A review by jeffburns
On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe by Caroline Dodds Pennock

informative medium-paced

3.0

First, kudos to the longest "Introduction" in publishing history.  It has set a record.  It went on and on and on and on.  Why?  Basically so that the author could explain, justify, and apologize for all the word choices that she made because the language of writing history is so triggering these days.

Now, this book is by no means thrilling, exciting, suspenseful, or a page-turner, but it is groundbreaking in a major way. There are lots and lots of histories of European contacts with indigenous Americans and the African slave trade and the African  Diaspora, but this book is unique because it literally  takes the opposite direction. From 1492 to the early 17th century, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people from the Caribbean and the Americas were taken to Europe, mostly to the Iberian Peninsula. Some were captured and enslaved, some volunteered or were sent by their rulers, maybe in hopes of receiving benefits for their people or for themselves. Some never returned home, some did, and some made multiple trips back and forth. Some were treated cruelly as property, some were presented as ambassadors in royal courts, some become affiliated with religious orders, and some used European laws  and courts to fight for their freedom and equality. 

Pennock has scoured archives and contemporary accounts to present the stories of these people, those who moved between two worlds. It's a fresh and necessary perspective.