ABOUT THIS BOOK

A sweeping narrative history of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas.

During the era of the Atlantic slave trade, more than twelve million enslaved Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas in cramped, inhumane conditions. Many of them died on the way, and those who survived had to endure further suffering in the violent conditions that met them onshore. Covering more than three hundred years, Humans in Shackles grapples with this history by foregrounding the lived experience of enslaved people in tracing the long, complex history of slavery in the Americas.

Based on twenty years of research, this book not only serves as a comprehensive history; it also expands that history by providing a truly transnational account that emphasizes the central role of Brazil in the Atlantic slave trade. Additionally, it is deeply informed by African history and shows how African practices and traditions survived and persisted in the Americas among communities of enslaved people. Drawing on primary sources including travel accounts, pamphlets, newspaper articles, slave narratives, and visual sources such as artworks and artifacts, Araujo illuminates the social, cultural, and religious lives of enslaved people working in plantations and urban areas, building families and cultivating affective ties, congregating and re-creating their cultures, and organizing rebellions.

Humans in Shackles puts the lived experiences of enslaved peoples at the center of the story and investigates the heavy impact these atrocities have had on the current wealth disparity of the Americas and rampant anti-Black racism.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Ana Lucia Araujo is professor of history at Howard University in Washington, DC. She is the author or editor of fifteen books, including, most recently, The Gift: How Objects of Prestige Shaped the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism. Her work has appeared in publications including the Washington Post, Slate, and Newsweek.

REVIEWS

“This is an ambitious and necessary retelling of the history of Atlantic slavery. Araujo sheds fascinating light on slavery as lived experience, on women and the family, and on culture and resistance. Perhaps above all, the book is a call for historians to engage and challenge the manipulation and silencing of slavery’s history in the public sphere.”

— Ada Ferrer, author of Cuba: An American History

“One of the most gifted historians of slavery and its afterlives offers a compelling, provocative, and original interpretation of slave life in the Atlantic world. Mobilizing an astonishing array of published and archival primary sources, Araujo brings enslaved persons to the forefront with their names and their experiences under bondage of life, death, love, spirituality, oppression, resistance, and freedom. Humans in Shackles will be the best introduction to this painful and complex history of slavery in the Atlantic.”

— João José Reis, coauthor of The Story of Rufino: Slavery, Freedom, and Islam in the Black Atlantic

“In this sweeping and essential historical analysis of Atlantic slavery, Araujo shows how slavery contributed to the growth and development of the Americas while emphasizing the role that African history played in shaping the transatlantic slave trade and slave societies. Rather than seeing slavery as an aberration in the history of Western freedom, readers will come to understand slavery as a fundamental institution common to the Americas, with continuing legacies throughout that demand our attention.”

— Vincent Brown, author of Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War

“Humans in Shackles is a brilliant transnational history that will stand out as a landmark work in the field of Atlantic slavery. Araujo is uniquely positioned to produce such a comprehensive and yet human history because of the empathy and imagination she brings to her research and writing. This book is exemplary of the historical imagination in the best way.”

— Toby Green, author of A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution

“A sweeping and essential history of the slave trade.”

— Kirkus

“This extensively researched volume is not for the faint of heart. At 640 pages, it is an essential history of the Atlantic slave trade written by Howard University history professor Ana Lucia Araujo. Araujo’s expert analysis is only outshined by her attentive and empathetic presentation.”

— Ms. Magazine

"...Araujo illuminates the social, cultural, and religious lives of enslaved people working in plantations and urban areas, building families and cultivating affective ties, congregating and re-creating their cultures, and organizing rebellions. Humans in Shackles puts the lived experiences of enslaved peoples at the center of the story and investigates the heavy impact these atrocities have had on the current wealth disparity of the Americas and rampant anti-Black racism."

— Black Perspectives: "The Best Black History Books of 2024"

“This extensively researched volume is not for the faint of heart. At 640 pages, it is an essential history of the Atlantic slave trade written by Howard University history professor Ana Lucia Araujo. Araujo’s expert analysis is only outshined by her attentive and empathetic presentation.”

— Ms. Magazine

"Humans in Shackles is a work of virtuosic scholarship."

— LSE Review of Books

"[Offers] a correction, emphasizing the longevity and scale of
slavery in Brazil and the South Atlantic. . . . Interested in both the sweep of the slave trade and the human complexities of Brazilian society, [Araujo] emphasizes the agonizing struggles of people living under extraordinary constraint."

— Times Literary Supplement

“Groundbreaking. . . . At a time when the right wing is attempting to erase Black history and the history of slavery from public narratives, including in U.S. museums, this book tells the history of slavery in the Americas. It centers Brazil, which imported the largest number of enslaved Africans in the Americas, as well as the African continent and enslaved women.”

— Hammer & Hope

"A monumental contribution to the historiography of Atlantic slavery. This extremely well-researched volume offers a comprehensively academic yet at the same deeply human account of the Atlantic slave trade, distinguished by methodological innovation and a commitment to centering upon the lived experiences of enslaved peoples."

— International Journal of Cuban Studies

"This excellent book is what the subtitle states it is: An Atlantic History of Slavery. Ana Lucia Araujo is a prolific scholar of the memories and afterlives of Atlantic slavery. . . . The prose is vivid and specific, and the illustrations and photographs complement the text. . . . An important achievement."

— William and Mary Quarterly

"One of the most insightful volumes published to date on the transatlantic slave trade. . . . A monumental contribution that will enable specialists and nonspecialists alike to grapple with and make connections between past horrors and present conditions."

— Hispanic American Historical Review

"[A] substantial new work by the prolific Ana Lucia Araujo. . . . Handsomely and originally illustrated, Humans in Shackles draws on both new and familiar sources, especially in the Brazilian context, as well as offering some coverage of the frequently ignored but extensive urban environments of slavery in the plantation Americas. . . . Humans in Shackles will do well across a wide spectrum of readers, from undergraduates and nonacademics to scholars working in the field."

— New West Indian Guide

"Informative."

— London Review of Books

"A magisterial and encyclopedic history of transatlantic slavery—the largest human trafficking in history—and its implications for understanding the history of the modern world. . . . Humans in Shackles is a tour de force on the lived experiences of enslaved men and women."

— African Studies Review

"Humans in Shackles is a significant scholarly and pedagogical contribution. It recenters Brazil and Africa in Atlantic history, challenges Anglophone exceptionalism, and restores enslaved women to their rightful place in the historiography. . . . It will be fundamental reading for academics and students of slavery, gender, empire and African diaspora studies, and will no doubt shape future public history debates and global memory work."

— African and Black Diaspora

"Humans in Shackles will do well across a wide spectrum of readers, from undergraduates and nonacademies to scholars working in the field."

— David Eltis, BRILL

“A sweeping synthesis steeped in cultural history. . . . Araujo is among a select few academics capable of achieving as close to an all-inclusive Atlantic story as one alone can do, and Humans in Shackles stands as one of the top histories of transatlantic slavery.”

— American Historical Review

“A rich history of slavery that accounts for all players but rightly centers the experiences of Africans and their enslaved descendants in the Americas. . . . Accessibly written and judiciously partitioned into short chapters with shorter sections, Humans in Shackles should be required reading for everyone.”

— The Americas

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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