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- One of the finalists awarded a cash prize of the 2025 Museum of African American History Stone Book Award
- Featured text in the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s History School Book Club
- Named a “Best Black History Book“ of 2024 by Black Perspectives, the award-wining blog of the African American Intellectual History Society
Advance praise
Reviews
“A sweeping and essential history of the slave trade.” ― Kirkus
“[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
“Informative.” ― London Review of Books
“Humans in Shackles is a work of virtuosic scholarship.” ― LSE Review of Books
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“…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”
“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
“[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
“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