The Last Slave Ships
New York and the End of the Middle Passage

John Harris’s history of the illegal slave trade, mostly in the 1850s, was new to me. Learning about the concept of “Slave Power” and how it fit into the politics of its time remains his most memorable of many important lessons. This was a belief which, “first developed by the anti-slavery movement......more

The amount of research that went into this historical work is astonishing. This was a completely unknown nook of history for me. It’s an important book with loads of first-rate research. What a travesty that a cheaper spoonful of sugar legitimized the treatment of humans as cargo.......more

A moving story and a very well researched book regarding the last slave ship that sailed after it was ruled illegal. It is a very powerful and very informative read. Not a book that can be read quickly. There is a lot of information to digest, but it is very well worth it.......more

This is far more than just another book about slavery, an excellent study that offers a look behind the scenes at the slave trade business, with particular focus on shipments made after most governments outlawed the trade. Most of us think that the antebellum South represents the boundary for slaver......more

A fascinating and very detailed account of the transatlantic slave trade between 1820 and the end of the Civil War especially at the time when Western Europe was starting to make slavery illegal while the US was turning a blind eye and knowingly allowing the illegal trading to go on and even flouris......more