The Door of No Return

Starred Review. Culled from previously unexplored papers in the British National Archives by historian St Clair, this gripping history describes the British headquarters at Ghana's Cape Coast Castle, the "last look" point for more than three million men, women and children sold into the 17th-century slave trade. They would have seen majestic breakers crash below the white fortress that functioned as a hot, smelly, utilitarian slave mall before they headed into its bowels. Held together by a skeleton crew of expatriates who often died there, the building bustled with local tribespeople, mulattoes and the odd European woman. St Clair introduces them all through personal correspondence, governors' logs, notes canoed from castle to ship and his own interpretations of artifacts, to recreate perhaps the most impressively detailed picture of slave-trading lives to date. In the end, the book reveals as much of British mores and culture as any history of England. The writing captivates, hinting at the author's intense curiosity that must have sustained copious hours of research. Yet owing to his ability to take in the entire view, the details rarely overwhelm. Coinciding with the bicentennial of the abolition of the Anglo slave trade, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in this essential history. (Apr.)