White Gold [Paperback]

Giles Milton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2005

This is the forgotten story of the million white Europeans, snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of North Africa to be sold to the highest bidder. Ignored by their own governments, and forced to endure the harshest of conditions, very few lived to tell the tale. Using the firsthand testimony of a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow, Giles Milton vividly reconstructs a disturbing, little known chapter of history. Pellow was bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco who was constructing an imperial pleasure palace of enormous scale and grandeur, built entirely by Christian slave labour. As his personal slave, he would witness first-hand the barbaric splendour of he imperial court, as well as experience the daily terror of a cruel regime. Gripping, immaculately researched, and brilliantly realised, WHITE GOLD reveals an explosive chapter of popular history, told with all the pace and verve of one of our finest historians.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Giles Milton has a gift for searching out odd and forgotten corners of history and turning them into bestselling books... this is not a dry history, but a full-blooded narrative closer in style to a historical novel than to an academic study.' -- William Palmer, Literary Review 20040704 'Milton's story could scarcely be more action-packed, and its setting and subsidiary characters are as fantastic as its events.' -- The Sunday Times 20040704 'An extraordinary story which few people will be at all familiar with... an exciting and sensational account of a really swash-buckling historical episode' -- Philip Hensher, Spectator 20040704 Giles Milton's narrative races along as he stitches together a story of heroism, sacrifice and misplaced zeal, painstakingly researched from contemporary writing and records' -- Observer 20040704 'Giles Milton... has crafted an inspiration for those of us who believe that history can be exciting and entertaining' -- The Times 20040704

About the Author

Giles Milton is a writer and journalist. He has contributed articles for most of the British national newspapers as well as many foreign publications and specialises in the history of travel and exploration. In the course of his researches, he has travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Pb (May 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340794704
• ISBN-13: 978-0340794708
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #818,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Slavery, November 18, 2004

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: White Gold (Hardcover)

A mere few centuries ago, both Islam and Christianity, which proclaimed themselves models of righteousness and compassion, were involved in the African slave trade, destroying the lives of millions. The history of the slaves and the slavers has been told many ways since then. Less well known is another form of slavery, the capture of about a million Europeans and Americans by Islamic slave traders, ending only in 1816. The history of this other trade forms the basis for the particulars in _White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves_ (Hodder and Stoughton) by Giles Milton. Milton seems to have done prodigious research (as he did for his previous bestseller, _Nathaniel's Nutmeg_), and has done his best to bridge the many gaps in Pellow's own story, producing a narrative that is often exciting and always informative.

Pellow, born in 1704 and raised in the Cornish fishing village of Penryn, wanted to run away to sea, despite the constant threat of ships being taken by the Barbary pirates. He was eleven years old when his uncle's ship was captured, and he became property of the sultan, the Moulay Ismail; the author could not have asked for a more repulsive or fearsome villain. His 25,000 white slaves were given to the enormous project of making a palace that extended for miles, packing wet lime and earth to make the enormous walls and covering it in marble and mosaics. He could not abide disobedience, even when it was merely in his imagination, and slaves and courtiers were often tortured or beheaded by his whimsy, even at his own hands. Readers should prepare for extreme unpleasantness in the descriptions of the horrors of the cells or the tortures such as the bastinado, by which a slave would be suspended upside down and the soles of his feet beaten until they were raw. Pellow converted under torture to Islam, which helped change his fortune, but he was a captive for twenty-three years, constantly wishing he were back home. He became guardian of the harem, leader of soldiers in military campaigns, and even a slave hunter, before his escape attempts finally succeeded.

Pellow was able to write the obligatory first-person account of his trials under the Turk, from which, understandably, Milton has drawn frequently. He did not live to see any end to the threat of enslavement by the fanatical Muslims which took another century to come. Strangely, Sir Edward Pellew, a distant relative, was in charge of the fleet that arrived in Algiers in 1816, bombarding the city, liberating the slaves, and permanently ending the European slave trade. Milton describes how inflamed the British press and Parliament became at the thought of their own citizens in chains, but also explains how little care they showed for black slaves shipped out of Guinea for their own use. There is little specific to compare here with our own current difficulties with the region, except that horrors, misunderstandings, and religious fanaticism seem to be an unending part of this history. _White Gold_ is, however, a riveting story of eventual triumph over long odds, and enormously entertaining.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!, February 16, 2010

By 

A. Garcia "agriss" (Chile) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: White Gold (Paperback)

This book is VERY interesting. It tells the story of this young boy who is captured by the north Africa pirates and made a slave of the sultan in Morocco. I really recommend it!

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice way to break prejudice about the history of slavery, November 28, 2011

By 

Dante A. Moss (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: White Gold: The Forgotten Story of North Africa's European Slaves (Paperback)

This is a nice book describing the ugly face of slavery, how humans were forced to act as property, taken away from their homelands by force. The nice angle the author takes, is that it deals with the european slaves, and how they were subject to the same inhuman treatment that other peoples of the world have suffered in different times, and different regions. I recommend this book for those who want to look at this tragedy through the eyes of an european slave: the same horror described by other who were deprived from their basic freedoms.