Customer Reviews

White Gold

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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.

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!

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.

This story, through contemporary writing of the slave Cornishman, Thomas Pellow, describes the period of the original religious fundamentalism, and the Jihad of the Muslim against the Christian religions, with the corruption and avarice of the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail and the Barbary Corsairs, in raiding, capturing and enslaving their 'white gold'. It was estimated that over a million Europeans were enslaved throughout the Islamic regions with newly kidnapped victims being required at annual rates of twenty of thousands because of attrition through ill treatment, starvation, murder and disease.
This then, is the other side of the coin, the enslavers enslaved. But with incredible brutality, mindless bestiality, torture casual deaths, beheadings and driven by work so hard and unremitting that constant raiding and enslavement of more peoples from the European coast were required. Little intelligence here, none of the, sometimes self-interested and reluctant, care of their investment that modified the treatment of black slaves in the cruel plantations of the Americas. Beheading by the Sultan himself were common, on his whim, whimsy and humour as he drove his millions of captured English, French, Portuguese and even American crews and villagers in constructing his huge city-of-palaces, Meknès-Tafilalet.
Having enjoyed Milton's earlier work of scholarly research Nathaniel's Nutmeg it was no surprise to find such a detailed history of Pellow's twenty three years of slavery. Towards the end of the book a thirst for revenge was satisfied in an ironic connection ... it was a relative Sir Edward Pellew who, in 1816, destroyed the power of the Muslim slavers, releasing the slaves and bringing the 'white gold' trade to an end.

This is a fascinating tale of adventure and hardship. It provides frank and timely insights on the culture of North Africa and the aggressive and duplicitous predations of its leaders and corsairs. It is well researched history and a fascinating biography. One is reminded how ephemeral power and civilization can be. I found its flow sometimes halting, but otherwise a very enjoyable read and recommend the book to all.