This research seeks to explore the feminist dimensions of Susana Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers, or A Struggle for Freedom, from historicist and cultural materialist perspectives. More particularly, it looks at the play within the context of the politics of the early American republic to uncover how Rowson deploys the captivity of American sailors in Algiers (1785-1796) as a pretext to deconstrust the established gender power relations without hurting the sensibilities of her audience through her reference to the issue of slavery. The research will also attempt to uncover the many intertextual relationships that the play holds with the prevalent captivity culture of the day, ranging from the Indian captivity narratives, to sentimental literature, through Orientalist books such as Mathew Carey's A Short Account of Algiers. The final and third aspect of the research will place emphasis on the authorial and general ideologies informing female and male characterization as well as the displacement of the setting.