White Gold
The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves
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4.4 • 13 Ratings
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
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 the 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.
Customer Reviews
White Gold by Giles Milton
Giles Milton has an amazing way of describing historical events. I have read 4 of his books so far, Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Big Chief Elizabeth, Paradise Lost and now this one. All his books have told me pieces of history that I was not aware of, pieces of history that I knew but had not absorbed and tells it all in a novel like style which creates a story, always centring on real characters who create a human story. His books have helped me, more than anything I learnt at school, to absorb seemingly insignificant events and characters, that lead to extraordinary historical events from British history.
This book tells of ( something I was completely unaware of) the stealing of English citizens from quiet Cornish and Devon villages of their inhabitants to sell as slaves in Morocco, Tunisia and Algiers, as well as the thousands taken from all over Europe and tells of the horrendous cruelty they were subjected to over many decades by the Sultans.
The book follows the fate of one Thomas Pellow who ultimately escapes after 25 years. Fascinating story, Although not his best book, that I would attribute to Paradise Lost, this is still a very readable book
Gulliver's Travails.
First rate book and still relevant today.
On one level a disturbing description of relationships based upon near absolute power and on another level a story of hope and survival.
Sadly we don't learn from history much.