As a historian, my historical romance novels have a firm grounding in reality.
The settings, the events, the feel can be traced through research and research
and research of the period, of the people, of events.
In THE WICKED
BARGAIN, Ethan’s story of being taken by the Barbary Pirates and sold
into slavery in the Middle East is based on fact. The Barbary Pirates exist even
to this day. These are not the pirates like we love in Pirates of the Caribbean,
nor even Black Sails or the latest Crossbones. Pirating for hundreds of years,
they strike fear into any ship they come close to. They raid, seize control of
the ship, take prisoners and loot only to sell the people into slavery. History
also shows they have arrived and landed on Greece, Italy, Sicily, Spain and up
to the British Isles. They leech off the close seaside inhabitants, kidnapping
them at night to make a profit off them to buyers in the Arabia and elsewhere.
The Western European powers and the United States found the way to be left alone
is to pay the pirates a bribe to do so, or, in Great Britain’s power, a
well-armed navy escort protected traders and merchantmen. By the beginning of
the 19th century, America and England began to fight back. Under
President Thomas Jefferson, the small navy of the US attacked Barbary pirate’s
homeports, demanding free sailing without paying a bribe and won because they
were set to burn the pirates’ homes. England, as number one sea power of the
world, also stopped Barbary raids and the end to stealing freemen for slavery by
1840.
Ethan, our hero in THE
WICKED BARGAIN, had his future changed before the Royal Navy had the
ability to save him and others. Slavery in the Middle East was vast. The exact
numbers are not known, as the Muslims considered the Westerners and Africans and
any others they bought as the infidel and of little importance. The estimated
numbers of Americans and Western Europeans enslaved in a 200-year frame up to
1840 is 1.25 million souls. They were sold, thrown into intense labor, hardly
fed, little cared for and instantly replaced when they died of malnutrition,
beatings, and illness or from being physically destroyed by the labor. The scene
Ethan recalls in the story is based on factual basis of stories told by those
who escaped or were ransomed (wealthy lords were ransomed – a rather slow and
tedious process to extract the most; ladies thrown into harems were never
ransomed but condemned to life there).
To learn just how this can change a man, I invite you to read Ethan’s story in
THE WICKED
BARGAIN, coming June 19 from Turquoise Morning Press.
London 1816
Haunted by a past as a sex slave, nobleman Ethan Warth returns to England as a
male courtesan for rich matrons and runs a brothel for wealthy lords. Arabella
Covington appears on his door, trained in the medical arts but unable to
practice because of her gender. He hires her to care for his ladies but her
inquisitive nature and beauty make him desire to teach her the world of seduction.
Ethan, however, never counted on falling in love…
5 comments posted.
Wonderful blog, Gina!! It's amazing how many people were taken. Tweeted and shared.
(Ella Quinn 8:59am June 18, 2014)