Book · 2016
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
by Andrés Reséndez
Andres Resendez reconstructs five centuries of Indian enslavement in the Americas — a system that ran parallel to African chattel slavery and outlasted it.
What does Reddit think of The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America?
Twenty mentions across two subreddits over seven years, and 17 of them live in r/AskHistorians. That concentration tells you what the book is: a specialist citation, not a general-audience breakout. The three mentions in r/history are older (last seen in 2021) and appear in reading-list threads on Native North American history. Sentiment scores neutral across both subs, which in this context means no detractors — just steady, repeated professional endorsement without the friction of a contested argument. The clearest signal comes from the ↑223 comment in r/AskHistorians, where a historian calls it "the single best book to understand the geographic and temporal impact of the indigenous slave trade." That's a pointed claim about scope and utility, and nobody in the data pushes back. The ↑1854 thread, an indigenous-history reading list, drops it into the intermediate tier alongside other contact-period titles. Resendez's specific argument — that Indian enslavement ran from the earliest Spanish incursions through the late nineteenth century, affecting perhaps 2.5 million people — makes it a structural counterpart to the African-slavery narrative rather than a footnote to it.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Indian enslavement in Spanish colonial America
- · The geographic and temporal span of the indigenous slave trade
- · Structural parallels between Indian and African chattel slavery
- · Contact-period violence and labor extraction
- · Indigenous history historiography
Common praise
- + The ↑223 r/AskHistorians comment calls it the single best book on the geographic and temporal impact of the indigenous slave trade — a specific claim that no commenter in the data disputes.
- + Appears repeatedly in curated reading lists by historians who specialize in indigenous history and the contact period, surviving seven years of thread activity without being displaced.
- + Frames Indian enslavement as a parallel system to African chattel slavery rather than a footnote, which gives readers a structural argument they can use across other history reading.
Common criticism
- − No commenter in the 20 mentions registers a complaint about the argument or the prose, but the book never surfaces outside specialist threads — it hasn't crossed into casual recommendation territory.
- − The r/history mentions dry up after 2021, suggesting the book's reach may not be expanding into general history audiences the way some contact-period titles have.
Who it's for
Readers already working through indigenous or colonial history who want the argument that fills the gap left by African-slavery-centric narratives. The r/AskHistorians historians who cite it most often (17 of the 20 total mentions) treat it as the authoritative text on indigenous slave trade scope — if that question interests you, this is where Reddit sends you. Students in courses on the colonial Americas or Native North American history will find it aligns with the syllabi those threads recommend. If you're looking for an entry-level survey, the same r/AskHistorians lists that include this book consistently front-load Charles Mann's 1491 first.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“That's great that you want to learn more about U.S. history! I focus on indigenous history, as well as the indigenous slave trade, and in the list below highlight some of my favorite books, with a little nod to Texas/Western U.S. history. I'm going to recommend some of my favorites below, in a roug…
“Based on personal experience, and the questions posted in this sub, the typical American lacks a meaningful understanding of pretty much every aspect of indigenous history. There are a ton of fascinating books, covering a huge range of topics related to the deep history of the New World, but those b…
“**Native North American History (specializing in the contact period, infectious disease, and the native slave trade)** **Novice:** * Charles Mann 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus is a great place to start your j…
“The single best book to understand the geographic and temporal impact of the indigenous slave trade is *The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America* by A…
“One of the factors that gets frequently overlooked in all of this is enslavement. And enslavement in the southeast was primarily a British affair. Virginia was established in 1607 at Jamestown, and after devastating Tsenacommacah (the Powhatan Confederacy) through warfare numerous Virginians turned …
“Cameron's work is terrific. It always strikes me as being so thoughtful and interesting. From a historian's perspective, I'd also like to point out (in case you haven't seen them yet): * John Putnam Demos, *The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America* (New York: Vintage Books, 1994). …
“This really depends on who, where, and when you would like to learn about. We got two continents and ~20,000 years to cover, so let me know if there are specific topics of interest. I'm going to recommend some of my favorites below, in a rough order of increasing difficulty for an absolute newbie, …
“I recommend some great introductions to New World history that are written with an engaging style, and geared toward newbies. * Charles Mann 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus is a great place to start your journey…
Convinced? Pick up The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America — counted from the comments, not curated.
Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas
Jeffrey Ostler
Jeffrey Ostler traces how Native nations held together from the American Revolution through Bleeding Kansas while U.S. policy ground toward erasure.
Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
Daniel K. Richter
Daniel K. Richter's colonial history flips the map, reading European settlement from indigenous vantage points that colonial archives almost never preserved.
One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark
Colin G. Calloway
A history of the Great Plains told through the winter counts — pictographic calendars tribes used to track time — spanning 20,000 years of indigenous life before and after contact.
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
Matthew Restall
Matthew Restall takes seven stories every American thinks they know about the Spanish Conquest and explains, one chapter at a time, why each one is wrong.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Charles C. Mann
Charles Mann reconstructs the Americas before Columbus — bigger populations, denser cities, and more deliberate landscapes than most history classes ever admitted.
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America — frequently asked
What does Reddit think of The Other Slavery?+
Consistent specialist endorsement with no dissent. All 20 mentions come from r/AskHistorians (17) and r/history (3), and the clearest verdict is the ↑223 comment calling it 'the single best book to understand the geographic and temporal impact of the indigenous slave trade.' That framing recurs in other threads without challenge. It's a book historians recommend to other historians, or to readers who've already built some foundation in the period.
Is The Other Slavery a good starting point for indigenous history?+
Depends on where you're starting. The r/AskHistorians reading lists that include it — including the ↑1854 thread — typically place introductory titles like 1491 before it. The book's argument assumes familiarity with the broad outlines of Spanish colonialism and the contact period. Readers who already have that context will find it more rewarding than those coming in cold.
Which subreddits recommend The Other Slavery, and how often?+
r/AskHistorians accounts for 17 of the 20 total mentions, almost always in curated indigenous-history or colonial-Americas reading lists. r/history contributes 3 mentions, last tracked in 2021. There's no activity outside those two subs in the data. The r/AskHistorians concentration is about as high as it gets for a history title in this dataset.
How does The Other Slavery fit alongside other books on American slavery?+
Reddit positions it as a structural parallel to, not a replacement for, the African chattel slavery literature. The ↑223 r/AskHistorians comment frames it specifically around geographic and temporal scope — the indigenous slave trade ran from the earliest Spanish incursions into the late nineteenth century. Commenters treat it as filling a distinct gap rather than competing with titles focused on the transatlantic trade.