A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa

A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa PDF Author: Emma Christopher
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191623520
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
This is a story lost to history for over two hundred years; a dirty secret of failure, fatal misjudgement and desperate measures which the British Empire chose to forget almost as soon as it was over. In the wake of its most crushing defeat, the America War of Independence, the British Government began shipping its criminals to West Africa. Some were transported aboard ships going to pick up their other human cargo: African slaves. When they arrived at their destination, soldiers and even convicts were forced to work in the region's slave-trading forts guarding the human merchandise. In a few short years the scheme brought death, wholesale desertions, mutiny, piracy and even murder. Some of the most egregious crimes were not committed by the exported criminals but by those sent out to guard them. Acts of wanton desperation added to rash transgressions as those whom society had already thrown out realised that they had nothing left to lose. As jail and prison hulks overflowed, and as every other alternative settlement proved unsuitable, the British Government gambled and decided to send its criminals as far away as possible, to the great south land sighted years before by Captain James Cook. Out of the embers of the African debacle came the modern nation of Australia. The extraordinary tale is now being told for the first time - how a small band of good-for-nothing members of the British Empire spanned the world from America, to Africa, and on to Australia, profoundly if utterly unwittingly changing history.

A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa

A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa PDF Author: Emma Christopher
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191623520
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Get Book

Book Description
This is a story lost to history for over two hundred years; a dirty secret of failure, fatal misjudgement and desperate measures which the British Empire chose to forget almost as soon as it was over. In the wake of its most crushing defeat, the America War of Independence, the British Government began shipping its criminals to West Africa. Some were transported aboard ships going to pick up their other human cargo: African slaves. When they arrived at their destination, soldiers and even convicts were forced to work in the region's slave-trading forts guarding the human merchandise. In a few short years the scheme brought death, wholesale desertions, mutiny, piracy and even murder. Some of the most egregious crimes were not committed by the exported criminals but by those sent out to guard them. Acts of wanton desperation added to rash transgressions as those whom society had already thrown out realised that they had nothing left to lose. As jail and prison hulks overflowed, and as every other alternative settlement proved unsuitable, the British Government gambled and decided to send its criminals as far away as possible, to the great south land sighted years before by Captain James Cook. Out of the embers of the African debacle came the modern nation of Australia. The extraordinary tale is now being told for the first time - how a small band of good-for-nothing members of the British Empire spanned the world from America, to Africa, and on to Australia, profoundly if utterly unwittingly changing history.

A Merciless Place

A Merciless Place PDF Author: Emma Christopher
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199695938
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
The disastrous history of the British transportation of convicts to West Africa after the loss of the North American colonies, and before the opening of Australia as a new destination for Britan's criminal classes

A Merciless Place

A Merciless Place PDF Author: Emma Christopher
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199782555
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
"First published in Australia in 2010 by Allen & Unwin"--T.p. verso.

A Merciless Place

A Merciless Place PDF Author: Emma Christopher
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1742372279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
In this book, the author has found the 'missing link' between the American Revolution and The Fatal Shore, and tells the extraordinary story - lost for two centuries - of how a failed British attempt to establish a penal colony in West Africa led to their eventual decision to abandon their African plans and establish a new colony in the recently discovered colony known as New South Wales.

The Merciless

The Merciless PDF Author: Danielle Vega
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593113578
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
"Page-to-page Stephen King-style terror..."—Booklist "The Merciless is chilling...think 'Mean Girls' meets 'The Exorcist.'"—MTV.com “Pretty Little Liars fans, get a sneak peek at your new favorite book The Merciless…a nail biting thriller.”—Seventeen Magazine Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream. Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed. Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls...unless she wants to be next. By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?

Second Place

Second Place PDF Author: Rachel Cusk
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374720797
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A haunting fable of art, family, and fate from the author of the Outline trilogy. A woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape where she lives with her family. Powerfully drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision might penetrate the mystery at the center of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets in, his provocative presence itself becomes an enigma—and disrupts the calm of her secluded household. Second Place, Rachel Cusk’s electrifying new novel, is a study of female fate and male privilege, the geometries of human relationships, and the moral questions that animate our lives. It reminds us of art’s capacity to uplift—and to destroy.

A Place to Live

A Place to Live PDF Author: Natalia Ginzburg
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1609800303
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Arguably one of Italy’s greatest contemporary writers, Natalia Ginzburg has been best known in America as a writer’s writer, quiet beloved of her fellow wordsmiths. This collection of personal essays chosen by the eminent American writer Lynne Sharon Schwartz from four of Ginzburg’s books written over the course of Ginzburg’s lifetime was a many-years long project for Schwartz. These essays are deeply felt, but also disarmingly accessible. Full of self-doubt and searing insight, Ginzburg is merciless in her attempts to describe herself and her world—and yet paradoxically, her self-deprecating remarks reveal her deeper confidence in her own eye and writing ability, as well as the weight and nuance of her exploration of the conflict between humane values and bureaucratic rigidity.

Freedom in White and Black

Freedom in White and Black PDF Author: Emma Christopher
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN: 0299316203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
A gripping true account of African slaves and white slavers whose fates are seemingly reversed, shedding fascinating light on the early development of the nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Australia, and on the role of former slaves in combatting the illegal trade.

Merciless

Merciless PDF Author: Diana Palmer
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1459227018
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Tall, dark and eligible? That's all that matters to the women of Jacobsville when it comes to handsome and aloof FBI agent Jon Blackhawk. But if it were up to him, he would never settle down. Luckily, Jon has a gatekeeper: his efficient and reliable assistant, Joceline Perry. Without her help, he'd be at the mercy of husband hunters—but the more he comes to rely on her, the more he notices how invaluable she really is.… While Joceline can't deny that her boss is attractive, as a single mother with responsibilities she's determined to be professional. But when Jon is accosted by a criminal seeking revenge, she comes to his aid—fueling the spark that is growing between them. As the danger to Jon's safety grows, Joceline stands by his side. But when the smoke clears, will the man who avoided love realize that all he ever needed was right there all along?

Merciless

Merciless PDF Author: Jacqueline Pawl
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578440316
Category : Assassins
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
Merciless is a Young Adult fantasy epic perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass and George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Mercy is an orphaned seventeen-year-old apprentice in the illustrious Assassins' Guild, and is eager to prove her battle prowess to the Guildmaster, her tutors, and her childhood tormentors.