed at the head of the sultan's armies. For better or worse, Pellow's crew was spared such humiliation and instead marched directly to the imperial city of Meknes, where they were ceremonially presented as gifts to the cruel and capricious sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail.īeing a strong and hearty young boy, Pellow immediately caught the attention of Moulay Ismail and was initiated into the sultan's personal retinue of servants. According to Milton, nearly 1 million Europeans passed through the markets of coastal towns like Sale, on the north coast of Morocco, where they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. In the early 1700s, the trade in European slaves was a booming business throughout North Africa, even though, in size and scope, it did not compare to Europe's own immensely profitable African slave trade. But the merchandise was a mere pittance compared to the real prize of the ship: its crew. Upon setting sail for home, the Francis was overtaken by a band of 'fanatical corsairs of Barbary' who, in a 'deranged fury,' boarded the ship, overpowered its unarmed crew and seized its precious cargo of Italian wares meant for sale in England. Pellow's ship left Cornwall in 1715, carrying a cargo of salted pilchards to trade in Genoa. Based primarily on narratives published by freed or escaped slaves, White Gold recounts the story of Thomas Pellow, who at age 11 joined the crew of an English trading vessel, the Francis, as a cabin boy and merchant's apprentice.

White gold thomas pellow