Black death! Battles! Smugglers! Riots! Disasters! Ghosts! Crimes! Bristol has one of the bloodiest histories on record. One of Britain’s key ports, it suffered devastating attacks from every possible invader, from Saxon fleets all the way through to the Nazi bombers of World War II. Meanwhile, adventurers, smugglers, and pirates sailed from its docks, and more than half a million souls sailed into it in chains, victims of the vile trade ended only by the Herculean efforts of the abolitionists—Bristol folk amongst them. Containing hundreds of years of history and the amazing true stories of eccentric residents such as con-woman "Princess Caraboo," who ended her days as a Bristol leech-seller, no Bristol bookshelf is complete without it.