Branding a human being was a powerful symbol of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Along with the collar, chain and whip, branding remains a potent emblem of the centuries-long trauma experienced by millions of Africans taken from that continent.

This project represents direct engagement with evidence of branding to produce a traditional monograph, an edited volume and a visual, searchable database permitting both scholars and the general public to understand the extent of this injustice. From the branding irons on display at plantation museums to the re-enactment of the deed in cinema, branding holds a unique stigma: it represents the moment of commodification. Historically confined to criminals, adulators and deserters, branding spread widely in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The act of branding is therefore significant not only in the symbolic weight it holds for those whose ancestors were burned with owners' marks but also in its contribution to the stigmatization of skin colour and later association of darker skin with servile status.

There is little to connect each individual brand mark with a given owner or trader directly. Despite the wealth of visual evidence of branding, insufficient effort has been made to produce a complete catalogue of the people and corporations who owned the brands throughout the European nations and slave societies of the Americas. Such connections would offer concrete evidence of companies, families and individuals whose personal marks were branded onto other humans as proof of ownership.