History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade, 1744-1812

Williams (b. 1847?) was a writer in Liverpool, but apparently not a very successful one. This history, published in 1897 by William Heinemann in London and Edward Howell in Liverpool, seems to be his only published book. The slave trade at the port in western England had been abolished nearly a century before he wrote, but the privateering continued and had recently surged during the US Civil War. Covering first the former then the latter, he recounts the histories of the trades through particular people and periods. Several fold-out pages reproduce original documents. David Eltis (history, Emory U.) provides an introduction. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).