In this thought-provoking work, Christopher J. Kellerman provides a rigorously researched, era-by-era history of the Catholic Church’s teachings and actions related to slavery. By telling stories of enslaved Catholics and Catholic slaveholders, analyzing arguments of theologians who either defended or condemned slaveholding, and examining documents of popes and councils, Kellerman’s book reveals disturbing answers to contemporary questions about the Church’s role in the history of slavery and especially in the Atlantic slave trade. For students, teachers, and all readers interested in how religion can be used both to oppress and to liberate, gives a detailed account of the Church’s slaveholding past while issuing a call for the Church to take the necessary steps to reconcile with its history.