Black-birding, shanghaiing, kidnapping and the keeping of white slaves by Solomon Islanders were all common forms of enslavement in the South Pacific during the mid-1800s, yet black-birding, the enslavement of natives by whites, was the only practice regarded as an outrage by the white public and the British Empire.

The tale of the cannibal ship taken over from the black-birding criminals known as The Voyage of the Perry, was an infamous contemporary horror story and resulted in British Navy Captains arming natives with rifles against black-birders. During the course of this very entertaining narrative it becomes obvious that slavery was an accepted part of the collectivist society of the Solomon Islands. The final digression on oral history and the skipping of generations in its transmission is quite well done.

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