- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; First Edition edition (7 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340794690
- ISBN-13: 978-0340794692
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
176,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #26 in Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Slavery
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Writer and journalist Giles Milton specializes in the history of travel and exploration. His latest literary adventure, White Gold, is the story of Thomas Pellow, a Cornish cabin boy who was captured at sea by a group of fanatical Islamic slave traders—the Barbary corsairs, taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Salè in Morocco and sold to the highest bidder. Pellow’s purchaser happened to be the tyrannical sultan of Morroco, Moulay Ismail, a man committed to building a vast imperial pleasure palace of unsurpassable splendour built entirely by Christian slave labour. After enduring long periods of torture Pellow converted to Islam and became the personal slave of the sultan for over two decades—including a stint as a soldier in the sultan’s army—before finally making a dramatic escape and return to Cornwall. The account is supported by the unpublished letters and manuscripts of slaves and the various ambassadors sent to free them. This is an excellently written account of the history of the white slave trade. Pellow’s story is an extraordinary one but the real interest lies in the picture Milton builds of life in the slave pens and especially of daily life at the court of the spectacularly barbaric Moulay Ismail. --Larry Brown
Independent on Sunday on NATHANIEL's NUTMEG
‘A magnificent piece of popular history'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional Work!,
By Neil Limbert (Sheffield, S.Yorkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves (Hardcover)
Brilliant research and background work bring to life the story of Morocco's White slave trade. Milton has the skill of a novelist and manages to engage the reader immediately. His stories of Barbary corsairs sailing with inpunity up and down the English channel during the 17th century is incredible-particularly the year when they established a slave gathering base on Lundy Island. He estimates over 1 million European slaves were taken. He centralises his story around Thomas Pellow who endured 23 years in captivity before escaping.I thoroughly recommend this book to all lovers of well written history.It fills a gap in our knowledge.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not his best, but still enthralling,
By
This review is from: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves (Paperback)
I have been a huge fan of Milton since Nathaniels Nutmeg, which was a phenomenal story. The whole point of his books are to take periods of history, little understood, and create a vivid story. It would be wrong to say it reads like fiction, because one is fully aware you are reading a book of history, but it is told with so much enthusiasm and poise as to make it eminently readable.
The story, as one would guess, is of the little known tale of white slaves that were captured bu the Barbary corsairs and sold to such places as Morocco and Algiers (Algeria). It goes into graphic detail about the conditions and brutality they endured, and the cruelty of their owners, particularly a despotic sultan of Morocco. I mean, you couldn't make up moulay Ismail, a brutal and ruthless villain, who was so unpredictable he could sometimes forgive even treason. The character we follow is a chap called Thomas Pellow, captured at 11, and subjected to 23 years (ish) slavery. It follows his beatings, his enforced conversion to Islam, his rise in authority in the grandiose palace of Meknes, to when he even defied the Sultan yet lived. He then became a renegade, and thought in an army of such people, and made numerous desperate escape attempts. Utterley absorbing. We follow sieges, naval battles, tortures, awful executions, daring emissaries, desperate escapes, betrayals. You couldn't ask for much more. If you like your history fast paced and bloody, this is for you.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
what a book,
This review is from: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves (Hardcover)
captivating story,pardon the pun.this book really is an amazingstory of human endurance through the most horrific experiences fate could throw at anyone,it also gave me an insight into how the muslim world of north africa held christianity in hatred and contempt.the tale of thomas pellow captured by barbary pirates and his servitude under a cruel and sadistic ruler is a truly remarkable and nightmarish journey told at a terrific pace but still manages to pack in masses of historical facts and insight into numerous locations and characters.apart from the central story of pellow and his adventures the descriptions of the conditions and labour of the european slaves is heart rending. families torn apart,british governments powerless to stop the white slavers is an episode of our history that needed to be told.a brilliant read.
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