The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History

by Linda Colley

This is a book about a world in a life. Conceived in Jamaica and possibly mixed-race, Elizabeth Marsh (1735-1785) traveled farther and was more intimately affected by developments across the globe than the vast majority of men. She was the first woman to publish in English on Morocco, and the first to carry out extensive explorations in eastern and southern India. A creature of multiple frontiers, she spent time in London, Menorca, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Africa. She speculated in Florida land, was caught up in the French and Indian War, linked to voyages to the Pacific, and enmeshed as victim or owner in three different systems of slavery.
She was also crucially part of far larger histories. Marsh’s experiences would have been impossible without her links to the Royal Navy, the East India Company, imperial warfare, and widening international trade. To this extent, her career illumines shifting patterns of Western power and overseas aggression. Yet the unprecedented expansion of connections across continents occurring during her lifetime also ensured that her ideas and personal relationships were shaped repeatedly by events and people beyond by runaway African slaves; Indian weavers and astronomers; Sephardi Jewish traders; and the great Moroccan sultan, Sidi Muhammad, who schemed to entrap her.
Many biographies remain constrained by a national framework, while global histories are often impersonal. By contrast, in this dazzling and original book, Linda Colley moves repeatedly and questioningly between vast geopolitical transformations and the intricate detail of individual lives. This is a global biography for our globalizing times.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Travel, World History, Biography Memoir, Gender

363 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Linda Colley is Shelby M.C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a Long Term Fellow in History at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. She previously held chairs at Yale University and at the London School of Economics.

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author wrote, "In this book I have been concerned to examine how a momentous and disruptive period of global history was experienced by one extended family. I have sought to reveal the many and diverse connections that existed between 'impersonal and remote transformations' on the one hand and, on the other, 'the most intimate features of the human self'."

So, there you have it. He took Elizabeth Marsh, and her family, as his subjects. She lived from 1735-85. Based on his research, which included Elizabeth's Indian travel journal, an early manuscript of the book about Morocco that she published, and other archives, he has laid the timeline of her life next to the timeline of the world as a whole.

Unfortunately, I found this book to be boring. It's a good idea, but somehow it never really generated much enthusiasm. I did glean a few nuggets of info on how commerce was handled in that age, which was nice.

2 Stars = Blah. It didn't do anything for me.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the reviews here seem to be criticizing the book Colley didn't write. Yes, this is an academic work of history. Colley is a professor at Princeton, so to expect a work of pop history or journalism pretending to be history is foolish. As a historical study, it's very good. Colley uses the very interesting life of Elizabeth Marsh to explore the proto-globalization of the 18th-century British Empire. Marsh's reactions to foreign cultures in India and Morocco are interesting, as is her relationship with her husband. There's a lot of social and economic history here, and while it is very well written, if early modern trade patterns isn't your thing, this isn't the book for you.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be wary of the reviews of this book on Goodreads. In my opinion, The New York Times Book Review was much more sensible naming this one of their 10 Best Books of the Year for 2007.

Linda Colley’s The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh is an excellent historical account equal to the works of David McCullough and Ron Chernow. I can’t help but wonder if the lower rating and number of reviews has more to do with gender inequality than it does of Colley’s work.

During the 18th Century, Elizabeth Marsh, a sort of everyday woman, circumvented the globe during a time in which women had little power or authority over their lives. Colley, clearly a well-studied historian, oscillates between the details of Marsh’s life (as documented by diaries, books, records) and the larger global events of her time. Colley did infer some things about Marsh, but always noted these instances as such (as if they weren’t obvious in the first place.)

If you like seafaring tales, find the history of the 18th Century fascinating, and you believe in gender equality, this is an engaging and important account of a life and time.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems to me that this book was badly -- or erroneously -- marketed. At any rate, I'd expected from the reviews and jacket blurbs something far less academic, bordering on clinical, and something more entertaining instead. That's not to say The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh was not an interesting book in many ways; just that it required some adjustment in my expectations when it became quite clear a few chapters in that the book was never going to loosen its tightly-bound corset of academic proprieties.

I was puzzled, too, by the title. I'm not sure "ordeal" is the term I'd apply to Elizabeth Marsh's life. She was at one point held captive, and she certainly withstood discomfort during her many and varied peregrinations, but surely an "ordeal" connotes an unusual amount of suffering, while to my mind Elizabeth Marsh led a life of considerable interest, occasional luxury, and mostly robust health, all the while sheltered by her extensive network of kin and coming and going pretty much as she pleased. In the latter respect she was an unusual woman for her time.

