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Squadron: Ending the African Slave Trade
by
Despite the British being early abolitionists, a significant slave trade remained down the east coast of Africa through the mid-1800s, even after the Civil War ended it in the United States. What further undermined the British Empire was that many of the vessels involved in the trade were themselves British ships.
The Royal Navy’s response was to dispatch a squadron to patr ...more
The Royal Navy’s response was to dispatch a squadron to patr ...more
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Hardcover, 336 pages
Published
November 28th 2017
by Harry N. Abrams
(first published November 7th 2017)
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Start your review of Squadron: Ending the African Slave Trade

Squadron is a very readable account of a little-known facet of the trade in African slaves in the Indian Ocean. Long after the trade was made illegal in the British Empire in 1807, followed by the USA in 1809 and most other European countries in the next ten years, the ownership of slaves remained legal in many countries for decades. Illegal traders in captured Africans continued to operate. The trans-Atlantic trade had effectively been stopped by the middle of the century, largely by the Royal
...more

This is an unlikely book for me to pick up. Yet I did. And I read it through. Fascinating, thorough look at the British Navy's effort to eliminate or at least slow the trade in human beings in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia in the mid-19th century. The author uses a myriad of primary sources, including court records, ships' logs, diaries, books by the ship captains themselves, etc. His detailed research allows him to insert facts such as the weather on a specific day, a person's thoughts abou
...more

I am indebted to Somali Bookaholic who recommended this book to me in conversation about my review of Petals of Blood. It’s a very interesting book about four British naval captains who in the mid 18th century undertook anti-slavery activity off the African coast without always having had official authority to do so.
Britain had abolished slavery, but still, there was significant trade even after the end of the American Civil War. Some of the ships involved were British operating illegally and so ...more
Britain had abolished slavery, but still, there was significant trade even after the end of the American Civil War. Some of the ships involved were British operating illegally and so ...more

3.5 stars.
First, the writing was excellent. Details and events were felt natural and part of the whole narrative rather than a break in the writing.
Two, this was a biography of Meara, Heath, Colomb, and Sulivan more than history but not by much.
Three, I wish the author had started the book with a general overview of slavery, the slave trade from Africa, who took part in that trade, and what happened to support and/or stop the slave trade prior to the squadron starting their work. I felt that I ...more
First, the writing was excellent. Details and events were felt natural and part of the whole narrative rather than a break in the writing.
Two, this was a biography of Meara, Heath, Colomb, and Sulivan more than history but not by much.
Three, I wish the author had started the book with a general overview of slavery, the slave trade from Africa, who took part in that trade, and what happened to support and/or stop the slave trade prior to the squadron starting their work. I felt that I ...more

John Broich's book looks at one of the last great endeavours to end the slave trade off the east coast of Africa, as carried out by four British naval officers. This book explains some of the other naval officers who appear in Sir Leopold Heath's photo albums so I suppose I should write them up.
...more

An amazing and thoroughly well researched tale, let down by exceptionally poor writing, confused chronology, disjointed chapters and sub-sections and a desperate need of a good editor ...

Dec 11, 2017
Catherine
marked it as to-read
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