Thomas Pellow

[2] 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.

Then 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 a time, Moulay Ismail ordered his son to bring Pellow so that he could go to school and learn the Moorish language.

According to Pellow's text, white European converts could rise within the Moroccan military system, but were confined to their own separate fighting units.

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.

"[5] Thomas Pellow's extensive slave narrative The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow chronicles the captivity of a twelve-year-old Christian cabin boy and his development into an elite military slave during the reign of Moroccan Sultan Mulay Ismail.

From the age 12, Pellow was plucked from preadolescence and placed on a rigorous track leading to his eventual military role as a preeminent captain in the Moroccan Army.

Pellow 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.

[clarification needed] His role as Zidan's personal attendant was a preparatory grooming technique that tested Pellow's ability to care for the monarch.

Having a primary account of the wrath of Moulay Ismail no doubt prepared Pellow for witnessing the many capricious killings performed by the sultan.

Renowned 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".

Unlike all other military slaves, who spend their lives training for war,[8] Pellow joined the sultan's army later in life.

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.”[9] Unlike the free-thinking allies and mercenaries for hire, a slave's life depended on their masters.

"Sometimes you would see forty or fifty of them all sprawling in their blood, none of them daring to rise till he left the place, where they were lying, and if they were discountenanced and out of heart at this usage, they were of a bastard-breed, and must turn out of his service" .

Allen R. Meyers has written a paper that "describes the development of a slave army, the 'Abid al Bukhari, which enabled one such sultan, Ismail ibn al-Sharif, 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".

[10] Meyers states that with the army's support, Ismail was able to collect taxes, suppress rebellion, and maintain public order.

[10] 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.

Still it is thought by some scholars that, "Under the circumstances, enslaved people in the Islamic lands had far greater opportunities for integration into mainstream society".

This being an obvious misunderstanding by the clear evidence that Pellow, a devout Christian and Englishman himself, had difficulties in proving his loyalty to his home country upon returning.

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, Cornwall, Britain.

"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.