We hear little about it today, even with everything that is going on in the world but the truth is that Piracy and Hostage taking is nothing new nor is it something we have had to worry about in recent days. Since the earliest days of American history, colonialists had found themselves under threat from the Barbary Pirates setting sail from the coast of Morocco.
A Pastoral Letter to the Captives and Other Works tells that history. But more than a theological or historical piece it weaves together a story of faith and hope in the face of adversity, of perseverance and deliverance in the face of the most overwhelming odds. Here Exagorazo Press presents a book that shows God's goodness and His strength even in an age dominated by the challenges and struggle. Set against the age of the Barbary Pirate it delves into the spiritual and offers a unique look at the world in a way still relevant today.
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A Pastoral Letter to the Captives and Other Works
Imagine the scene: the crew of an unarmed merchant ship looks on in horror as their vessel is approached and boarded by a gang of pirates, guns blazing. The pirates herd their human cargo into smaller boats and head for shore, where the crew members will languish in slavery while they await rescue or ransom or death.
This was a common scene 300 years ago, when the Barbary Pirates ruled the seas, and it is a scene that has changed little in the past three centuries. Where ships once dreaded passing through the Straits of Gibraltar from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, modern mariners now face a similar situation in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, vital waterways for vessels traveling between Asia and Europe and North America.
In the late 1600s, Moroccan King Moulay Ismail oversaw a reign of terror that included the abduction of more than 25,000 Europeans, mostly unarmed merchant seamen, who were then used as slaves to build his new capital city, Meknes. Today's pirates are not necessarily state-sponsored, as were the Barbary Pirates, but are rapidly approaching that status as they funnel money from ransom payments into armed insurgencies in weak states like Somalia.
In this book, we present hostage accounts from the late 17th century, including the story of an arduous escape from Moulay Ismail's brutal captivity. We also see the encouraging letter American preacher Cotton Mather wrote to a group of captured New England seamen, and the joyful sermon he preached to celebrate their release five years later. Although the hostage narratives describe the horror and desperation of this terrible condition, they also speak of the strong faith that enabled the captives to survive their ordeal. It is this hope and faith that we wish to emphasize, particularly the power of prayer to sustain the hostages and to bring them their eventual deliverance.
This was a common scene 300 years ago, when the Barbary Pirates ruled the seas, and it is a scene that has changed little in the past three centuries. Where ships once dreaded passing through the Straits of Gibraltar from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, modern mariners now face a similar situation in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, vital waterways for vessels traveling between Asia and Europe and North America.
In the late 1600s, Moroccan King Moulay Ismail oversaw a reign of terror that included the abduction of more than 25,000 Europeans, mostly unarmed merchant seamen, who were then used as slaves to build his new capital city, Meknes. Today's pirates are not necessarily state-sponsored, as were the Barbary Pirates, but are rapidly approaching that status as they funnel money from ransom payments into armed insurgencies in weak states like Somalia.
In this book, we present hostage accounts from the late 17th century, including the story of an arduous escape from Moulay Ismail's brutal captivity. We also see the encouraging letter American preacher Cotton Mather wrote to a group of captured New England seamen, and the joyful sermon he preached to celebrate their release five years later. Although the hostage narratives describe the horror and desperation of this terrible condition, they also speak of the strong faith that enabled the captives to survive their ordeal. It is this hope and faith that we wish to emphasize, particularly the power of prayer to sustain the hostages and to bring them their eventual deliverance.
Cotton Mather(1663-1728) Best known for his role in the infamous Salem Witch Trials (1682), Cotton Mather was a brilliant 17th century pastor, historian, and scientist. He was an early advocate of smallpox immunization, nearly a hundred years before Edward Jenner's work on a vaccine; a stand that earned him several death threats. He became involved in the cause of redeeming captives from the Barbary Pirates in 1696, using the example of the enslaved men in his sermon to the Massachusetts Assembly, Things for a Distress'd People to Think Upon. He later wrote A Pastoral Letter to the Captives (1698) to encourage them in their difficult circumstances and to urge them to remain true to their Christian faith. Upon their return home in 1703, he preached The Glory of Goodness to celebrate their deliverance.
Moulay Ismail(1645-1727) Nicknamed "Ismail the Bloodthirsty" by his own subjects, Moulay Ismail is considered, nevertheless, one of the greatest figures in Moroccan history. He succeeded his half-brother as King at the age of 26 and ruled ruthlessly for nearly 60 years. During that time he accumulated a harem of more than 500 women, with whom he fathered 888 children. When he managed to take a break from his domestic activities, he moved the capital city from Fez to Meknes (variously spelled Macquennes, Maquinez, and Makennis in contemporary accounts), using 25,000 Western slaves to build the "Versailles of Morocco". These slaves were mainly sailors captured from unarmed merchant ships. They often languished for years before dying of malnutrition, or rarely, being ransomed and returned home.
