Top 30 Books About Slavery (Nonfiction) – About Great Books

Non-fiction books on slavery provide true, first-hand accounts of a horrific and painful chapter in our nation’s history.

The united states was founded on a racial caste system where slavery was legal in the thirteen colonies. European settlers traded with African nations to buy manual laborers to maintain their homes and fields. An estimated 10.7 million slaves were shipped to the Americas through 1867. Most were slaves whose children and grandchildren were automatically enslaved. During the 19th century, slaves were overworked, tortured, and treated as property without citizenship rights.

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Slavery was abolished after the Emancipation Proclamation, yet this disgusting period still influences our present. Books about slavery not only illustrate the brutal and inhumane practices before the civil war, but also provide background for the tense race relations that followed.

Books about slavery raise readers’ awareness of the struggles African Americans faced centuries ago to today. With the black lives matter movement sweeping the nation, the lessons of the past about inequality and discrimination remain shocking.

Consider the following 30 books on slavery for narratives on the horrors of servitude and its lasting legacy.

#1 – break out of bondage

booker t. Washington

booker t. Washington’s fascinating autobiography details his life from his childhood in a Virginia slave shack. freed after the civil war, washington limps to get a higher education at hampton university. he talks about his tireless work teaching black and minority people vocational skills. readers follow booker t. Washington while running the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and becoming a prominent equal rights activist.

#2 – my bondage and my freedom

frederick douglas

Published in 1855, My Servitude and My Freedom is the second slave narrative by the prominent statesman. frederick douglass prints painfully honest memoirs to document his early life in slavery on the wye house plantation. his speeches give a unique insight into how slaves managed to be owned and brutalized. Douglas recounts how he made the transition from slavery to freedom and achieved success in the largely white abolitionist movement in the North.

#3 – twelve years a slave

north solomon

Adapted into a 2013 Oscar-winning film, Twelve Years a Slave tells of Solomon Northup’s harrowing experience in slavery. Born free in new york, he found the american dream with a loving home and family. That is until he is kidnapped in Washington, DC, and sold into slavery. Northup is forced to grow cotton and sugar on Louisiana plantations for various cruel masters, but he remains incredibly determined to return home.

#4 – friendship rebellion: an atlantic odyssey of slavery and freedom

marcus rediker

one of marcus rediker’s most powerful books on slavery tells the story of 53 african slaves who managed to take control of their ship in what is considered the friendship rebellion. Before reaching Cuba, the brave rebels tried to return to Africa. However, they are eventually captured and imprisoned in the United States. The public is engrossed in the slaves’ three-year legal battle with the US. uu. supreme court.

#5 – the interesting narration of the life of olaudah equiano

olaudah equiano

olaudah equiano published his autobiography in 1789 to portray his enslavement. Born in Nigeria, he was sold to England as a child slave and purchased by Lieutenant Michael Pascal. Equiano was trained as a sailor to fight in the Seven Years’ War. When the hostility ended, he bought his freedom for forty pounds from a resident of Pennsylvania. His relentless spirit helps Olaudah Equiano succeed as a merchant and a leading abolitionist.

#6 – race and slavery in the middle east

terence walz and kenneth m. stamp

Most books on slavery focus on the United States, but race and slavery in the Middle East provide a different global perspective. Readers learn the often untold story of the hundreds of thousands of Africans forced to travel north to the eastern Mediterranean during the 19th century. nine essays converge to examine the lives of enslaved trans-saharan africans in egypt and sudan.

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#7 – soul for soul

walter johnson

soul for soul brings together various 19th-century slave narratives to take readers inside the domestic slave trade. As the largest of the antebellum period, the New Orleans slave market packed and sold more than 100,000 Africans. statistics and financial documents describe the chilling economic system made up of human merchants. johnson shows the interrelation of capitalism and racism with the brutal sale of slaves as merchandise.

#8 – the hemingses of monticello

annette gordon-reed

Awarded the National Book Award for Nonfiction, Hemingses de Monticello is an epic work that tells the story of four generations of an African-American family. Legal records, letters, and diaries are used to trace the Hemings family back to its origins in 16th-century Virginia. In nearly 800 pages, Gordon-Reed takes audiences inside the complex and intimate relationship between his teacher Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.

