The Economist publishes book review defending white slave owners

A book reviewer for The Economist has has triggered an online backlash after defending white slave owners, and denounced a US history book on slavery as biased against white people.

Lupita Nyong’o, from left, Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor in a scene from "12 Years A Slave." (Fox Searchlight/AAP)

The book titled The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by historian Ed Baptist, argued that the United State's rise to economic prominence was largely due to the country's dependence on slave labour. 

The Economist review, which had no byline, denounced the book as being biased against white slave owners. 

"Slave owners surely had a vested interest in keeping their “hands” ever fitter and stronger to pick more cotton. Some of the rise in productivity could have come from better treatment. Unlike Mr Thomas, Mr Baptist has not written an objective history of slavery. Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains. This is not history; it is advocacy."

Adding to the Economist's blunder was the caption accompanying a photo illustrating the story taken from the film 12 years a slave with the hideously offensive caption below.

Many Twitter users have expressed their shock and outrage, with some calling the review a "whitewashing" of American history.

What do you think about The Economist's book review?