Throughout the annals of human history runs a dark vein recording the epic of man's inhumanity to man. While some of these horrors are better known than others, the concept of human slavery seems to have been with us since earliest times. Today, not only do we continue to deal with the long-term effects of this heinous practice, but there is ample evidence that slavery continues in various parts of the world.Our friend Doug Mitchell has produced a marvelous book, Slavery, an Untold Story, that in just its few hundred pages provides an incisive study into a subject that most of us would like to forget, and, we suspect, would like to think, is no longer practiced.
In the first part of Slavery, Mitchell traces the saga of Isaac Logan, a young Massachusetts sailor, serving aboard his family's merchant fleet in 1740. During a stopover in England, he is kidnapped and taken to Barbados and sold into the slavery-based sugar plantations. When he gets the chance to "escape" to a British navy ship and quickly learns that the forced labor of slavery comes in many forms. As we continue to follow Isaac's travails, we not only see the industrial brutality of the west African thugs who capture and sell their countrymen to the slave ships, but also, the many other routes into slavery including the jails of Britain and the troubled areas of Ireland and Scotland. Most of us think of slavery in terms of black Africans brought, as slaves, to the southern U.S. States, where the practice would one day nearly destroy our country. Sadly, the reality is much broader in terms of who is pulled into slavery's greedy maw, and where those slaves end up.
The second part of the book finds a present day Boston newspaper attempting to publish a declarative study of slavery. Owned by the descendants of Isaac Logan, the discussions around the editing table examines many of the issues still being dealt with as a result of slavery. When the newspaper sends reporters to Africa to do further research, they find that the practice of slavery, thought by many to be an evil of the past, is alive and well in parts of dark continent. The experience of one of the reporters is especially gruelling as it brings the modern face of slavery into startling focus.
Doug Mitchell writes with insight and clarity as he manages to bring a subject that most of us wishes locked into the far past into a stark, present-day focus. The one thing we found wanting was a bibliography of his sources. He has whetted our appetite and we would have liked to have some guidance as to where to seek more information.
Do yourself a favor and read this book. You will find it interesting and thought-provoking.
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