This chapter investigates the rhetorical strategies and emotional appeals in letters written by enslaved Swedish seamen in North Africa between the seventeenth century and the mid-eighteenth century. Addressed to recipients such as the Swedish king, state officials, and family members, these so-called slave letters were shaped by the status and perceived influence of the addressee. Letters to the monarch invoked divine justice and royal duty; those to officials stressed loyalty and hardship; messages to kin were more personal, often marked by emotional intensity and pleas for redemption. The chapter also examines the practical challenges of communication in captivity—long distances, uncertain delivery routes, and the threat of interception. Despite these barriers, captives sought to maintain contact, asserting their presence within early modern systems of diplomacy and state administration. Drawing on a combination of ego-documents and administrative sources, including slave registers and ransom records, the chapter reconstructs the communicative and social world of Swedish captives in Algiers and Morocco. In doing so, it contributes to a growing historiography that highlights the agency of enslaved individuals—not only as passive victims but as strategic actors who negotiated their status and appealed for freedom through written words.