"Radburn's definitive and accessible debut lays bare the cold-blooded economic engine of the Atlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century, demonstrating how merchants in Britain, the U.S., and Africa refined their business practices to maximize their income. Radburn provides just the right amount of detail, deftly balancing individual stories with objective data. The result is both an enlightening economic investigation and an unsparing documentation of atrocity."-- Publishers Weekly "Redefines how historical research approaches the different phases that together constituted the transatlantic slave trade."--Camilla de Koning, Journal of Global Slavery "One of the most shocking books I have ever read. Radburn clinically and mercilessly details exactly how the trade operated.

"--Neill Denny, Book Brunch "Nicholas Radburn's new book is a well-written, thought-provoking, and fascinating addition to a growing body of literature that portrays the slave trade not as a static business . but instead as a business whose contours changed over time because of profit-seeking decisions by merchants."--Matthew David Mitchell, EH.net Shortlisted for the 2024 Wolfson History Prize, sponsored by The Wolfson Foundation Finalist for the 2023 #Slaveryarchive Book Prize, sponsored by The #Slaveryarchive Digital Initiative Winner of The James A. Rawley Prize in the integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century, sponsored by the American Historical Association "A meticulously researched account of how British slave merchants in their interactions with African agents made very calculated economic decisions in order to maximize the profits made from the slave trade, and how these decisions impacted Atlantic African societies and contributed to dehumanizing African men, women, and children."--Ana Lucia Araujo, Howard University "An illuminating study of the raw ambition, brutal efficiency, and networked strategies of violence that underpinned the explosion of 18th-century British Atlantic-world slave trading. Radburn makes a compelling case for why these vaguely remembered 'merchants' should be reclaimed from respectability."--Maeve Ryan, author of Humanitarian Governance and the British Antislavery World System "This is a landmark study given its clear status as easily the best researched and most comprehensive book on the British slave trade to date.

"--David Eltis, coauthor of Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade "This definitive analysis of the British slave trade, encompassing Europe, Africa, and the Americas, blends quantitative and qualitative research in a clear-eyed, chilling, and convincing account of a business even more ruthless than abolitionists imagined."--Philip Morgan, Johns Hopkins University "A masterful account of one of the most brutal moments in the history of capitalist modernity. Radburn brilliantly details all aspects of the process of commodification of human beings in the Liverpool slave trade, vividly depicting the long journeys endured by Africans in Africa, across the Atlantic, and in the Americas."--Leonardo Marques, Universidade Federal Fluminense.