Customer Reviews

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

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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

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.

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.

This is an amazingly interesting book. I couldn't put it down. Myself and many of my friends had no idea this was a part of European/Islamic history. Some feel this isn't for the faint hearted.

One reviewer wrote, "Does this sound uncomfortably familiar? Like some Islamic extremists of today, the Sultans laughed about holding Europe to ransom. They were rarely met with force." History does indeed repeat itself.

Having heard of this book from friends, I checked it out before purchase as there are nowadays many examples of history being rewritten for what might be termed "politially correct" reasons.
Indeed this book may soon be unavailable due to those reasons. It could be construed that this account of slavery might cause offense to Muslims, though none of the Muslims I know personally would be so offended. But one of the motivations for me to buy this book was the "review" by the (Islamic?) correspondent of the Washington Post, which you kindly reproduce. Viewing this distainful dismissal was for me most revealing and may (I hope) encourage others to make this purchase also.
They will be rewarded by an account of a period of history which is being quietly swept under the carpet and out of sight.

I totally concur with all the other reviewers..What a Book! We have all heard of the Barbary pirates and their merry exploits. But I had no idea what that actually looked like. What did it mean when an Islamic pirate fleet showed up at your English town and took all the men,women, and children away to be sold as slaves in North Africa.Or you're fishing in the North Atlantic and run into corsairs,never to be heard of again. You think the Jews had it bad in WWII? Kick it up a notch or two, that's the experience. Worse, for 3 centuries the European governments, didn't really try to end the problem. For the majority of Europeans captured,that's how they ended their lives. Plus if you were tortured into converting to Islam then you were really never coming home.A million Europeans and Americans were caught in this web. The book reads like fiction, it's very disturbing, but's it's true.But take heart. the epilog offers a fascintating and ironic ending that I think most readers will enjoy. I really appreciated the authors research ingenuity. It is amazing to read about his sources. Where did he find that stuff? I couldn't recommend the book more highly.

If you are like me, you have only heard of the Barbary Pirates briefly mentioned in history classes as an aside when discussing Jefferson. I had no idea that the pirates raided as far away as England, Iceland, and Russia.

This book is deeply fascinating not only because it is the first many of us have heard about this form of white slavery, but it also gives a fascinating look at the Moulay Ismael dynasty in Morocco. While this look is limited by telling the story through Thomas Pellows' experiences, it is fascinating to get a glimpse of an absolute ruler who had even more power and lived in more grandeur than Louis XIV.

The only way to improve the book would be to include more information on how the pirate raids and the enslavement of the English merchants and villagers affected and changed English government and society.

I was amazed at the number of readers who were unaware of islams' ENTIRE history of slavery. Type 'camel jockeys' into your browser to see pictures of TODAYS children who are sold into slavery RIGHT NOW. Starved to be kept light weight and many times left with crushed gentilia from being tied onto the camels while they race or trampled to death if they fall off. All for the amusement of the 'nobility' in the Gulf States. Remember these 'princes' were desert raiders as late as the 1910's!
How about the thousands of young girls Saddam bought in Thailand as whores for his troops during the Kuwait invasion. Not one remained alive to tell the tale.
Until the world removes the blinders from their eyes and checks out the REAL facts about what the so called 'religion of peace, islam' is hiding in regards to slavery TODAY these poor people will remain in slavery. There are many excellent books that give specific facts, dates and names, "Slave Girls" by Clarkson,
"Enslaved" by Gordon Thomson are about NOW to name two. Remain ignorant to your own peril.It could be your child that is stolen and sold next.

Islam enslaved the world. Muslims raided Ukrain for slaves for more than a thousand years. Muslim slave armies were made up of boys stolen from homes in Eastern Europe during the Ottoman colonization of Europe. Over 11 million African slaves were deported to Muslim nations. Millions of Rajput Hindu slaves were deported, enough that the Gypsies found their way to Europe in this manner.

This book tells the story of the people enslaved by the Barbary pirates in the 17th-19th centuries until their evils were put asunder by the great U.S Navy when Jefferson declared that the world had had enough.

This book is about barbarism, it is about slavery, and it is about opening the doors on the slave trade by Muslims of non-muslims, a trade which still goes on in the Gulf State and Saudi Arabia as well as Sudan and Niger. A slave trade aided, abbetted and covered up by western liberals. This book is a must read, if not for the harrowing account then to enlighten about a part of history that will never be taught in school, since it invovles daring to expose the 'religion of peace'.

Seth J. Frantzman

[...]
The book is an account of a largely forgotten period of European/North African history. I suspect the true extent of the horrors of the white slave trade were ignored by racist traditional European historians who didn't like the thought of North Africans getting one over them. There was an old Empire slogan "Brittania rules the waves", yet Milton's account shows that the Royal Navy couldn't stop the Barbary Corsairs until a decade after Trafalgar, and centuries after the Spanish Armada was defeated. Even the post-independency USA was a victim.

I suspect the story of the Barbary slave trade is largely ignored nowadays because the politically correct don't like to think of Europeans as being victims (certainly not of something as emotive as slavery). But the truth is often a messy, politically incorrect beast. We might not want to face up to it, but those who value truth think we should do so nevertheless.

Now to the book itself. It is a lively, engaging read. The only real criticism I have is the extent to which Milton takes his sources uncritically. There is little doubt in my mind that the original diaries and letters from which he draws his account would have been embellished. Slaves in captivity would have had a strong incentive to accentuate how bad their lot was, in order to maximise sympathy. Returned slaves would doubtless spice up their accounts to increase sales.

How much this casts doubt on the veracity of Milton's sources is something on which I am not qualified to comment. And perhaps more to the point, there seems little doubt (i) that large numbers were taken; and (ii) their conditions would have been extremely poor. A slave with decent food and lodging (which I doubt they received) is still a slave. As to the numbers taken, there are church records in Southern England which support Milton's account. They also record the huge sums raised to try and secure the release of the slaves. One random piece of evidence to show how widespread the trade was comes from Pepys' diary, who notes without any surprise that he had lunch with two freed slaves.

I have read a dispute over whether the slave trade should be called "Islamic". In the current political climate I can see why some might find this inflammatory. But equally it is clear that those who took the slaves were devoutly Islamic, and that they viewed their Christian victims as inferior citizens on religious grounds, hence the (brutal) attempts to have them convert. I think in those circumstances calling it an Islamic slave trade isn't entirely inaccurate, though I have no problem with it (in fact I'd prefer it) being called the Barbary slave trade, since of course it was hardly the case that all of the Islamic world was involved in the trade.

I recommend this book, and certainly hope it prompts wider interest in an otherwise ignored period of history.