This book provides a good overview of the British efforts to stop the African slave trade, primarily on the west coast, but also with some detail along the east coast. Edwards tells the story of one of the many conflicts the British navy was involved in during the nineteenth century. As such, it will be of interest to those examining British foreign policy in early Colonial Africa, the Victorian British navy and the slave trade.

The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord - Vol. 32, No. 3 (Fall 2022)

This book was of particular interest to me because it touches on a topic that I will cover in a future Kydd title. On 16 March 1807, the British Parliament passed The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. In the following year the Royal Navy’s African Squadron was formed, its mission to stop and search ships at sea suspected of carrying slaves from Africa to the Americas and the Middle East. The Royal Navy went further, and took the fight to the enemy, sailing boldly up uncharted rivers and creeks to attack the barracoons where the slaves were assembled ready for shipment. For much of its long campaign against the evil of slavery Britain’s Navy fought alone and unrecognised. Ranged against it were the African chiefs, who sold their own people into slavery, the Arabs, who rode shotgun on the slave caravans to the coast, and the slave ships of the rest of the world, heavily armed, and prepared to do battle to protect their right to traffic in the forbidden black ivory. The war was long and bitter and the cost to the Royal Navy in ships and men grievously heavy.

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Julian Stockwin

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Ships Monthly

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Maritime Engineering Journal - Autumn 2021

I am glad that I was able to read this book. It is extremely informative and not a lot of people (including me) know enough about this subject. I learned a lot while reading this book.

NetGalley, Heather D

It's compelling and high time the men that did the work on the ground to physically stop slavers, were recognised.

NetGalley, Joshua Cartwright

A very interesting look at slave trading in the 1800’s and the efforts to stop the trade by the British Navy. This is not a well known effort and the stories were very well told. It was an extremely informative book.

NetGalley, Ron Baumer