The Last Slave Market: Dr John Kirk and the Struggle to End the East African Slave Trade - Softcover

Hazell, Alastair

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780336578 ISBN 13: 9781780336572

Publisher: Constable, 2012

Synopsis

The extraordinary story of John Kirk, the Scottish botanist who single-handedly ended the slave trade in East Africa. John Kirk arrived in Africa alongside Dr Livingstone, and together they attempted to chart the Zambezi. The voyage was a disaster; however, Kirk returned to the island of Zanzibar, the port at the centre of the slave trade. Here, as acting consul, he observed the horrors of trafficking and was determined to put an end to it. The Last Slave Market tells Kirk's dramatic story: a forgotten Victorian hero who fought for the end of slavery, and won against all the odds. Alastair Hazell rewrites an extraordinary chapter in history.

About this title

Review:

This is a humdinger of a tale. You might have thought that journeys into the heart of the Dark Continent with David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley and the likes of Richard Burton had already inspired so vast and breathless a literature that there were few surprises left to report. But that's the miracle of this story. Alastair Hazell's genius has been to plough through the huge and well-documented archive, follow his nose, and tell a tale from an entirely new perspective: the life of Dr John Kirk, an early companion to Dr Livingstone, and afterwards a humble Scottish medical officer and Acting British Consul in Zanzibar. In doing so he turns several accounts on their heads, rectifies a seriously skewed picture, rescues a reputation - and on every page enthralls his readers. (Matthew Parris The Spectator)

Alastair Hazell is not afraid to tell a good story . . . [this is] the extraordinary story of how a medical functionary opposed to slavery became the effective ruler of the last of the world's great slave-trading nations. (TLS)

There is much to enjoy and reflect upon in this carefully researched and briskly told account. (The Economist)

Overdue. (Sunday Herald)

A fascinating forgotten tale. (Metro)

Despite abolition, the slave trade ?ourished on Zanzibar in the late 19th century, until a Scot, John Kirk, stamped it out. The place's exotic, murky history is well evoked. (The Sunday Telegraph)

[a] grim but spellbinding account....Hazell tells his story with just the right mix of pace and detail, to keep you hooked. (Independent on Sunday)

Book Description:

The extraordinary story of John Kirk, the Scottish botanist who single-handedly ended the East African slave trade.

About this edition

• Publisher: Constable
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1780336578
• ISBN 13: 9781780336572
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384