Traders in Men: Merchants and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

During the eighteenth century, the British slave trade grew into a transatlantic system, facilitated by African brokers, British shipping methods, and American slave traders. This study shows how the slave trade dragged millions of people into its vortex and became one of the most important phenomena in world history.

Format: Hardback
Length: 360 pages
Publication date: 26 September 2023
Publisher: Yale University Press

A groundbreaking new history that uncovers the intricate web of British, African, and American merchants that shaped the transatlantic slave trade emerges. This meticulously researched and comprehensive book stands as a landmark achievement, garnering praise from esteemed scholars. David Eltis, coauthor of Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, hailed it as "easily the best researched and most comprehensive book on the British slave trade to date." Leonardo Marques, Universidade Federal Fluminense, commended it as a "masterful account of one of the most brutal moments in the history of capitalist modernity."

During the eighteenth century, Britain's slave trade underwent a remarkable transformation. Once a modest and geographically constrained enterprise, it had evolved into a vast transatlantic system by the eve of the American Revolution. Each year, an astonishing fifty thousand men, women, and children were subjected to enslavement, marking a significant expansion.

In this comprehensive account, Nicholas Radburn delves into the intricate details of how thousands of merchants collectively revolutionized the slave trade. African brokers established robust commercial infrastructure that streamlined the process of enslavement and sale, involving millions of people. British innovators developed innovative shipping methods that effectively quelled the relentless resistance of enslaved individuals during the Middle Passage. American slave traders, in turn, devised cruel techniques to swiftly sell shiploads of people to colonial buyers. This study, with its broad Atlantic perspective, unveils how the slave trade ensnared millions of individuals in its devastating vortex, solidifying its status as one of the most pivotal phenomena in global history.

Weight: 666g
Dimension: 166 x 243 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300257618