In this thoroughly researched book, American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644–1865, Sean M. Kelley pays special attention to the “ships going out” phase of the American slave trade, by which he means when American merchants and mariners transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean between 1644 and 1865. Kelley's research interests mainly focus on new world slavery, the transatlantic slave trade, Africans in the Americas, and maritime history. Prior to the publication of this new book, he had published two important works on slavery and the slave trade: Los Brazos de Dios: A Plantation Society in the Texas Borderlands, 1821-1865 (2010) and The Voyage of the Slave Ship “Hare”: A Journey into Captivity from Sierra Leone to South Carolina (2019). Building on his previous research, as well as the works of Elizabeth Donnan, Jay Coughtry, Leonardo Marques, Sharla Fett, John Harris, Philip Curtin, David Eltis, and David Richardson, among others, Kelley attempts to explore how American merchants actively engaged in the transatlantic slave trade.

Divided into five thematic parts, American Slavers provides a richly detailed analysis of how American merchants participated in the Atlantic slave trade. Part one discusses how both Puritan settlers and Anglo-Dutch traders were involved in the slave trade between 1644 and 1700. Part two deals with how American slave traders transported approximately 121,000 captives between 1700 and 1775. Part three considers the Americanization of the slave trade between 1775 and 1807, during which American merchants were forced to close their commercial ties with metropolitan merchants of the British Empire and open new slave markets in both Africa and the Americas. Part four analyzes the experiences of African captives, as well as the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on two port cities, Newport and Bristol, Rhode Island. Finally, part five considers how American slavers attempted to evade the international slave trade ban of 1808 by moving operations to Cuba and Brazil, where they energetically took part in the illegal slave trade between 1808 and 1865. Through a focused study of American slavers, Kelley claims that the United States was a slave trading nation, though not a major one relative to European empires in the larger history of the slave trade.

Kelley aims to shed new light on our understanding of the transatlantic slave trade American slavers took part in. In the past few decades, historians of the slave trade have been interested in examining how enslaved Africans came aboard British ships and arrived in southern ports, what Kelley refers to as the “ships coming in” iteration of the American slave trade. Yet these historians, according to Kelley, have ignored how American slave ships frequently sailed from Northern seaports and carried most of their enslaved Africans to the Caribbean, a phenomenon he refers to as “ships going out.” Rather than restricting his focus to North America, Kelley examines American slave trading with Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and even the Indian Ocean. In particular, Kelley considers the impact of slave trading on two American ports, Newport and Bristol of Rhode Island. Based on new evidence he has uncovered primarily from Rhode Island, he makes a strong argument that only these two can be considered true slaving ports, because the slave trade permanently shaped the local economy and society. For example, the D'Wolfs family of Newport not only accumulated large fortunes through the slave trade but also invested in stocks in banks, insurance companies, and cotton factories. Therefore, Kelley concludes that the “ships going out” slave trade is crucial for renewing our understanding of American slave trade.

The great strength of this book lies in how it extensively draws on rare primary sources collected at libraries from both England and the United States, including various manuscripts, account books, letters, and diaries. Kelley exhaustively analyzes slave ships’ papers and letters from merchants and ship captains, many of which were previously ignored, from slave ships captured by the British Royal Navy in the 1790s and 1800s. These sources not only offer detailed accounts of slave voyages but also open a window into the complex process of slave trading. Through a close examination of more than one hundred slave narratives from upper Guinea and approximately thirty from the Gold Coast, he explores the process of enslavement in Africa, as well as their movement through the Atlantic world. Based on a stunning amount of archival research, Kelley claims that slave trading needs to be seen as integral to the larger story of American slavery.

This book, however, has its drawbacks. Kelley does not pay particular attention to the impact of epidemics and natural disasters on the Atlantic slave trade. Nor does he consider how slave traders from Africa, metropolitan Britain, and North America collectively cooperated with each other in slave trading. For readers interested in this topic, perhaps they should take a look at Nicholas Radburn's new book, Traders in Men: Merchants and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (2023). These omissions, however, cannot take away Kelley's achievement in advancing the state of this field.

Overall, Kelley makes a significant contribution to historical understanding of the role American slavers played in the Atlantic slave trade. Kelley's classification of slave trading between “ships going out” and “ships coming in” opens a way to explore methodological issues related to the Atlantic slave trade. Without doubt, Kelley has written what will become one of the indispensable books on the trade of enslaved Africans in the Atlantic world. American Slavers will interest scholars of the Atlantic slave trade, as well as general readers who seek a better understanding of the American trade in sending cargo ships full of African captives to the Caribbean.