In 1804, Liverpool was the largest slave trading port in Great Britain, yet her influential traders felt threatened by the success, in Parliament, of the anti-slavery movement. Few, in Liverpool, condemned the 'Trade'. William King, son of a Liverpool slave trader, sickened by what he experienced aboard a Spanish slaver, was one of the few who did speak out. This epic, set during the dying days of this despicable practice, weaves themes of generational change, moral wickedness, greed, romance, and the fortunes of war as they impact upon the lives of a father and son caught up in the turmoil that preceded the implementation of the British Trade Act of 1807, which would end Britain's involvement in the slave trade. The city of Liverpool is one still scarred by its past involvement with the slave trade. Indeed, the cities prosperity was built on the profits of slavery, and the reverberations of this inheritance continue to impact on the city today. This novel roots the reader firmly in a city on the brink of change, evoking a real sense of the struggles at play, and informing our understanding of the realities of slavery, those who fuelled its continuation and those who brought about its eventual cessation, as well as the legacy inherited by the City of Liverpool and the wider world.
