The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails
by Erik Calonius
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Book Summary Information
Author: Erik CaloniusEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-05
ISBN: 0312343485
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails
Book Review: The Wanderer Hits Home
Summary: 4 Stars
In the book The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails, one is first given a fine portrait of the genteel life of some of the South's more prosperous families. But that picture becomes clouded when business man Charles Lamar of Savannah, Georgia decides to import African slaves long after the trade has been made illegal in the fledgling United States. What ensues are lives turned upside down, deals gone awry, travesties of justice and the underpinnings of secession on the eve of the Civil War.
Erik Calonius has done his homework, quoting from articles from papers on both sides of the Mason Dixon line, as well as providing references to source documents regarding the ship building business of that time, agreements between the United States and Great Britain to patrol the high seas for human contraband and myriad other accounts of the politics of the day. This story has so many twists and turns that no writer of historical fiction could have bested it. But the sad truth is that it is not fiction. In fact this episode has probably not been presented in the average high school history class. I would hope that producers for the History or Discovery channels would bring it out as a documentary film in order to allow access to it in the popular media.
One side effect to reading this book is that I was taken to look back in my own genealogy when I found that one of the key players shared my surname. To my surprise, for better or for worse, I found that I indeed share ancestry with that individual.
A pleasant and heartwarming epilogue does await in the end when one finds oneself asking throughout the book, "Whatever happened to the Africans that were brought in illegally?" But don't skip to the end - you'll want to absorb every detail of this rich story, replete with colorful personalities, action and suspense. Truth is stranger than fiction.
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