White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves (Paperback)

~ Giles Milton (Author)
Key Phrases: Moulay Ismail, Thomas Pellow, Commodore Stewart (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For this harrowing story of white captives in 18th-century Morocco, Milton (author of the highly praised Nathaniel's Nutmeg) draws primarily on the memoir of a Cornish cabin boy, Thomas Pellow, who was taken by Islamic pirates in 1716 and sold as a slave to the legendarily tyrannical Sultan Moulay Ismail. Pellow remained in Morocco for more than 20 years, his family barely recognizing him when he at last escaped home. Placing Pellow's tale within wider horizons, Milton describes how, during the 17th and 18th centuries, thousands of European captives were snatched from their coastal villages by Islamic slave traders intent on waging war on Christendom. Put into forced labor and appalling living conditions, they perished in huge numbers. As a pragmatic convert to Islam, Pellow fared better, earning a wife who bore him a daughter. Milton includes Pellow's years as a soldier in Moulay Ismail's army and draws out his cliff-hanging escape back to England. Pellow's sensational tale dominates the book, and though rendered in seductively poised prose, in the end it feels short on ideas and argument. Milton also fails to cite other historians working in this area (a prime example being Linda Colley). 16 pages of b&w illus. not seen by PW; 2 maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

Giles Milton's new book is a fascinating account of a long-forgotten era when an awful menace terrorized the coastal waters of North Africa. In the 17th and 18th centuries, countless vessels leaving the coasts of Europe and colonial North America were seized at sea by bands of Barbary corsairs, who confiscated their cargo and dragged their hapless crews to the shores of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli to be sold into slavery.

Based primarily on narratives published by freed or escaped slaves, White Gold recounts the story of Thomas Pellow, who at age 11 joined the crew of an English trading vessel, the Francis, as a cabin boy and merchant's apprentice. Pellow's ship left Cornwall in 1715, carrying a cargo of salted pilchards to trade in Genoa. Upon setting sail for home, the Francis was overtaken by a band of "fanatical corsairs of Barbary" who, in a "deranged fury," boarded the ship, overpowered its unarmed crew and seized its precious cargo of Italian wares meant for sale in England. But the merchandise was a mere pittance compared to the real prize of the ship: its crew.

In the early 1700s, the trade in European slaves was a booming business throughout North Africa, even though, in size and scope, it did not compare to Europe's own immensely profitable African slave trade. According to Milton, nearly 1 million Europeans passed through the markets of coastal towns like Salé, on the north coast of Morocco, where they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. For better or worse, Pellow's crew was spared such humiliation and instead marched directly to the imperial city of Meknes, where they were ceremonially presented as gifts to the cruel and capricious sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail.

Being a strong and hearty young boy, Pellow immediately caught the attention of Moulay Ismail and was initiated into the sultan's personal retinue of servants. Pellow spent the next 23 years as a slave at the imperial court, where he was routinely beaten and starved, forced to convert to Islam and ultimately placed at the head of the sultan's armies. Through a series of fortunate accidents, Pellow not only managed to survive his ordeal but eventually escaped back to England to publish his adventures for a captive audience.

Although narratives like Pellow's have long been dismissed as part of a genre of deliciously scandalous "Orientalist" fantasies wildly popular with the British upper classes, Milton notes that European and Arab chronicles of the time have corroborated many of the events and experiences recounted in these fanciful books. Perhaps. But White Gold would have been better served by a critical analysis of these sources. Far from providing any such criticism, Milton seems to accept these fantastic narratives as gospel.

This tendency is perhaps most apparent in his description of Moulay Ismail, who comes across in the book as comically evil. The sultan's whimsical brutishness (at one point, he elaborately tortured and executed a cat that had snatched and killed a rabbit), his supernatural sexual appetite (he is reported to have had 10,000 concubines), and his limitless capacity for wickedness (he took particular pleasure in greeting guests while drenched in the blood of slaves he had personally dismembered) are reminiscent of the oriental depravities caricatured in The Arabian Nights, popularized in Europe by Antoine Galland's hugely successful French translation of 1704-1717.

Indeed, by conflating these tales with history, Milton occasionally proves himself as gullible as the 18th-century audiences for whom stories like Pellow's were originally written. For example, many European slaves certainly were forced to convert to Islam, either through torture or by being offered certain "privileges" (like food and shelter) as rewards. But Pellow's account of his own forced conversion -- in which his 11-year-old self patiently endures month after month of horrific torture, administered by the crown prince himself, with whom Pellow remarkably engages in a quasi-theological debate (in Arabic or English, one can't tell which) before finally submitting to Islam -- is so absurd that the reader is stunned to find Milton swallowing the tale whole.

