White Gold : The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves
by Milton, Giles
Published by : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York) Physical details: xv,316 Pages 14x22 cm | HB ISBN:0374289352.| Item type | Current location | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Books
|
General Stacks | Non-fiction | 306.3620964 M637W 2004 (Browse shelf) | Available | 16398 |
This book reveals a disturbing and long forgotten chapter of history. In 1716, a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and 51 comrades were captured at sea by the Barbary corsairs. Their captors--a network of Muslim slave traders--had declared war on Christendom. Thousands had been snatched from their homes in France, Spain, England and Italy and taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Sal ̌in Morocco. Pellow and his shipmates were bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco, who was constructing a palace of such grandeur that it would surpass every other building in the world, built entirely by Christian slave labor. Resourceful, resilient, and quick-thinking, Pellow was selected by the sultan for special treatment, and was one of the fortunate few who survived to tell his tale.--From publisher description.
Include Illustrations, Maps, Notes, Sources and Index.
This is the forgotten story of the million white Europeans, snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of North Africa to be sold to the highest bidder. Ignored by their own governments, and forced to endure the harshest of conditions, very few lived to tell the tale.
Using the firsthand testimony of a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow, Giles Milton vividly reconstructs a disturbing, little known chapter of history. Pellow was bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco who was constructing an imperial pleasure palace of enormous scale and grandeur, built entirely by Christian slave labour. As his personal slave, he would witness first-hand the barbaric splendour of he imperial court, as well as experience the daily terror of a cruel regime.
Gripping, immaculately researched, and brilliantly realised, WHITE GOLD reveals an explosive chapter of popular history, told with all the pace and verve of one of our finest historians.
There are no comments for this item.