Article Abstract

Ed Bull
LIT 6009 – Research Portfolio
Article Abstract

Article:

Baepler, Paul. “White Slaves, African Masters.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 588, Islam: Enduring Myths and Changing Realities (2003): pp.90-111.

Abstract:

In “White Slaves, African Masters,” Paul Baepler recounts the history of Barbary privateers taking North American colonists captive from as early as 1625. Barbary privateers were employed by North African nations, often Muslim, to harass foreign trade to the Mediterranean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (91-93). Baepler traces the word “Barbary” to its Greek and Latin origins and it’s many uses, from signifying “uncivilized populations” to St. Augustine’s use of “barbarus” to refer to his people who “resisted Roman rule and Christianity” (91). Baepler examines the role of the Barbary captivity narrative in early nineteenth century literature; some use the narratives to confirm the morality of American slavery, others use it to point out the institution’s hypocrisy. The captivity narrative, with its themes of conversion and assimilation, allows post-colonial Americans to confront their insecurities about the superiority of Western, Puritan, white culture. The captive brings back observations about the other culture that affirm the superiority of their own culture (100). Baepler’s final argument is that captivity narratives are so steeped in an “imperialist culture” that, whatever their intent, they cannot rise above that simple fact (104).

Response:

Baepler’s article was a goldmine of leads for my own research. He references many other captivity narratives of the time that have strong similarities to The Algerine Captive and that could help me locate patterns of meaning. There was also a very interesting reference to a book by David Spurr in which Spurr “argues that the ultimate aim of colonial discourse is not to maintain a radical difference between colonizer and subject but to foreground their common humanity: ‘[imperial discourse] seeks to dominate by inclusion and domestication rather than by a confrontation which recognizes the independent identity of the Other.’” This ties into the thesis behind my own research on multiple levels: that the reconfiguration of the Other to an Eastern, foreign enemy creates an inclusive fold in white identity for African Americans, but does so in such a way that it aggressively assimilates them into white culture and erases their original identity, and second, that by placing a white captive in the subordinate role of slave, and yet allowing that white captive to maintain their superiority through the possession of the narrative voice and judgment, captivity narratives not only demonstrate the supposed superiority of the captives culture but do so in a way that transcends social standing. And, by creating this transcendent white superiority, they then offer justification for the enslavement or subjugation of other inferior cultures, whatever the situation. I believe that this will be the key to my argument that Tyler undermines his own abolitionist position with subconscious identity politics.