Black Cargo

"Man's tyranny is as old as civilization itself. From ancient Sumeria to Greece and Rome the idea of personal slavery has long persisted; the serfs of the Middle Ages, toiling in the vineyards of France or on the Russian steppes, were held in bondage by their feudal lords; when the Europeans conquered the New World, they brought the practice of slavery with them. Very soon a triangular trade developed--cheap trinkets and rum shipped to West Africa, black African slaves to the Caribbean and cotton plantations of the American South, and staples like molasses back to Liverpool and other European ports. Using carefully edited documentary material, Richard Howard reviews the status of the slave in ancient times, the role of the Church in condoning medieval serfdom, and the life of the black slaves on the vast American plantations of the ante-bellum Deep South. He studies the impact of Wilberforce's anti-slavery movement within the British Empire, where it was abolished in 1833, and shows how the slavery issue polarized in America, before the Civil War. ... This title is illustrated with many contemporary drawings, engravings and photographs."--from dust jacket.