I read an interesting book recently, which raised a lot of the issues we like to discuss here.
The book in question was Giles Milton's White Gold, published in 2005. It relates the experiences of an Englishman named Thomas Pellow, who was captured and sold into slavery by the Barbary pirates in 1715. Pellow was bought by Moulay Ismail, the Sultan of Morocco. White slaves with fair hair and blue eyes were considered especially valuable, because those traits were so rare in North Africa. Moreover, Pellow's high intelligence and mental resilience greatly impressed his captors. Pellow rose to a position of some authority as a slave soldier and palace official, eventually returning to England in 1738. He wrote a detailed account of his adventures entitled The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow in South-Barbary, which Milton uses as his primary reference source.
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| Anglo-American liberation propaganda |
Even today, the 'mainstream' Anglo-American media continually insinuates that the US, UK, Canada and Australia are bastions of sexual liberation, where all males (including one-eyed Indian janitors) are banging models three times a night. Anyone who questions these demented fictions is denied a public platform, while peer-reviewed research refuting the 'mainstream' narrative is conveniently shelved and ignored. The Anglo-American media also strives to denigrate all other cultures, despite innumerable expatriate Anglo males finding foreign lifestyles far more congenial than Anglo-American ones.
A detailed study of White Gold implies that the Anglo-Saxon world has been peddling these myths for centuries. It also suggests that expatriate Anglo males who experience the sex-positive values of foreign cultures usually become deeply attached to them.
Although White Gold is framed as a revisionist historical narrative critical of the Arab slave trade, Pellow relates that white male slaves enjoyed sexual freedoms unknown in their puritanical, misandrist homelands. For example, the sultan actively encouraged orgies and cross-racial sex among the slaves in his pleasure palace. Pellow himself asked the sultan for a wife of his own race, a petition duly granted. In short, many English 'slaves' preferred Morocco to England; little wonder, since they were enjoying levels of recreational sex and a social status they never knew 'back home'.
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| Don't be fooled: these guys were having a great time |
While JBW (Just Be White) is a popular meme in the Manosphere, any sexual advantage experienced by modern white males pales before that of the sultan's white male slaves. This is partly because the sultan was obsessed by whitening his slave stock; but also because a white male with low status in his native land could rise to high position as a Moroccan 'slave'. Indeed, Pellow was almost betrayed by such a high-ranking English slave-official while trying to flee Morocco. As with HMS Bounty, where none of the ship's crew wanted to return to England after savoring the sexual freedoms of Tahiti, many white 'slaves' preferred their prestigious lives in Morocco to the intolerable class distinction and sexual repression of their native land.
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| Anglosphere narratives: best taken with a pinch of salt |
Like most modern Anglo-American narratives, White Gold expends a lot of ink criticizing foreign cultures in general, and Islamic culture in particular. A strange perspective, considering that England and the Colonies were hardly 'silent movers' on the issue of slavery at this time. Milton fixates on the darker side of Islamic slavery, downplaying the dizzying sexual liberation enjoyed by the sultan's white slaves. All we hear about is arbitrary executions and the constant threat of death; as if early 18th century England (with its gin houses for the poor and public hangings for 'sedition') was an oasis of tolerance, equality and justice.
Consider this: if life as a white slave in Morocco was so bad, why did one of Pellow's fellow English slaves try to betray him? Moreover, why did so few white slaves attempt to escape their 'shackles'? Tellingly, Pellow never really adjusted to life back in England and died soon after publishing his memoir. Read between the lines and the lame old 'Anglosphere is best' narrative crumbles to dust, as usual.
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