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shannanh's review against another edition
5.0
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.
me300k_h1st's review against another edition
5.0
If you're like me, you grew up with a vague school story of a triangle of trade between Africa, the West Indies, and the U.S. If you wonder how the slave trafficking worked, this is a good place to start. John Harris is a well researched writer. He can tell you who some of the major traffickers were, what nations believed their interests were, how and why that changed, as well as the policy and practical challenges to ending the international trade. I had been unaware that much trafficking was conducted through (often Portuguese) offices in New York. U.S. citizens would buy slave ships, many of which were built and outfitted in America, on behalf of international traffickers for a fee. This made the system more secretive, and protected them from laws which only applied to citizens. The British developed their spy system in part to spy on traffickers in the US because it was refusing to stop protecting traffickers by allowing international ship owners from flying US colors, which the British lacked the authority to board. Do you wonder what happened to captives on ships caught by British or other nations' navies? That, and a lot of other valuable information can be found in this book. The audiobook reader does a pretty good job with Spanish and Portuguese names as far as I can tell. I highly recommend The Last Slave Ships.
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