Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave Trade by Seed, Patricia
Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave Trade by Seed, Patricia

Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave Trade

Kirkus Best Book of 2025 How the early Portuguese Empire facilitated the modern slave trade. The Portuguese...
$59.11 USD
$111.99 USD
$59.11 USD
Please hurry! Only 75 left in stock
Author: Patricia Seed
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $59.11
Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave Trade by Seed, Patricia

Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave Trade

$111.99 $59.11
Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave Trade by Seed, Patricia

Sails and Shadows: How the Portuguese Opened the Atlantic and Launched the Slave Trade

$111.99 $59.11
Author: Patricia Seed
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Description
Kirkus Best Book of 2025

How the early Portuguese Empire facilitated the modern slave trade.

The Portuguese conquered the challenges of sailing the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean, extending their colonial empire along Africa's western shores. With their dedication to developing new sailing techniques and groundbreaking new knowledge of weather patterns and ocean currents, Portuguese mariners set the tone for the Age of Exploration. But their navigational achievements had horrific consequences for the people of western Africa: subjection to the slave trade.

Patricia Seed examines the historical and climatic odds that Portuguese seafarers overcame to be the first Europeans to tame the Atlantic. Using insights from fields ranging from oceanography to ethnography, she recounts how the Portuguese rapidly innovated and achieved profound new understandings of the ocean and sailing. At the same time, she foregrounds the reality that these innovations enabled them to inflict unimaginable cruelty as, against sometimes violent resistance, they forged what became their spoils of empire: the lucrative trade in human cargo that enslaved millions across Africa and beyond. Sails and Shadows is a history of incredible ingenuity outweighed and overshadowed by the horrors it wrought.

Author: Patricia Seed
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780520415874


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2025

About the Author
Patricia Seed is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. She is the award-winning author of To Love, Honor, and Obey in Colonial Mexico; American Pentimento: The Invention of Indians and the Pursuit of Riches; and Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492-1640.
Shipping & Return

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Review