Horrors of Slavery: Or, The American Tars in Tripoli

(Rutgers University Press) A true tale of an American sailor, William Ray, and his crew who were captured during the Tripolitan War and imprisoned for 19 month by Barbary pirates off the coast of Africa, Horrors of Slavery was first published in 1808. Blum situates the text in its literary, historical, and political contexts, bringing to light a crucial episode in the early history of the United State’s relations with Islamic states. 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.