White Gold

In 1716, eleven-year-old Thomas Pellow was captured at sea by corsairs and taken to Morocco, where he entered a system that enslaved Europeans seized from ships and coastal communities. He was forced to convert to Islam and eventually served within the forces of Sultan Moulay Ismail. Giles Milton reconstructs Pellow’s changing status through his later account while setting his experience beside those of other captives held for labour, military service or ransom.

Pellow remained in Morocco for more than two decades before escaping and returning to England. The book follows both his survival and the wider networks of corsair raiding, slave markets, diplomatic negotiation and religious redemption that connected North Africa with European states. It distinguishes the specific conditions of Mediterranean captivity from Atlantic plantation slavery while showing how violence, coercion and uncertain identity shaped the lives of captives on both sides of the sea.