#9 – narration of the life of frederick douglass, an american slave

frederick douglas

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another of frederick douglass’s books on slavery recounts his own experience growing up enslaved in maryland. details how he watched his mother die at age seven and how his aunt hester was flogged. Later, young Frederick was sold to Hugh Auld in Baltimore. his kind wife, sophia auld, teaches him to read. soon frederick douglass learns the word “abolition” and the fight for freedom begins.

#10 – longing to breathe free

andrew billingsley

Sociologist Andrew Billingsley weaves the first biography of Robert Smalls, a slave raised by his master’s family in Beaufort, South Carolina. In 1862, the Pequenos bid for freedom and seized the Confederate warship, the Planter, from Charleston Harbor. the civil war hero piloted to the union blockade and became an african-american legend. Billingsley illustrates how the family of the children supported their persistence to eventually found the South Carolina Republican Party.

#11 – Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Daily Resistance on Southern Plantations

camp stephanie

Stephanie Camp wrote this non-fiction article to refute other historians’ notions that slaves accommodated themselves to their servitude. Using slave narratives and oral histories, the camp elucidates enslaved women’s daily opposition to seeking freedom for their families. she paints a compelling picture of how slaves spread abolitionist propaganda in their huts to stir up liberation ideology and escape.

#12 – out of the bondage house: the transformation of the plantation home

thavolia glyph

It is a common misconception that the mistresses were “allies” of the enslaved women on their plantations. here the astute thavolia glymph proves this notion of female solidarity wrong with solid historical sources. mistresses were elite leaders in the hierarchy of slavery, not simply victims of a patriarchal system. glymph details the cruel and violent relationships between African-American and white women in the mid-19th century.

#13 – william styron’s nat turner: ten black writers respond

john henrik clarke

William Styron’s best-selling novel about slavery, Nat Turner’s Confession, has been met with strong hostility from the African-American community. john henrik clarke brings together a talented group of black intellectuals to criticize the biased account of the pulitzer prize winner. With burning anger, the writers respond to Styron and seek to prove that Nat Turner’s alleged “confession” is a fabrication.

#14 – inhuman servitude: the rise and fall of slavery in the new world

david brion davis

Recognized as a leading authority on slavery, David Brion Davis has extensively researched the mistreatment of Black people since serving as a sailor in World War II. In 2006, this non-fiction novel was published to explore the long evolution of slavery and anti-Black racism since ancient times. Davis spans centuries to highlight the dehumanization of Africans in the rise of the Americas.

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#15 – the known world

edward p. jones

edward p., pulitzer prize winning author. Jones’s debut novel takes readers to Virginia’s Manchester County two decades before the Civil War. tackles an often-neglected subject of the antebellum South: black slave owners. Jones introduces Henry Townsend, a 31-year-old former slave who now owns 33 slaves on his 50-acre plot. But when Henry dies and his wife Caldonia gains ownership, the plantation begins to fall apart.

#16 – Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of American Colleges

wild craig

Craig Wilder’s provocative novel supports his well-documented argument that early universities were the third pillar of slave-based civilization. the historian uncovers uncomfortable truths about how the slave economy and higher education were born together. Wilder reveals that the history of revered universities like Rutgers, Yale, Brown, and Harvard is drenched in the sweat of slaves.

#17 – white gold

giles milton

Another non-Southern slavery book is White Gold, a true story about white Europeans captured by Islamic traders. Giles Milton illustrates how nearly a million white slave women were sold in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. features Thomas Pellow, an 11-year-old Cornish cabin boy captured at sea with 51 comrades by Barbary pirates. Readers witness his 23-year imprisonment with the tyrannical Sultan Moulay Ismail.

#18 – many thousands disappeared: the first two centuries of slavery in north america

anger berlin

Most Americans identify slavery with cotton in the Deep South. Noted historian Ira Berlin details the first 200 years of slave life on the continent before cotton became king. From Plymouth to the Chesapeake Bay, Berlin reveals the many forms slavery has taken. he recounts the grueling work of Creole slaves, blacks, and whites hired to build the colonies.

#19 – slavery by another name: the re-enslavement of African Americans from the Civil War to World War II

douglas a. mon black

It is generally accepted that slavery ended after the 13th Amendment in 1865. However, Douglas A. blackmon presents lost stories from the “age of neo-slavery”. delves into the personal narratives of black men and women unable to escape the shadow of serfdom after the civil war. blackmon details the recurrence of forced labor during the 20th century and its insidious legacy.

