Philip Hensher

Ending the Vile Traffic

Sweet Water and Bitter: The Ships that Stopped the Slave Trade, by Siân Rees

issue 07 February 2009

Sweet Water and Bitter: The Ships that Stopped the Slave Trade, by Siân Rees

The narratives of slavery have, it’s safe to say, replaced the narratives of imperial adventure in our reading lives, and our moral compasses are orientated by indignation at suffering and exploitation rather than by the contemplation of our ancestors’ achievements.

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