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White Cargo

The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America

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White Cargo

By: Don Jordan, Michael Walsh
Narrated by: Roger Clark
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About this listen

White Cargo is the forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in Britain’s American colonies.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, more than 300,000 white people were shipped to America as slaves. Urchins were swept up from London’s streets to labor in the tobacco fields, where life expectancy was no more than two years. Brothels were raided to provide 'breeders' for Virginia. Hopeful migrants were duped into signing as indentured servants, unaware they would become personal property who could be bought, sold and even gambled away. Transported convicts were paraded for sale like livestock.

Drawing on letters crying for help, diaries and court and government archives, Don Jordan and Michael Walsh demonstrate that the brutalities usually associated with black slavery alone were perpetrated on whites throughout British rule. The trade ended with American independence, but the British still tried to sell convicts in their former colonies, which prompted one of the most audacious plots in Anglo-American history.

This is a saga of exploration and cruelty spanning 170 years that has been submerged under the overwhelming memory of black slavery. White Cargo brings the brutal, uncomfortable story to the surface.

©2007 Don Jordan and Michael Walsh (P)2019 Tantor Media Inc
Great Britain World England American History
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Untold history deserving to be known by all

A piece of British and American history that provides a better understanding of the hardships of a period, their consideration for their fellows (or lack of it), putting another piece to the puzzle which makes us think of Dickens. We get to see that wasn't exclusive of a period but had been going on for centuries. A very different history of the once told was the Promised land.

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Hidden history

if you listen to today's narrative this never happened B.LM. has took over history and wiped the white slave trade away like it never existed.

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WOW

Suppressed his- story reveals even more about the current slave masters of today.

They are the extension of those same families.

It is time for all of us to awaken.

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Eye opening

The almost unknown aspect of the slavery story as seen from a neutral position. It opens one’s eyes to the level people will sink to in the name of profit/greed.

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Astonishing story of injustice

The commercial imperative led owners to exploit white and black people regardless of colour. Indentured servitude was at best temporary slavery for years on end, in horrific conditions , at worst a death sentence.

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Informative

Excellent accounts of often ignored but significant episodes and events in history. Narration marred by unfortunate but avoidable mispronunciations.

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eye opening

We as a human rase have a lot to be ashamed off. This is most definitely one of them.

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Good listen

Good listen but seems to hinge on a generic critique of capitalism, repeating the point slavery was a for profit endevour. sadly no lines drawn between indentured servitude and the Soviet Gulag system.

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This should be taught in every school.

As a black listener I'm overjoyed at this books tellings of the slave trade without having to go down black victim hood road. As I've been told how it actually was by family members in Jamaica in which their parents worked the plantations along side the Irish. Slavery was never a purely "BLACK" affair it was a corporate one in which everyone of lower class was looked upon as a profitable good to sell.
This incredible book should be taught in schools everywhere. As mainstream media propaganda proliferates false or half truths about this time to sow division amongst the people's of Euro & Afro heritage.

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Shocking Story of White Slavery

This is an important book because the extent of white slavery and indentured servants in the New World isn't widely known.

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