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Title: The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade
ISBN: 1933346051
Author:
William St Clair
Publicate Date: 2007-04-01
Publish: 2007-04-01
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $11.95
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $8.75
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.47
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| Customer Review: |
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1: I feel like I was misled ...
This was indeed a fine book on a certain topic--namely the history of the Cape Coast Castle. However, based on (1) the title of the book ("Door of No Return"), (2) the subtitle of the book ("the history of the Cape Coast Castle AND the Atlantic Slave Trade") and (3) the drawing on the cover of the slaves packed into the slave ship, I naturally expected that this was going to be a book which was basically going to be about the slaves themselves. For example, some of the topics I was hoping/expecting to read about included: (1) How did the slaves come to the castle in the first place (both as a literal matter and in terms of how they were "selected" to go there)?; (2) What was daily life like for the slaves imprisoned there? (What was their diet? How long were they typically there? Were they in chains 24 hours a day? Did they have any freedom of movement? How many were there at a time? etc. etc.); (3) What was the process by which they were placed on the outgoing slave ships? (4) How did the selection process work--i.e. which slaves were picked and why? (5) How did the slave trade process itself work?
Unfortunately none of these topics were touched on in the slightest. In fact the slaves themselves (other than the Castle slaves) seem to be a total afterthought in the book. Instead the focus was solely on the structure itself, including access to it, the outside of it, the inside of it, which officers, soldiers and women lived there, etc. In fairness to the author, the reason the above topics were not discussed MAY be because, as admitted in the Introduction (p. 7), the answers to many of the above questions may simply not be known. However when I bought the book, I didn't know that--I saw the title, the subtitle and the cover drawing.
In short, for the sake of accuracy, the subtitle of the book should have been altered in a subtle but significant way. It should have been called "A history of Cape Coast Castle DURING the slave trade." I wonder whether the impression created by the title, the subtitle and the cover drawing were intentional ...
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2: The Business of Slavery
Written with the Gold Coast of Africa as its center, this remarkable book is an amazing piece of work. The author uses records recovered from Britain's slave forts to recreate the business life of the trade. We learn how and why people were bartered for manufactured goods and the process of assembly and shipping of human cargo. The recovered douments also provide the personal side never meant to be viewed by others. I found this book to be excellent and recommend it thoroughly.
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3: The Door of No Return is a welcome addition to public and college library history shelves.
Written by William St Claire (former Senior Research Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University), The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade is an in-depth history of the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, Africa, and its role it served as headquarters for the horrific British slave trade, until the slave trade's abolishment in 1807. Drawing heavily from years of personal research into the Castle's vast archive of public records and ledges - from letters and correspondence to scribbled notes and even the recipes of trafficked slaves - The Door of No Return offers a unique, in-depth scrutiny of this dark place and phase of human history. Written in plain terms and illustrated with a handful of black-and-white photographs, The Door of No Return is a welcome addition to public and college library history shelves.
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