That White Gold merely regurgitates Pellow's "memoirs" is even more troubling because Milton enthusiastically adopts the outmoded vocabulary of the era, repeatedly referring in his book to "Christian" slaves and even "Christian" vessels being captured by "Muslim" pirates and sold to "Muslim" masters. Even the book's subtitle, with its reference to "Islam's One Million White Slaves" -- obviously meant to cash in on contemporary fixations with the Muslim world -- is an indication of Milton's deliberately perverse terminology. Why, the reader wonders, is it not North Africa's slave trade, rather than Islam's? After all, this is the only region in the whole of the Muslim world where such a phenomenon occurred. And Milton never refers to Europe's own slave trade, which enslaved 15 million Africans, as a "Christian" slave trade. Still, while such oddities should not be easily forgiven, particularly in our current climate, they do not spoil what is ultimately a fun and fanciful story from a little-known chapter in history.

Reviewed by Reza Aslan
Copyright 2005, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador (June 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312425295
• ISBN-13: 978-0312425296
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #316,342 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #75 in	Books > History > Europe > England > 18th Century

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First I ever heard of White Slavery from England, June 29, 2005

By	A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves (Hardcover)

Did you know that Arab slave traders used to pluck villagrs and fishermen from the coast of Britain and take them off to serve in slavery in the Islamic world. I didn't even know that this trade existed, and in fact it continued into the eighteenth century - this little known fact has been turned into another compelling history by Giles milton

He tells this story mostly from the records remaining about Thomas Pellow, an 11-year-old English child who was seized in 1716 and served for 23 years as a personal servant to Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco. However Pellow provides a background for the slave trade in general. It seems to be a very good choice of subject. He was young enough to assimilate to a greater extent with his new owners - learnign the language and customs quickly. He was also smart and plucky enough to get himself out of all kinds of situations which would have meant instant death for many. The value of life was not that great.

For the rest of Pellow's crewmates there was little hope and many served in appalling circumstances and died there labouring on the immense palaces the Moulay wanted to build.

Most extraodinary is the almost catch 22 the prisoners found themselves in, if they converted to Islam they would not be eligible for ransom by their government, however if they didn't convert they were almost sure to die in appalling conditions.

Milton writes without turning this into a tabloid-style history - it is balanced and interesting, he doesn't linger on the horrors, keeping to the story. I think this makes it strongger, and I found this book a real page turner - following Pellow's captivity and eventual daring gives it structure and the research fills in the background - my highest recommendation

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gilles Milton does it again!, October 25, 2005

By	Richard E. Hourula (Berkeley, CA. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves (Hardcover)

A huge traffic in European slaves along the Barbary Coast during the 1700's? Who knew? An English lad captured at sea a slave in the imperial court for over 20 years who escaped to tell his tale? Who knew? Gilles Milton the brilliant non-fiction author of such grand books as "Nathaniel's Nugget" and "Samurai William" knew and tells the story magnificently.
Surely that is too many adjectives in praise of Mr. Milton. No one who reads this book or is familiar with his previous works will so accuse me.
"White Gold" is the amazing story of Thomas Pellow, a mere sprite of 11 when taken slave. By combinations of daring, luck, guile and endurance Pellow survived as a slave, raising to lofty positions (albeit still as a slave) all the while determined to return home. The epic journey that his escape entails is riveting reading.
As always Milton offers much background to the central story, placing it within the general context of North Africa's Islamic kings, British diplomacy and the lot of those hundreds of thousands of Europeans who were taken as slaves in Africa.
The story is rife with palace intrigues, beheadings, eunuchs, harems, wars, piracy the very limits of human endurance and the cruelty of those who so push people.
Milton is a master storyteller. To reads "White Gold", as with his other books, is to enjoy a wonderful combination of entertainment and edification. You'll have fascinating yarns to share and an enriched view of history. And perhaps like me, you'll have a book you'll want to foist on others.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The well kept secret of white slaves, June 5, 2005

By	Radoko "Big John" (St Paul, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves (Hardcover)

I found this book in Dar es Salaam bookstore. Fascinating history of the well kept secret of white slaves in North Africa. None of our history books note that this is the reason the US Navy was sent to whip the Barbary pirates. Probably too embarrassing to admit that there was a time that Europe and the US was impotent in this white slave trade. Well written but not for the weak of heart.