Ordeal notes

Background

Slave trade and globalization accompany the background of the Seven Years War as Colley
effectively sets her case study of Elizabeth Marsh alongside a global scale

Global travel from the eastern India to the Cape of Africa and Rio de Janeiro, Marsh _

her ship was attacked by Moroccan pirates. Elizabeth was taken captive to Meknas, where she
remained until the end of November. The story of her captivity, which she wrote and published
anonymously in London in 1769 as The Female Captive, is unique in English, being the first account
by a woman of captivity in North Africa.

Sensitively approaches the topic of The Female Captive in order REWORDto explore the emotional
and psychological state of the deserted wife.

Rightfully called ‘Ordeal’ in title due to painful experiences e.g. husband dying while travelling from
England to India

Moves REWORD to the colonies of expatriates living in the trading centers of India. In 1771, “only
eighty-five women and children classified as European were listed as residing there” (164)

Extensive archival research – FIND

Addresses sheer size, cruelty, and commerce of the British Empire – an expansion from (FIND PREV
BOOK)

This work utilizes themes concerning the notion of an expansive empire that contemporaneous
publications, such as Alison Games’ 2008 The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of
Expansion, 1560–1660 and Miles Ogborn’s 2008 Global Lives: Britain and the World, 1550–1800,
would also ground their research in. Colley diverts from this path by _

REWORDolley importantly reminds the reader that while the empire made Marsh’s life possible and
so full of turmoil, it also generated “the story of a woman who was more, of course, than the puppet
of impersonal forces” and not to be viewed purely as a victim (300) –

desperate need for “English” (that is, ironically, mainly Asian) spices to Anglicize the Moroccan food
offered by her captors (55–56). FIND and REWORD .

Quotes

Elizabeth Marsh would not have been of interest to historians had her life not reflected the British
imperialism that ruled the waves from the second half of the eighteenth century on. Nor would she
have deserved a full-length study, “unsophisticated but not unperceptive woman” (xxxi) that she
was, had she not left behind writings unique in their originality and detail. For Colley, Marsh was
important not only as a venturesome, defiant, and articulate woman but also as a representative of
the new generation of Britons involved in “transoceanic and transcontinental commerce” (xxiii).
Elizabeth “was caught up again in the flux of transcontinental events and contacts. Slavery, the sea,
empire, war and the ambitions of contending states had brought her into being and shaped her
experiences across three continents” (89)—America, Europe, and North Africa.

REWORColley importantly reminds the reader that while the empire made Marsh’s life possible and
so full of turmoil, it also generated “the story of a woman who was more, of course, than the puppet
of impersonal forces” and not to be viewed purely as a victim (300) –

Themes