White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves: The Forgotten Story of North Africa's European Slaves - Hardcover

Milton, Giles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340794690 ISBN 13: 9780340794692

Publisher: Sceptre, 2004

Synopsis

In the summer of 1716, a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and fifty-two of his comrades were captured at sea by the Barbary corsairs. Their captors - fanatical Islamic slave traders - had declared war on the whole of Christendom. Thousands of Europeans had been snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Salé in Morocco to be sold to the highest bidder.

Pellow was bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco, who bragged that his white slaves enabled him to hold all of Europe to ransom. The sultan was constructing an imperial pleasure palace of enormous scale and grandeur, built entirely by Christian slave labour. Thomas Pellow was selected to be a personal slave of the sultan, and he would witness first-hand the barbaric splendour of the imperial Moroccan court, as well as experience daily terror. For twenty-three years, he would dream of his home, his family and freedom. He was one of the fortunate few who survived to tell his tale.

WHITE GOLD is an extraordinary and shocking story. Drawn from unpublished letters and manuscripts written by slaves, and by the padres and ambassadors sent to free them, it reveals a disturbing and forgotten chapter of history, told with all the pace and verve of one of our finest historians.

About this title

Review:

Writer and journalist Giles Milton specializes in the history of travel and exploration. His latest literary adventure, White Gold, is the story of Thomas Pellow, a Cornish cabin boy who was captured at sea by a group of fanatical Islamic slave traders—the Barbary corsairs, taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Salè in Morocco and sold to the highest bidder. Pellow’s purchaser happened to be the tyrannical sultan of Morroco, Moulay Ismail, a man committed to building a vast imperial pleasure palace of unsurpassable splendour built entirely by Christian slave labour. After enduring long periods of torture Pellow converted to Islam and became the personal slave of the sultan for over two decades—including a stint as a soldier in the sultan’s army—before finally making a dramatic escape and return to Cornwall. The account is supported by the unpublished letters and manuscripts of slaves and the various ambassadors sent to free them. This is an excellently written account of the history of the white slave trade. Pellow’s story is an extraordinary one but the real interest lies in the picture Milton builds of life in the slave pens and especially of daily life at the court of the spectacularly barbaric Moulay Ismail. --Larry Brown

Review:

Praise for Giles Milton's previous books:
'It's almost impossible to summarise [NATHANIEL'S NUTMEG], from which marvellous, vivid stories spill out like swagsack booty'

(Guardian on NATHANIEL's NUTMEG)

A magnificent piece of popular history (Independent on Sunday on NATHANIEL's NUTMEG)

The thoroughness and intelligence of his research underpins the lively confidence with which he deploys it (The Times Literary Supplement on NATHANIEL's NUTME)

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 on BIG CHIEF ELIZABETH)

Giles Milton can take an event from history and make it come alive. He has a genius for lively prose, and an appreciation for historical credibility. He has crafted an inspiration for those of us who believe that history can be exciting and entertaining (The Times on SAMURAI WILLIAM)

An exceptionally pungent, amusing and accessible historical account ... Milton's research has been prodigious and it yields an entertaining, richly informative look at the past (The New York Times on BIG CHIEF ELIZABETH)

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0340794690
• ISBN 13: 9780340794692
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336