Squadron: Ending the African slave trade

摘要

It is refreshing to read an abolitionary narrative that is not focused on the Atlantic, but instead on the much older and longer-lasting Indian Ocean trade in enslaved Africans. Broich takes an interesting though challenging angle, preferring to anchor the narrative around four personalities: Leopold Heath, George Sulivan, Edward Meara and Philip Colomb. All four men are relatively unknown to scholars of the transatlantic slave trade, though the George Sulivan and Philip Colomb are arguably better known by scholars of Indian Ocean slavery. Edward Meara may be familiar to scholars of the Atlantic slave trade and Leopold Heath had a distinguished career becoming a rear-admiral in 1871. The regional characters involved at the African end of the trade have received due attention for their interplay with these four primary characters. The book is very much about the anti-slavery campaign at sea and the frictions in Britain's approach to ending a trade in the face of growing international and local interests. Broich unravels the interconnected relationships of this group of Royal Navy men charged with a singular aim, and it is this interplay that makes for interesting reading, even for those familiar with some, if not all, of the four personalities. This book adds new dimensions to George Sulivan's Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters and on the Eastern Coast of Africa, as well as Philip Colomb's Slave Catching in the Indian Ocean, both first published in 1873.