There's much to be learned about the vicissitudes of empire and trade here, and in particular the workings of the East India Company, which I found particularly interesting. But there were also some rather tedious passages that speculated (always in a very circumspect academic manner) about why Elizabeth Marsh or James Crisp (her husband) did or didn't do this or that. Wherever there were lacunae in the scant documentation for Marsh's life, the author painstakingly constructed elaborate possibilities of what may or may not have happened to her or motivated her. This speculative part of the book was as tedious as it was scrupulous.

It was an interesting gambit, however, to use one woman (and her family's) life and waxing or waning fortunes to represent a microcosm of the British Empire, or, as the author mentions Galsworthy noting, "tracing the fortunes of a family's multiple members over time can be a good way of compressing and rendering history." I just wish the author had taken a more Galsworthy-esque tack and written something more along the lines of a novel and less along the lines of an academic treatise. And certainly it would have helped it if the book's publishers had been less anxious to promote it as a "dazzling and original" book and forthrightly presented it for was it was -- a rather stolid and extensively researched treatise on one woman's life in the midst of changing global fortunes and upheavals. But then, that would hardly have been a promising commercial prospect, I suppose, as the modern-day merchant class no doubt instantly perceived.

[Anfri Bogart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il titolo di questo libro farebbe pensare a una semplice biografia, mentre qui c'è molto di più. Raccontando la storia di una vita Linda Colley ricostruisce tutta un'epoca. Come dice lei stessa nell'epilogo, citando il romanziere John Galsworthy, "un modo per riassumere e rappresentare la storia di un paese può essere quello di ricostruire le sorti di una famiglia nel corso del tempo". La ricostruzione delle vicende storiche, economiche e sociali che viene fatta in questo libro è incredibilmente minuziosa e riguarda tutta la seconda metà del '700 nella prospettiva dell'espansione dell'Impero Britannico, per cui spazia su Americhe, Mediterraneo, Africa, India e sud-est asiatico. E poi c'è anche la storia umana incredibile di Elizabeth Marsh, non una viaggiatrice professionale alla maniera di Freya Stark, ma un'avventuriera un po' suo malgrado.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

In and of herself Elizabeth Marsh has little historical significance. She was not married to or related to any important historical figures; she played no major role in any wars, catastrophes, scandals, elections; her travels in Europe, North Africa and India, whilst unusual for a woman in her age, were not especially ground-breaking; in short, she has left little imprint on history. So why is she the subject of this book?

As Linda Colley herself argues, Elizabeth Marsh lived in and was affected by a number of momentous and far-reaching global historical developments - the rise of the British Empire, the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, the slave trade, the rise of globalization and interconnected world markets - all of which on their own are so large and momentous as to be almost beyond analysis except in abstract and almost Olympian terms. Taking this approach can encompass the bigger picture but it necessarily excludes the intimate human dimension.

Few of us think of our lives in terms of global events and developments - our own personal worldviews are too narrow and limited to see much beyond our own small sphere, but that doesn't mean we aren't profoundly and irremediably affected nonetheless. Elizabeth Marsh's life allows us to see the impact of eighteenth century historical developments on that micro level, of how far-distant world events could determine the course of the life of one woman and her extended family, caught up in events beyond their control and understanding.

I found this an interesting read, one that held my attention throughout. Elizabeth Marsh rarely comes across as little more than a cipher - there is too little historical trace of her as an individual to really get a sense of her personality - but it is as a cipher for larger issues that is the main purpose of this book. In that sense, it is not really about Elizabeth Marsh at all.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely thorough, engaging history. It really brought the time period (1750-90 or so) alive in a new way for me. A nice break from my usual fiction reading.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

