White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America (Paperback)

~ (Author), Michael Walsh (Author)
Key Phrases: convict trade, indentured period, headright system, Virginia Company, New World, Native Americans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

High school American history classes present indentured servitude as a benignly paternalistic system whereby colonial immigrants spent a few years working off their passage and went on to better things. Not so, this impassioned history argues: the indentured servitude of whites was comparable in most respects to the slavery endured by blacks. Voluntary indentures arriving in colonial America from Britain were sold on the block, subjected to backbreaking work on plantations, poorly fed and clothed, savagely punished for any disobedience, forbidden to marry without their master's permission, and whipped and branded for running away. Nor were indentures always voluntary: tens of thousands of convicts, beggars, homeless children and other undesirable Britons were transported to America against their will. Given the hideous mortality rates, the authors argue, indentured contracts often amounted to a life sentence at hard labor—some convicts asked to be hanged rather than be sent to Virginia. The authors, both television documentarians, don't attempt a systematic survey of the subject, and their episodic narrative often loses its way in colorful but extraneous digressions. Still, their exposé of unfree labor in the British colonies paints an arresting portrait of early America as gulag. 8 pages of photos. (Mar.)
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Review

“This vividly written book tells the tale from both sides of the Atlantic . . . meticulously sourced and footnoted—but is never dry or academic...Jordan and Walsh offer an explanation of how the structures of slavery—black or white—were entwined in the roots of American society. They refrain from drawing links to today, except to remind readers that there are probably tens of millions of Americans who are descended from white slaves without even knowing it.”

- New York Times Book Review

“High school American history classes present indentured servitude as a benignly paternalistic system whereby colonial immigrants spent a few years working off their passage and went on to better things. Not so, this impassioned history argues: the indentured servitude of whites was comparable in most respects to the slavery endured by blacks. Given the hideous mortality rates, the authors argue, indentured contracts often amounted to a life sentence at hard labor—some convicts asked to be hanged rather than be sent to Virginia . . . their exposé of unfree labor in the British colonies paints an arresting portrait of early America as gulag. 8 pages of photos.”

- Publishers Weekly

“With information gleaned from contemporary letters, journals and court archives, White Cargo is packed with proof that he brutalities usually associated with black slavery were, for centuries, also inflicted on whites.”

- Daily Mail

“An eye-opening and heart-rending story.”

- The Times (London)

“A colorful series of portraits of villains and victims, exploiters and exploited, rendered with bemused outrage.” - Choice

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (March 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814742963
• ISBN-13: 978-0814742969
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Work Long Overdue, April 28, 2008

By	Fruit Loop (Down South) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The plight of millions of American slaves has been overlooked by historians for far too long. Slavery in the Americas was not limited to black Africans nor were the depredations inflicted on non-African slaves.

This well-documented, scholarly expose of white slavery is a must-read for historians and civil-rights advocates, many of whom will be surprised by how widespread this practice was. The practice of indenture was well-known, but the fact that bondage often lasted until the end of life is not. I found this work to be simultaneously heartbreaking, infuriating, and riveting in content.

My husband's sixth-great-grandmother and her son were sold on the block in Charleston, but whenever we tell this story, other people actually try to "correct" us with, "No, she was an indentured servant, not a slave." (Not true). This long-overdue work is a memorial to the nameless individuals who died in bondage as well as an expose of a practice too long forgotten and ignored by American history textbooks. Five stars.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New England Work Camps?!, April 28, 2008

By	Bart King (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book's authors take a new look at a very old subject. As you probably know by now, WHITE CARGO equates the experience of indentured servants with slaves in colonial America. While this may initially strike some people (me included) as a mere polemic, this book makes its case convincingly.

The book starts with discovery of the body of a teenaged European boy in Maryland in 2003. The remains date back to the 1600s, and he is found in a mound of trash. But who was this kid? And why was his body disposed of so unceremoniously?

Walsh and Jordan tell the story of this anonymous indentured servant, and the hundreds of thousands of others like him, from both sides of the Big Pond. The first group of them arrived in 1619, and most of them were kids swept up from the streets of London. "Society's sweepings" were shipped west and made into indentured servants.

As their stories unfold, the authors accumulate the evidence and arguments that show that both indentured servants and slaves were stripped away of virtually all civil rights and reduced to mere property. Further, the privations visited upon indentured servants (abuse, shortened lifespans, overwork) are so hair-raising, it's surprising this argument hasn't been made so convincingly long before 2008.

This book is vital, it's engaging, and it's news to me. (See also Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The birth of America's prison industrial complex, April 4, 2009

By	Anna Mosity (Norfolk, VA USA) - See all my reviews

In their book White Cargo, authors Jordan and Walsh re-explore a perspective that has enjoyed very little support in American history books. Although repetitive at times, this book is quite interesting and overall, an easy read for history buffs.

The socio-economic stratification of America's first white settlers is clearly outlined and links are made to their origins in Jacobean Britain. The focus of this book is on the business of transporting criminals to the King's American colonies and the manipulation of British colonial laws to allow for their unspeakably cruel handling. The primary motive being colonial land acquisition and profits to be made from it. The masterminds are ex-military leaders whose previous career was with Oliver Cromwell's infamous ethnic cleansing tirades (Irish-Catholic genocide). With backing from London's wealthiest merchants, these retired soldiers created a business that enjoyed enormous profits for centuries.

If in fact, the laws defining the difference between chattels & slaves appear blurred (or unrecognized), it isn't because the authors are a "Marxist throwback to the 60's & 70's" ~ its because the laws WERE unclear at that point in history. And, it is quite obvious that colonial courts clearly favored the gentried elite.

Many shocking facts re: colonial social mores and the holding of slaves (Anglo & African) are described. The sheer number of petty criminals transported to America, particularly Virginia, against their will, is appalling. These numbers, if accurate, would mean that the majority of white Americans with family roots in the mid-Atlantic, are indeed decendents of chattel slaves.
As a history/sociology teacher in Virginia, I enjoyed the proximity of details in this book. Although not written in academic format, White Cargo consolidates many scholarly facts. In doing so (and perhaps unwittingly), it provides a basis for what has become known as the modern prison industrial complex.