11 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2015
    1. rom the time of our shipwreck, he was never heard once to murmur : but by prccep,t and example, endeavored to keep up the ~pirits of tboljC who had as liule cause to murmur a!! himself-for my own part, the misi-!'ies that I had endured since that melancholly event, had afforded me but little leisure to reflect upon the situation of any one bt_lt myself.

      Bradley's description of her husband shows how she relies on him for survival, she continuously refers to him as her "dear" husband and describes everything he does in the first section as heroic.

    2. My &ituation was not so uncom-fortable as might be imagined, as they have aad· · dlea constructed to suit the backs of these animals, and on which a per5on may ride with tolerable ease -the saddle is pla,ed on the ramel's back before the hump, and 5ecured by a rope under his "elly.

      Riding a camel was one of the most uncomfortable things I ever done, however it is much more favorable, I imagine, than walking through the desert on foot for days. Therefore, I find it ironic that she choses to follow her master's description as monstrous with this act of kindness on his part

    3. He was about 5ix feet in height, of a tawny complexion, and haJ no other clothing than a piece of wookn cloth wrapped round his body, and which exrended from below his bt·east to his knees : his hair was stout <v.~d bushy, and stuck up in every direction like brus· tles upon the b?.ck of a hog; his eyes were smal! but were 1ed and fiery, reaembling those of a 5er-pent when in·itated ; and to add to his horrid ap· pearance, his beard (which was of a jet black and cutly) was of more than a foot in length !--such I a1sure the reader is a true description of the mon-ster, in human swape, by whom l was doomed to be held in servitude,

      Bradley's first descirption of her "master" as a monster

    4. inform• $d us that they had been pursued by a party of tb.e natives (some of whom were mounted on caraela) and that they were then but a short distance froa us l they had scarcely finished their story, when .a dreadful yeil announced the arrival of their pursv· crs ! Thei1· appearance indeed waa fri~htful, being· nea~ly naked, and armed with muskets, spears andr: 3cimetars.

      This description is so dramatized that it is laughable. Bradley's description the Arabs to me seems to sound all too familiar with that of the Native Americans, which are blended in american culture due to the discourse of the captivity genre

    5. my poor hus-band, and his companions, was howe\·er still worse

      Until this point Bradley had always referred to her husband as "dear," but as his situation grows more and more hopeless and she can no longer depend on him for support and protection, Bradley's depiction becomes increasingly pathetic, while her faith in God grows stronger and stronger.

    6. I then 1 epeated the two following texts of scripture-" I ~h~ll not dte but live: And dccl<~.re the wotl<s of the Lord. 'Psalms ex' iii 17.-" \V hy art thou C'lst dr,w.n. () mv soul ? And why an thou disquiut·d with me ? Hope thou ir. God: for I shall yet prai~e him. who is the health of my cour.ten3.nce, at,d my God." Psalm:; xiii. II.

      I found it interesting that she includes these passages from the bible and makes it seem as if she had the memorized, adding to the persistent underlying theme of Bradley's religiousness.

    7. The camel was; now dres11eu by the Arabs in much the same manner as the Europeans dress a butcher· td ox ; but there was not 3 par;icle of any thing· belonging to the carcaee, but was esteemed of too much \'alue to be wasted : eren the hide and entrails were carefully p1·eser"ed

      She describes the camel in comparison with an animal she is rather familiar with seeing because she has most likely never really saw one, but then makes a culturally valid comment of Arab customs and their resourcefulness.

    8. I cerived more comfort :n'Jrc sweet con~ola•ion, secluded aa I was from the ~ivilizcd \Tor!d, than the most fashional>lc amme• ments of the most populous cities in Europe, cuuid have afforded me ! Ah, ye fair ones of Brit~.in, 'vho :loat on the parade of public assemblies, and sail a-long in the full blown pride of fashionable attire, of which the least appenddge or chcurristance must :lvt be discomposed ; thoughtles!l of human woe

      It is interesting to note the shift in sentiments towards life and culture of the Barbary coast. Bradley has spent most of the narrative referring to the land as only desert adding the the dismal of her situation, but here she is commenting that the Barbary coast could actually be a pleasant place.

    9. The Arabs hlve a plurality of wives to \Vhom they are ,·ery se,.ere ar,d cruc·l, extrci:dng as much au• thority o;·er tht.m as mer their sL.!\I:s, ar·d compel-ling them to perform the m~antst dnulbeJ r-th<.'ir husbands conside1· them as their i;;ieliors, as ~~ings without suu!~, and nil! 110l pumit tht:m t" join in theil' devotions. \V hile engaged in \Havin1; tl•f.y carry their i!Jfant chilc!J·cn on t3t:•· h.tlks, which are ~e· ~uretl by a fo!d of a pit:.::c rf c,•)th, which tht.y wt>a!' for the purpose over thc:i•· ~!J~to!Jers

      An interesting depiction of Arab women and culture here. It had consistently been an issue when speaking of Muslim culture to view the women as doubly supressed-by men of their own culture and western culture in general. However, in the nineteenth-century context, I feel that this passage is a more direct reflection of female oppression in America. As discussed in chapter 4, this image of the barbary women as captives is an influence of the abolitionists' and women's rights movement

    10. Th~t he had done all ir: his powtr to persuade his master to put chase me, to prevent our seperation, but without ~ny succfss; his master inform:ng him that my my master could not be persuaded w pan with me,· as he well knew that the English Consul would pay double pri<.e for the redem pth;n of a female captive ; that ht: then by signs gave him to under• atand that the lem<~le capti"e wa' hi!> wife, and that that the Consul would give him four times the ~um fc1 the redemption ol botn together, (that they might be each other's compat·y to their own cvU<•try) than he would to be obiigf:Ll o redeem them sepe:·ately 'it ditfeu!r.t perh>C:s: but bii'ma~ter could not be persuaded enher to pu rc hasc n1e or to pa1 t \\ ith him,

      I found it interesting here that Bradley is implying that her husband seemed to have a full one-on-one conversation with his master, while she simultaneously been describing the arabs of monsters, using only their fingers to point at things as communication. While Cpt. Bradley may quite a bit of knowledge regarding the topic, it seems unlikely that the Arabs spoke English or that he spoke Arabic and were able to have such an informative and in depth conversation regarding the topic.

    11. indeed every hour now :oeemed to throw a deeper gloom over our fate.

      In this first section, it is the somewhat long and drawn tale of shipwreck that ends with capture that we see repeated in nearly every Barbary captivity narrative, revealing the intertextuality of the genre. Bradley's language here seems very desperate as her and the crew grow more and more hopeless in their search for food and drinkable water.