The book received a mixed review in Australian Book Review, with Seumas Spark praising Chingaipe for unearthing an important part of Australian history, but criticising the book for being "heavy on generalisation and cavalier in its disregard of context", with "some claims both careless and too neat". He ultimately concluded that these flaws were "more distractions than insuperable hurdles, thanks to the power and significance of the Black histories that Chingaipe has uncovered".[2] Jane Lydon gave a similarly mixed review in The Conversation, praising the power of Chingaipe's narrative but writing that she had a tendency to "overlook or deny existing scholarship, with some ill effects".[3] In a review for The Australian, Tom Gilling wrote that the book "succeeds admirably" at making the presence of Black convicts in Australia known, but that "its polemic feels a bit overblown".[4]
The book received a more positive review in Meanjin, where Clare Millar described the book as "a work of global significance".[5] In shortlisting the book for the Stella Prize, the judging panel wrote that the book "represents a substantial intervention in our understanding of the convict archive and offers a new understanding of Australia’s participation in slavery since colonisation."[6]
