An appalling trade revealed in the lives of three men

In Empireland by Sangham Sanghera (see my review here) the author suggests that you read The Trader, The Owner, The Slave by James Walvin and it was a recommendation that I am pleased that I followed because this is an exceptional history book which shines a light on the Atlantic slave trade by looking at the lives of three individuals involved in it.

James Newton the author of a favourite hymn ‘Amazing Grace.’ Newton had been many things in his life, but what includes him in this story is his time as a slave captain, who negotiated in Western Africa to purchase the slaves, transported them to the West Indies, to be sold, before transporting the wealth back to Liverpool. Walvin takes you through Newton’s life, even to his ordination and his evangelical preaching. Newton eventually became an abolitionist but he never revealed the full extent of what he did on those ships or explained his role publically, although he looked back on that time with shame.

Thomas Thistlewood was a slave owner who left very interesting diaries. Thistlewood moved to Jamaica to work on other plantations and eventually became an owner himself. His diaries record his interactions and work on the plantation, from what he did to what he inflicted on the slaves who disobeyed. We also learn that he took a common law wife from one of the slaves and had a son by her and took care of her in his will. We learn a lot about the slavers attitude towards the slaves, how they often had sexual relationships with some, got on with some and beat others.

Olaudah Equiano was a slave and died a free man. Between birth and death he led many different lives, left an account of his life, which was famous in his lifetime but largely forgotten since, and became part of the abolitionist movement. Even as a freed slave life was still dangerous for him in England, the West Indies or in the Americas.

The three very different men that emerge from the pages of this book were all shaped by African slavery. They reveal the contradictions and complexities of the appalling business and its effects on all those involved, whatever their role.

This is an excellent book, very readable, and shows Britain’s past in a different light.