White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America 1/31/08 Edition

by Don Jordan (Author), Michael Walsh (Author)

204 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0814742969

ISBN-10: 9780814742969

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White Cargo is the forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in Britain’s American colonies.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more than 300,000 white people were shipped to America as slaves. Urchins were swept up from London’s streets to labor in the tobacco fields, where life expectancy was no more than two years. Brothels were raided to provide “breeders” for Virginia. Hopeful migrants were duped into signing as indentured servants, unaware they would become personal property who could be bought, sold, and even gambled away. Transported convicts were paraded for sale like livestock.

Drawing on letters crying for help, diaries, and court and government archives, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh demonstrate that the brutalities usually associated with black slavery alone were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule. The trade ended with American independence, but the British still tried to sell convicts in their former colonies, which prompted one of the most audacious plots in Anglo-American history.

This is a saga of exploration and cruelty spanning 170 years that has been submerged under the overwhelming memory of black slavery. White Cargo brings the brutal, uncomfortable story to the surface.

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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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“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)

“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

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

“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

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Product details

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: NYU Press; 1/31/08 edition (March 8, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780814742969
ISBN-13: 978-0814742969
ASIN: 0814742963
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 204 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > History > Middle East > Jordan
- #36 in Books > History > World > Slavery & Emancipation
- #97 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Europe

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Leo Higgins

White slavery in the British Colonies comes to light.

June 4, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

"White Cargo" does a deep historical dive into Colonial American slavery, (indentured servants), for "His Majesty's plantations".

For 170 years, (1606 -1776), England meted out this new lucrative reality by ridding itself and neighboring countries of its drunkards, dregs, vagabonds, criminals, and urchins. It's believed that 300,000 Europeans were kidnapped and/or sold a bill of goods, (becoming "free willers"). These “free willers” contracted for oceanic passage to the New World by agreeing to indentured service for a promising future.

Approximately half would never survive their bondage. Indentured servants generally had a 7 - 14 year contract to toil away on the plantations. The multitudes that were "spirited away", (shanghaied), to America were routinely treated like animals with beatings, whippings, neck irons etc. Of course the "free willers" had no clue of the horrors that awaited them. They believed that America was the land of opportunity and as such would enjoy a prosperous, comfortable life, (once they paid for their passage via laboring in the fields). Nothing was further from the truth.

England referred to indentured servants as "chattels" and as such became the property of their new owner/master.

The first chattels (slaves) in Colonial America were white Europeans. A majority initially consisted of convicts from England and then a surge of Irish Catholics were "spirited away" to make room in Ireland for the burgeoning British and Scottish Protestant populations. Two days after the American Revolutionary War began the trafficking of white human cargo ended. King George III eventually settled at sending his miscreants and convicts to Australia and New Zealand, circa 1820.

Public education in the USA sanitized this cruel chapter in its pernicious beginnings. It's too bad -- as we generally learn from our past. But when history is whitewashed, (no pun intended), then no one is the wiser. As the saying goes, "ignorance is bliss".

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Reader

Enlightening read

May 23, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I had an inkling about this subject but it was usually discounted by whoever I tried to get into a discussion or discourse with. Seems most people want to deny the existance of white slavery. I remember reading about indenture servitude in school but it was addressed as a mostly benign institution. Teachers mostly skimmed over the subject.
Later, while doing some family ancestory research I discovered a father and son in my ancestry who were obvioiusly indentured. They were Scots.
This book was very interesting and enlightening but also very disturbing. Beware. You may have to put it down after reading for awhile and take a break. If you are at all open-minded take a read.
There is also a very interesting interview with the authors on You Tube that's worth watching. Lots of resources in the back of the book,too, which validates the research. Very well written.

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Ted Ellis

An excellent work on a neglected if not intentionally ignored subject

February 20, 2016

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An excellent work on a neglected if not intentionally ignored subject. While everyone knows of the convicts shipped to Australia, few realize the scheme originated for and was carried on for decades to supply America, even beyond the revolution. The popular concept of "indentured servants" is merely as an expedient and honorable way to seek one's fortune in the new world. The truth is much more sinister. The authors did their research well and cite plenty of primary source material to support it. A must read book, to truly understand the peopling of early America. This book drives home the power wielded for financial gain and political power without regard for human cost. An issue that remains to this day.

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Carolyn Lancaster

White Cargo is an eye-opener!

August 20, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The book came in the condition advertised and more quickly than expected. I am doing a presentation with another person in our genealogy group about indentured servants in America, and this is a book we will be drawing on for material. I had no idea the practice was so widespread here in the 17th century. I researched my own immigrant ancestors and found several had come here bound. But I believe they were better treated than many in this book, and they apparently wanted to emigrate. (Sometimes it's the luck of the draw.). It also brought to mind that this practice is still going on and it is UGLY! Human trafficking today is one of the reasons that this book is important. I can't say that I "liked" it...the subject isn't an entertainment...but I am glad to have read it and will pass it on to others.

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Just Me

Not Politically Correct History

September 3, 2017

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This is the history of white indentured servitude (slavery by another name) you are not taught in school. Great Britain used several colonies as off shore prison colonies. Colonial America was just one. Families in Great Britain would pay their debts by selling a child into servitude on ships or into apprenticeships. To think or believe, mistakenly, that ONLY Africans were/are slaves is to be ignorant of history and current events. Read further and find out who the people were that were the financial backbone of the 16th & 17th century's African slave trade. It was NOT the American colonists. Government schools in the US don't want our children to know the information in this book. Read & educate yourselves.

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Jim

Excellent history. While visiting Ireland I toured a "White ...

November 14, 2016

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Excellent history. While visiting Ireland I toured a "White Slave Museum." Everyone should be aware of slavery in everyone's history, some more recent than others. And, everyone should work to ensure this doesn't occur again...to anyone.

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dreamcatcher1217

This book is so good. The detail amazing but graphic

August 16, 2016

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This book is so good. The detail amazing but graphic. I know this is what our ancestors went through. Knowing most of them were from ages 10 to 19 is heart breaking is so hard for me to read at times. Endured slaves is what they were called. Most not making the crowded ride over in the bow of a ship. If they were fortunate to survive they did not last for long. One girl kept running away from one house hold until they gave her 500 slashes with a whip. Afterwards, she crawled off and died. Knowing there was nothing left of her body after that many lashings. Anyone with an Irish bloodline needs to read this. It has opened my eyes to so much, and I just wonder where they buried these poor souls at?

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