Originally published on January 23, 2019 (Episode 95)
For centuries, the Mediterranean was as much a sea of captivity as of commerce. Along its shores, Muslim corsairs captured Italians, French, and Spaniards; while Christian raiders enslaved North Africans. Captives were ransomed or sold, and their plight created intricate networks of negotiation and communication that paradoxically bound together societies otherwise at war.
This is the argument of Daniel Hershenzon’s The Captive Sea: Slavery, Communication, and Commerce in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean. Hershenzon challenges the old story of the Mediterranean divided between “Christian” and “Muslim” worlds. Instead, he reveals how captivity linked communities across the sea, making it—unexpectedly—a shared cultural and economic space.
Our conversation explores how captivity was experienced by the enslaved and their families, how ransom became its own industry, and how commerce, war, and faith intersected in the lives of thousands. It’s a story that reshapes how we think about the early modern world, and forces us to confront the porousness of boundaries we assume were fixed.
About the Guest
Daniel Hershenzon is Associate Professor of Literature, Cultures, and Languages at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on early modern Spain, North Africa, and the Mediterranean, with particular attention to slavery, communication, and cultural contact. The Captive Sea (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) is his first book and has been widely praised as a landmark in Mediterranean studies.
For Further Investigation
Daniel Hershenzon, The Captive Sea: Slavery, Communication, and Commerce in Early Modern Spain and the Mediterranean (Penn, 2018)
Robert C. Davis, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500–1800 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Molly Greene, Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Mediterranean (Princeton, 2010)
Joshua M. White, Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean (Stanford, 2017)
Archivo de la Frontera—digital archive of Mediterranean captivity documents
Listen & Discuss
How did slavery and captivity function as both instruments of division and unexpected avenues of cultural exchange?
What can the business of ransom tell us about faith, family, and commerce in the early modern world?
In what ways does this history force us to rethink neat categories like “Christian” and “Muslim” Europe?
If you found this episode thought-provoking, pass it along—sharing history is one way to keep its lessons alive.