In journalism, there's a saying: Show, don't tell. Sometimes I think other disciplines could learn from this. There is no question the author conducted an inordinate amount of research and pieced together information from multiple continents. The book's concept is fascinating -- using the life of an 18th-century woman to explore/explain colonialism, the rise of the British navy, slavery, free trade, revolution, women's roles. But the overall execution left much to be desired. There are parts, particularly in the second half of the book, that are absolutely fascinating. Unfortunately, the book is marred by a lengthy introduction and conclusion where the author explicitly tells her purpose in writing the book and attempts to illustrate how she met her purpose -- common in academic writing but a pet peeve of mine. It ends up distracting from the fascinating life of the main character. Also, the first half of the book could use some serious editing where the author jarringly jumps from past to present tense, and even occasionally future tense with no apparent rhyme or reason.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a fascinating, if somewhat unappealing, woman in the eighteenth century who is simultaneously addicted to and constantly chafes under the social expectations of a "lady." Marsh's chronic restlessness made me wonder to what degree impatience can pass for courage, as one's inability to wait around, to see things out, ultimately dims the potential dangers of potentially premature action. Marsh was certainly reckless, but her appetite for life, for action, for success - although her definition of that was ambiguous and elusive - was both fascinating and melancholy. Colley's ability to tie Marsh's life to expose both its expanse and its limits to the larger global happenings sweeping the world in the eighteenth century was brilliant, and the book's ending was unusually good.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, the three-and-a-half stars people are wack. This is a first-rate history of a peripatetic female Zelig of the late eighteenth century, one of those "just a person"s who found herself on the tides of history and washed up on three different continents. Colley does amazing things with a very limited set of sources that are directly about Elizabeth Marsh (we don't even know what she looked like -- no painting or even written description). And Jane Scimeca, I think you would LOVE this book, given your interests in women's and world history -- this is the ideal intersection of those two passions.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following in the tradition of Natalie Zemon Davis, Colley looks at the life of one woman, Elizabeth Marsh as a way to explain her relationship to empire and how empire impacted her life. Colley's biography traces Marsh's life in the Royal Navy from the Caribbean to Britain and finally to British India. Not only a fascinating story but a beautifully written book.

"In this and other respects, the near contemporary whom Elizabeth March most closely resembles i Olaudah Equiano (c.1745-97), the one-time slave of African descent who, by way of his writings and travels, made himself 'a citizen of the world,' as well as an African and a Briton. It is telling that both Elizabeth and Olaudah were connected with the Royal Navy, with the slave trade, and with print; and they were alike too in their urge repeatedly to re-invent themselves." xxiii

"Travel writing, like the novel, focuses on 'the centrality of the self,...: 138

"Nonetheless, Indian cotton had already become 'the only textile that can be said to have been integral to the global trading system.'" 176

"In parts of the Americas, Asia, Northern Africa, and within Europe itself, levels of taxation and other fiscal duties were rising at this time, and so were serious protests against them. Growing competition and conflict between states, and a 'pre-industrial arms race in which fiscal strength was as essential to military power as advances in strategy and technology,' had made rulers ever more hungry for additional revenue." 243

"Wills are compact autobiographies, condensed accounts not just of individuals' levels of wealth or poverty, but also of their primary concerns in life, of their networks of intimates, and of intimacy's limits." 259

"But the Sephardim, who had flourished during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries because of their capacity and willingness to bridge different societies and cultures, were also in evident commercial decline by 1800. With few conspicuous exceptions, their role as intermediaries was no longer so valued-or so possible-in a world characterized by more bureaucratic, and more aggressive, imperial and nation states." 298

[John Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colley takes one woman's life as a way to enter the history of the British Empire, the rise of the British Navy, Islamic-Christian relations in the Mediterranean, and other aspects of life in the 18th century. The family of Elizabeth Marsh (1735-1785), on her father's side, had a long history of working as merchants, as customs and port administrators, and in the navy. (Little is known about her mother.) That helps explain how some of the most fascinating incidents of Marsh's life took place, when she is taken prisoner by the sultan of Marrakech (the basis of her own book, The Female Captive) en route from Gibraltar back to England, and then her travels in India when her husband was based in Dhaka working as an agent overseeing salt production for the East India Company.

I did glance at a few of the less positive ratings here, and a common theme seems to be disappointment with the book's pacing. It is not written like a historical novel. Large portions of it recount the history of colonial settlements in Florida, the social life of Europeans in India, and other aspects of British politics and culture in the 18th century. Marsh is, for Colley, a way into this period in history, but the book is as much about the period itself as it is about Marsh. For me, at least, that made the book richer than if it were simply a page-turning account of one unusual woman's life. (Though others, it appears, picked the book up hoping for something different.)

