Ian Read: Hierarchies of Slavery, Hardcover sku-19334385

Ian Read's The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822-1888 (sku-19334385) is a hardcover in Latin American History Books. Set in Santos, a southeastern township in Imperial Brazil, it traces enslaved people and owners through multiple records. The book describes moments when enslaved people acted decisively and resisted despite slavery's brutality.

It argues that their demographic backgrounds and their owners' social positions shaped their limited chances to form families, find work that would not kill or maim them, avoid debilitating disease, or leave slavery through legal or illegal means. These hardships were not shared equally.

The book suggests that this hierarchy likely helped slavery persist by sustaining the mistaken belief that social mobility did not require escape from captivity.