Customer Reviews
An exceptional historical narrative - By: , 04 Sep 2000 
Using an academic (yet accessible) narrative, Walvin successfully educates the reader about the unspeakable horrors of British slavery. The physical & mental colinisation of the African slaves is brilliantly descirbed, as well as the barbaric conditions that made slavery one of history's most durable institutions. This book should be read by anyone who wishes to unravel the historical fabric of black/white race relationsin the western world.
all this for a smoke and a cup of tea? - By: , 31 Oct 1999 Walvin's conclusion that the slave trade was largely driven by British appetite for tobacco & sugar sounds ludicrous & plausible at the same time. To think that the cravings for sweetness could keep the barbarity of the slave trade going over more than two centuries somehow leave a bitter tastein my modern European mouth--good.
