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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Culled from previously unexplored papers in the British National Archives by historian St Clair, this gripping history describes the British headquarters at Ghana's Cape Coast Castle, the "last look" point for more than three million men, women and children sold into the 17th-century slave trade. They would have seen majestic breakers crash below the white fortress that functioned as a hot, smelly, utilitarian slave mall before they headed into its bowels. Held together by a skeleton crew of expatriates who often died there, the building bustled with local tribespeople, mulattoes and the odd European woman. St Clair introduces them all through personal correspondence, governors' logs, notes canoed from castle to ship and his own interpretations of artifacts, to recreate perhaps the most impressively detailed picture of slave-trading lives to date. In the end, the book reveals as much of British mores and culture as any history of England. The writing captivates, hinting at the author's intense curiosity that must have sustained copious hours of research. Yet owing to his ability to take in the entire view, the details rarely overwhelm. Coinciding with the bicentennial of the abolition of the Anglo slave trade, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in this essential history. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Cape Coast Castle, on the coast of Ghana, was Britain's slave-trading headquarters for 143 years until the trade was outlawed in 1807. Historian St. Clair relies on an incredible archive of castle records, not studied in great detail until recently, to provide a startlingly in-depth portrait of life and trade within what was not a castle but a "defended warehouse within which goods--and people--could be temporarily stored." St. Clair vividly describes the construction, design, and purpose of the fort, as well as the political and commercial strife between the British and the other European powers that built similar forts along the coast. Those British who survived the "seasoning" of life in Africa developed complex relationships with local Africans, through trade and negotiation, enslavement, employment, and cohabitation--raising families whose children did not enjoy rights of inheritance back in Britain. Through detailed inventories, diaries, and letters, St. Clair offers a close look at what seemed to be impenetrable castles but were actually crumbling warehouses filled with people of various motives, engaged in an enterprise that raised moral, political, and economic issues in Africa and Europe. Thoroughly fascinating. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Starred Review. Culled from previously unexplored papers in the British National Archives by historian St Clair, this gripping history describes the British headquarters at Ghana's Cape Coast Castle, the "last look" point for more than three million men, women and children sold into the 17th-century slave trade. They would have seen majestic breakers crash below the white fortress that functioned as a hot, smelly, utilitarian slave mall before they headed into its bowels. Held together by a skeleton crew of expatriates who often died there, the building bustled with local tribespeople, mulattoes and the odd European woman. St Clair introduces them all through personal correspondence, governors' logs, notes canoed from castle to ship and his own interpretations of artifacts, to recreate perhaps the most impressively detailed picture of slave-trading lives to date. In the end, the book reveals as much of British mores and culture as any history of England. The writing captivates, hinting at the author's intense curiosity that must have sustained copious hours of research. Yet owing to his ability to take in the entire view, the details rarely overwhelm. Coinciding with the bicentennial of the abolition of the Anglo slave trade, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in this essential history. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Cape Coast Castle, on the coast of Ghana, was Britain's slave-trading headquarters for 143 years until the trade was outlawed in 1807. Historian St. Clair relies on an incredible archive of castle records, not studied in great detail until recently, to provide a startlingly in-depth portrait of life and trade within what was not a castle but a "defended warehouse within which goods--and people--could be temporarily stored." St. Clair vividly describes the construction, design, and purpose of the fort, as well as the political and commercial strife between the British and the other European powers that built similar forts along the coast. Those British who survived the "seasoning" of life in Africa developed complex relationships with local Africans, through trade and negotiation, enslavement, employment, and cohabitation--raising families whose children did not enjoy rights of inheritance back in Britain. Through detailed inventories, diaries, and letters, St. Clair offers a close look at what seemed to be impenetrable castles but were actually crumbling warehouses filled with people of various motives, engaged in an enterprise that raised moral, political, and economic issues in Africa and Europe. Thoroughly fascinating. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
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