[QOH · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently read a scholarly work of naval-social history that raked the author of this book, Linda Colley, over the coals for no good reason that I could ascertain. It was really unseemly, and it wasn't based upon this book, but her book BRITONS. *My* annoyance with the good professor is that in addition to a tedious lecture about feminism and HIStory (yes, and I do have two X chromosomes) to start out with--as if chastising the reader for women's lack of control of their lives in Georgian England--this is a well-researched and interesting story that could have been riveting...but it wasn't. I'm going to be blunt and just say: it was very dull. It either needed to be heavily pruned, heavily reorganized, or heavily sat upon until it was a reasonable size.

What this book really needed was a novelist to come in and say, look, you're going about this all wrong, or at least half-wrong. Instead of plodding through Elizabeth Marsh Crisp's (pardon me for tacking on her married name) life, let's rewrite it to have some suspense, some intrigue. An editor ought to have done this, but an editor didn't or Professor Colley didn't allow it. It's a shame.

[Robert Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read more books like this...

Fantastic Read. It's also a tremendously clever project. It nicely bridges the gaps between two types of history. The choice of subject is inspired, and the detective work that must have been require to put this together is awe-inspiring. The writing and execution is pretty much flawless as well.

It's been awhile since I've swam in historiography, but as I understand it there's a bit of tension between two different schools of historical research at the moment. There's micro and macro. Some folks are heading in a social research direction. The argument is that we can't really know history with out delving deep into the lived experiences of actual people. The caricature of this would be an academic who spends their entire career teasing out what it was like to be a factory worker in Northern Connecticut between June 1890 and September 1894 or something.

Some other folks are moving towards more Macro history, trying to get beyond the histories of individual nation states, and to the economic and social forces that make whole

[Doina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this for an English class, and I have to say it was really hard to get through it. It would have been easier if it was considered a novel, as opposed to a historical account. This is by no stretch of the imagination a historical account. Why? Maybe because it does not present a lot of information that the author is basing her writing on. There is no doubt that she did a lot of research for this, but she did not really show it to us. I kept wanting to scream at her to give us the primary source so we can see it too. For a historian, she is also not shy about leading the readers in a definite direction, and using her writing to prove a certain point. There goes objectivity out the window. And let's not talk about the ending. I will not say anything here because I don't want to spoil it for people, but really? Did she seriously end it like that?

Anyway, it's an enjoyable read as a novel, or as a slanted biography, but not as a historical account.

[Candace · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could have been a really interesting book, but it's style undercuts the content; the author is obviously used to writing papers for academic journals, and has no handle on making dry facts fun to read. She also tells us several times that she's made or is making points that aren't really supported by the text, though they could have been if the book was better written.
I wouldn't suggest it as a good read; I'm taking my copy to the used bookstore to see if I can trade it for somethign worthwhile.

[Amydebolt DeBolt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sounded so interesting...and yet it was so dull. If you want to read a tedious research paper with snippets of an interesting woman's life mentioned once in awhile, this is a great book. If you're looking for more excitement, find something else to read...like the newspaper's business section.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry. I think it would make a great subject for the newer biographical fiction pieces that keep popping up, but as a biography, it read like a colonial Leviticus/Numbers book.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not compelling. This is a scholarly work with some correspondingly impenetrable text, but it is worth persevering for the light it sheds on a fascinating subject in the form of Elizabeth Marsh and the world in which she lived.

An obscure woman from a naval family, she had access to the means of travelling the globe which she did at a time when it was unusual for unaccompanied women to do so. Her experiences in Morocco, Menorca, and India are fascinating, and are put in context by the growth of British naval power, the British Empire and the East India Company.

Colley manages to pull together the threads of this interesting woman's life through her occasional journals and those of other family members. Elizabeth Marsh's sheer courage and determination to take care of herself and provide for her children are admirable, especially given her rather modest background and education. It is also an excellent example of how important family and business connections were at a time when international travel was a far more hazardous enterprise. A good read, but not always easy going.