#20 – empire of cotton: a global history

sven beckert

As the winner of the 2015 Bancroft Prize, Empire of Cotton: A Global History is one of the most recent non-fiction books on slavery. In its 640 pages, Sven Beckert tells the story of how European settlers grew the world’s most important manufacturing industry. traces the expansion of cotton capitalism while analyzing the disturbing labor conditions that led to struggles between the planters and their slaves.

#21 – incidents in the life of a slave

harriet ann jacobs

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Originally written under the pseudonym Linda Brent in 1861, Incidents in the Life of a Slave was one of the first published slave narratives. Born in Edenton, North Carolina, Harriet Ann Jacobs portrays her childhood in slavery. jacobs shares her daily struggles and her sexual abuse on the flints plantation before escaping to new york. she also addresses the fear brought about by the fugitive slave law of 1850.

#22 – bury the strings

adam hochschild

Written by the acclaimed author of King Leopold’s Ghost, this non-fiction tells the gripping story of the struggle to free slaves from the British Empire. In 1787, the world’s first grassroots social justice movement began with just 12 men in a London printing house. From wall posters to boycotts, the men lead an innovative anti-slavery crusade to bury the chains in British colonies.

#23 – the other slavery: the uncovered history of indigenous slavery in america

Andrés Resendez

Andrés Reséndez faces a painful part of us. story that is often hidden in his 2016 book titled the other slavery. historical testimonies are intertwined to portray more than two centuries of indigenous slavery in america. since the time of columbus, the conquerors forced tens of thousands of indigenous people to work. Reséndez argues that mass slavery caused the decimation of the indigenous population, not an epidemic.

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#24 – nothing but freedom: emancipation and its legacy

eric foner

With a foreword by Steven Hahn, Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy is one of the few books on slavery that focuses on its aftermath. eric foner presents three long essays on the forced labor system in the south, the british caribbean and east africa. foner compares the progress of freedmen after the civil war with other emancipated societies to trace the lasting impact of slavery long after.

#25 – The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

eduardo e. baptist

Crowned as Amazon’s #1 bestseller on slavery, this non-fiction book shapes slave narratives and plantation records into a riveting story of America’s evolution. edward e. Baptista shows how the expansion of slavery after the revolution helped modernize the young capitalist economy. He argues that forced migration and torture were the basis for achieving America’s dreams of freedom.

#26 – the southern mind

wj cash

Since its publication in 1941, w.j. the groundbreaking cash book has defined how the public has viewed the southern class system. The sociohistorical piece explores the legacy of racism and slavery in the culture below the Mason-Dixon line. cash sheds light on the prevailing and primitive traits of the southern mentality. from colonial times to reconstruction, many myths about southern identity are debunked.

#27 – day of tears

julio lester

Master storyteller Julius Lester centers this historical novel on the chronicle of the largest slave auction in American history. On March 2, 1859, in Savannah, Georgia, darkened skies began to weep as more than 400 slaves were sold by Pierce Butler to pay off gambling debts. Emma has taken care of her daughters, Sarah and Frances, since they were born, but greed will destroy the butler’s house.

#28 – the trial by fire

eric foner

eric foner, columbia university professor, has written several books on slavery, including trial in flames. This 448-page historical landmark traces Abraham Lincoln’s commitment to the nation’s most critical issue: slavery. Readers are thrust into turbulent racial politics to account for Lincoln’s battles with abolitionists and northern white racists. foner offers an interesting portrait of the path of the 16th president towards the emancipation of the slaves.

#29 – the problem of slavery in western culture

david brion davis

Beginning with David Brion Davis’s three-part volume on the problem of slavery, this book delves into an extensive discussion of slavery from ancient times to the 1770s. Slavery has existed since the dawn of civilization However, Davis seeks to determine why it took centuries for humans to consider slavery immoral. the historian traces the cultural, social, religious, and political factors that ultimately gave rise to the abolitionist movement.

#30 – the underground railway

william still

William Still’s autobiography shares his journey from escaping slavery in Delaware to becoming an American hero as the “Father of the Underground Railroad.” Teaching himself to read and write, he still became a leading industrialist in nineteenth-century Philadelphia. After joining the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society, he journals his idea of ​​recruiting drivers to smuggle slaves north. Despite the Fugitive Slave Law, William still bravely helped some 800 serfs escape captivity.

Whether you’re researching a school project or pursuing your own interest in African-American culture, these 30 non-fiction books on slavery offer reliable sources for examining the history of racial stratification in the United States and beyond.

see also: top 30 books on slavery (fiction)

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