The volume is a great first step to rehabilitate the past of enslaved subjects and the conditions that shaped their lives. This collection of source materials will be of great interest to students and scholars of global slavery, legal history, South Asian studies, and the growing field of Indian Ocean social and cultural histories.

Cultural and Social History: The Journal of the Social History Society

A new perspective on the global history of slavery

International Review of Social History

These rich testimonies provide a unique insight into the neglected experiences of slaves and bonded labourers in the Indian Ocean world. The introduction presents a challenging new agenda for comparative research on the history of global slavery.

Nigel Worden, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Matthias van Rossum is an excellent global historian. He focuses on the Indian Ocean, but has an eye on global slaveries. He starts from a micro-historical perspective, which always brings new insights into global history, offering analyses of Cochin in India, caste and slavery, as well as his own source-based category, "enslavable." Outstanding!

Michael Zeuske, Professor of History, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, Germany

Matthias van Rossum -- one of the very best historians of the Dutch overseas empire -- has collected rich and dramatic sources in Testimonies of Enslavement to illuminate the global history of slavery in new and exciting ways.

Marcus Rediker, Distinguished Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh, USA