[nia · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fascinating look at how shifting power structures and intercontinental conflicts affected one woman's life and family throughout the 1700s. the titular marsh grew up in a maritime family and received all of the unique benefits accompanying such a status. throughout her life, she had easy access to transportation and traveled across the globe multiple times, often independent of a husband or indeed any other kind of male figures to support her in doing so. marsh lived almost entirely according to her own terms, and although she faced immense suffering in her lifetime, she rarely took any of it lying down. my one criticism is that colley does not have a particular talent for delving into the more dramatic aspects of marsh's life and times; she doesn't wish to speculate, a concern which i understand but wish had been ignored. i wanted the TEA and i didn't get much of it. a good read overall if you have a solid chunk of time to work through it!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History / Linda Colley. Elizabeth Marsh, 1735-1785, was an English woman (and writer) who was conceived in Jamaica, born in England, lived on the British holdings in the Mediterranean and in London and elsewhere in England, and died in India. Her travels took her to other continents, most dramatically to Morocco in Africa. Colley’s very extensive research pertaining to the Marsh family and to the 16th century is evident throughout the book. She focuses particularly on the lives of women in what I would call ambitious, bourgeois families. It is a serious historical work, always maintaining a scholarly distance from Elizabeth, but, of course, illuminating the culture through her experiences and desires.

[Anne Wellman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because there are so few sources about women in the eighteenth century, the author is honest in admitting that she had little to draw upon in this biography. It is therefore rich in historical detail, but thin on Elizabeth. Unfortunately, the author makes up for this by imputing thoughts, motives and actions to her subject which appear to be more or less made up, and always through a twenty first century lens - no references given for frequent statements that Elizabeth was thinking or feeling a certain thing, or driven to a particular action for a certain reason. Such statements are merely the author's opinion, not facts. Invention is not biography, however well researched the historical background.

[Lucia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one I stuck through and wish I didn't. It was awkwardly written and went off on tangents that did not add much to the narrative. The author made a lot of assumptions about what the people would have felt and thought without much justification for why ("she probably...."). I came away from this biography without much sense of the person who it was supposed to centre around and very little idea of why she was significant enough to write a book about. She didn't seem to achieve much other than using male relations to travel. The book seemed as much about tidbits of maritime history and the family members as it was about here. I get the sense the author was trying to make a statement about colonialism and the British empire, but it's really not clear what that statement is.

[Jaclynn Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my British History course and oh my lord, this book was amazing. It was so well written and it tied neatly together. Elizabeth Marsh’s life defies many modern ideas of what the British Empire was like in the 18th century. Although there is the terrible acts and events surrounding imperialism (which I believe should have been emphasized more) are mentioned, Elizabeth’s position during these moments gave an inside view on an imperfect woman. She is tied to the choices and behaviors of the men in her life, yet she openly decides to defy there wishes and enact her own freedoms. Fantastic read, and I loved how happy my professor was when we discussed how good this book was.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up on this book. I just got too irritated the third or fourth time the author said that except for the documentation of Elizabeth Marsh traveling there would be no mention of her in history, and then for the next hundred pages discuss the minutiae of her husband's business. The information about her engagement being broken because her ship was taken by Moroccan corsairs was interesting and then right back to discussing in detail her husband's business. I wonder how the crushing weight of the patriarchy came into being?

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Marsh (1735 - 1785) was born in England, spent time growing up in Menorca and was captured by Moroccan corsairs. Her husband was a petty smuggler who eventually went to India. She followed him there and later spent 18 months travelling from Madras to Calcutta without him. Quite an adventurous lady. Unfortunately she didn't leave a lot of records so her story is mostly told through information provided by relatives and through historical events of the period. The book was ok, not great.

[Jindřich Zapletal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a scholarly book illustrating the ways of the British empire of mid-18th century on the colorful life story of Elizabeth Marsh and her family. It is a great work of micro-history, social history, and women's history. Together with its extensive bibliography, it provided an irreplaceable piece of mosaic of the times for me.

If the subject matter is not your thing, you may have difficult time appreciating Colley's incredible erudition and the amount of work that went into this book. It does get a bit long towards the end.

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of Elizabeth Marsh and her family is interesting, but in my opinion, all the historical facts were distracting. I was expecting it to read like a novel, but that's not what this book is. Also, I was disappointed by the choices Ms. Marsh made. She seemed self centered and from what I could see, wasn't a very nice person. Things might have been different had the cultural expectations of the times been different.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite an interesting read! A well-researched account of a remarkable woman who traveled the world at a time when globalization, and women traveling, looked very different than it does today.

I found most of this to be quite engaging, though it did slow down at a few points. As for content concerns, nothing major that I can remember although it does address slavery (including concubines).

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would not have read this if it were for my history Professor requiring it, and I'm not sure I would have chosen to read it had I known it existed. But now having read it, I know way more than I ever thought I would about a random woman in history's male relatives and her relative's male relatives.