An Authentic Narrative of the Shipwreck and Sufferings of Mrs. Eliza Bradley was first published in 1820 and presented to the public as a true story written by the novel’s eponymous English narrator, Eliza Bradley. The text is an account of her experiences in captivity after she is shipwrecked along the North-African coast and taken captive by North-African pirates for six months. Upon entering the city of Mogadore, Bradley is eventually rescued by a British consul named Mr. Wilshire. The narrative is heavily informed by Bradley’s devout religious beliefs and against all odds, she emerges unscathed and unharmed by any violations to her religious morality. While this anthology does not include Bradley’s complete narrative account, the selected pages are intended to highlight relevant passages that contribute to the technofeminist goals of this anthology.

To be taken to an external source to access the complete text, click here.

The text's context within American literary history is situated in the midst of a period of increased exploration and maritime travel which produced literature that transcended geopolitical boundaries and took on a transoceanic and transcultural nature. Piggybacking on the sensationalism of New World exploration literature, shipwreck and captivity narratives from all areas of the New World became extremely popular in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries largely due to their sensationally descriptive accounts of indigenous people and their culture. However, within this genre exists a sub-genre of captivity narratives specifically written by and about devoutly religious women in New England. Mary Rowlandson is often considered the originator of the genre following the publication of A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson in 1682. Other notable authors of this genre include Maria Martin and Ann Saunders. Mary Rowlandson, however, is most significant here because contemporary scholarship that surveys the historical context of her narrative has revealed that the publication of her text was made possible by support from the Puritan ministerial elite, including ministers Increase and Cotton Mather. This well-supported argument asserts that Rowlandson's narrative established women's writing as a cultural tool to subvert religious messages about the role of women within Puritan society.

It is important to note that this specific copy of Eliza Bradley’s An Authentic Narrative is from 1820 and in the text's preface, it is described as "The American Edition." This publishers claim that this edition has been printed verbatim from Bradley’s original manuscript and is consistent with other English editions. However, since Keith Huntress’s recovery and republication of an edited edition of the text in 1985, there has been no evidence that supports or even suggests the existence of any other edition other than the American ones published between 1820 and 1848 (Huntress 7). As it is noted by this selection’s respective thematic tags, this anthology analyzes An Authentic Narrative as a form of didactic literature. Like Rowlandson's narrative, Bradley's is analyze here as a cultural tool that was used to disseminate political, cultural, and religious messages to the American public. 
Didactic literature aims to teach its audience something and some didactic literature is written with a specific audience in mind. In the case of An Authentic Narrative, the publishers make it very clear in the novel's preface that the text was intended to be read by women. This is seen in the excerpt from the text's preface included here. At the same time, the text very obviously contains a religious message. As you read the excerpts that follow this introduction, take note of what messages the narrative is trying to convey. Does it instruct its female readers to behave in a certain way? What worldview does the text construct for Bradley and its female audience? These questions are important to keep in mind as you read An Authentic Narrative along with the other selections in the anthology.

Bradley's narrative is speculated to have been especially popular, which can be attested in this newspaper clipping from a January 1828 issue of the Maryland "Torch Light" shown here. The article is an advertisement for a wax figure exhibition that features notable figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, and Joan of Arc. Interestingly enough, Bradley is featured alongside these figures, which implies that she held some significant degree of cultural importance and popularity. However, what is even more revealing here is that Bradley also appears in this exhibit alongside some popular fictional characters of the time, such as Charlotte Temple and Lady Helen Mar (DiBoise et al.). Considering that Bradley has more in common with these fictional characters than she does the real, historic ones, this supports the argument that Bradley was most likely fictional.

The contemporary discourse on Bradley's narrative is focused almost entirely on the text's contested authenticity and the author's debated existence. This is largely due to the fact that entire sections of the narrative are directly plagiarized from James Riley's 1817 narrative entitled, Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce, which, like Bradley's narrative, tells the story of the author's survival through his captivity into a North-African tribe following a shipwreck. Unlike Bradley, however, Riley's narrative did not fall out of circulation and is thought to have been one of the most popular texts of its time. The text was even praised by notable individuals such as Henry David Thoreau and President Abraham Lincoln (Davis).

To be taken to an external source to to explore more information on Riley, click here.

If we agree with the assertion that Eliza Bradley did not actually exist, then it is reasonable to argue that An Authentic Narrative was most likely authored by a man. But why include it in this feminist anthology? The answer is quite complex.

This annotated selection and provided context attempt to answer this in part by placing Bradley in a genre alongside women writers such as Mary Rowlandson. By doing this, we begin to identify a genre of didactic literature that offers remarkable insight into how the societal role and expectations of religious women in New England evolved during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. At the same time, we are able to understand how women may have interacted with and received the literature of their time. More importantly, however, we are able to better understand what criteria constituted valid literature when it was authored by women in order to better understand and address certain gendered gaps in the canon. We are also able to better understand the cultural role of literature in the beginning of American literary history as well as the place of women within the discipline. All of this lends itself to a feminist approach that informs new ways to revise and correct the linear, patriarchal view of American literary history and the canon. While texts such as Bradley's might have been written by men, they were presented as having been authored by women. But, it is perhaps most important to acknowledge that texts like Bradley's were written for women and ask how the recovery of these texts contribute to our understanding of women's writing.

Aside from the role of An Authentic Narrative as didactic literature with a religious message intended for women, our annotations also explore the way race is constructed through the text. What does the specific language used to describe Bradley's captors reveal about the cultural moment in which the text was produced? Does the text inform women to think a certain way about indigenous people? Does the text explore the role of women in indigenous cultures, if yes, what do you think it is trying to say? These questions, along with the others suggested in the previous paragraphs, are important to keep in mind as you read the following excerpts.