Book description
Some of the most popular stories in 19th-century America were sensational tales of whites captured and enslaved in North Africa. This book gathers together a selection of these Barbary captivity narratives, which significantly influenced early American attitudes toward race, slavery, and nationalism. Though Barbary privateers began to seize North American…
Why read it?
1 author picked White Slaves, African Masters as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Understandably even grumpier than Twain, for the most part, these Americans were held captive by Barbary “pirates” in North Africa and lived to tell about it. Their stories really got me interested in America’s interaction with North Africa on the southern edge of the Mediterranean.
They provide lots of drama, with ship captures, dark dungeons, descriptions of their Muslim captors, daily life in North Africa, horrific torture, and more. Needless to say, some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt, but there’s a good reason many of these accounts were bestsellers when originally published.
From Lawrence's list on The best books to experience the Mediterranean like a 19th-century American.
If you love White Slaves, African Masters...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like White Slaves, African Masters?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 84 books like White Slaves, African Masters.
Share your top 3 reads of 2026!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
181
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like White Slaves, African Masters, you might also like...
Sexy Selfie Nation
The problem is not with the actions young women take but with the toxic, sexist conditions they are responding to.
Tanenbaum found, based on six years of interviews with young people ages 14-30, that young women are navigating a culture littered with gendered dress codes, revenge porn, and sexually explicit…
In This Together
In This Together explores how we can harness our social networks to make a real impact fighting the climate crisis. Against notions of the lone environmental crusader, Marianne E. Krasny shows us the power of "network climate action"—the idea that our own ordinary acts can influence and inspire those close…
