Deeply researched and revelatory.

Powerful and moving.

She has amplified her early reporting into a vivid and compelling narrative that lays bare the complexity of these tragic events and traces, where possible, the fate of the slaves themselves.

Swarns sticks closely to chronology and strives for an objective account, even as she depends on conjecture to join the recorded history of the two hundred and seventy-two to the broader experience of slavery in the Americas. The result is a vivid, pointillistically detailed narrative that foregrounds the people who were enslaved.

A balanced, comprehensively researched account of a grim period..

Immersive and doggedly reported.