White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Giles Milton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2005

The true story of white European slaves in eighteenth century Algiers, Tunis, and Morocco

In the summer of 1716, a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and fifty-one of his comrades were captured at sea by the Barbary corsairs. Their captors--Ali Hakem and his network of Islamic slave traders--had declared war on the whole of Christendom. France, Spain, England and Italy had suffered a series of devastating attacks. Thousands of Europeans had been snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Salé in Morocco.

Pellow and his shipmates were bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail, who was constructing an imperial palace of such scale and grandeur that it would surpass every other building in the world, a palace built entirely by Christian slave labor.

Resourceful, resilient, and quick-thinking, Pellow was selected by Moulay Ismail for special treatment, and was one of the fortunate few who survived to tell his tale.

An extraordinary and shocking story, drawn from unpublished letters and manuscripts written by slaves and by the padres and ambassadors sent to free them, White Gold reveals a disturbing and long forgotten chapter of history.

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.

From Booklist

The horrors of the transatlantic slave trade have been extensively documented in print and eloquently portrayed on film and television. But chattel slavery was a well-established African as well as European institution, and its victims were not exclusively people of color. In the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries, the Barbary states of North Africa used Islamic pirates, or corsairs, to conduct slave raids, which fed the flourishing slave markets of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Many of the enslaved were white Europeans or North Americans captured at sea. Among them was 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. Milton relates Pellow's compelling story as a triumph of wile, pluck, and endurance; but this is also a tale of great brutality and suffering, as Milton eloquently shows that all of the indignities one associates with European and American slavery were visited upon those held in North Africa. A riveting account. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st American ed edition (May 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374289352
• ISBN-13: 978-0374289355
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > History > Africa > Morocco

More About the Author

www.gilesmilton.com

'The master of narrative history' - Sunday Times.

Giles Milton is an internationally best-selling author of narrative non-fiction.

His books include Nathaniel's Nutmeg - serialized by the BBC - and five other critically acclaimed works of history.

He has also written two novels and two books for young children.

He lives in London, UK, with his wife, the illustrator Alexandra Milton, and three daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 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 1000 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

28 of 29 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.

23 of 24 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.