Slavery

First book of poetry published by an African American, written while Wheatley was enslaved in Boston.

Douglass's first autobiography detailing his life as a slave and his escape to freedom, becoming a powerful abolitionist text.

Douglass's expanded second autobiography with deeper analysis of slavery and his development as an intellectual.

Jacobs's account of her life as a slave and her escape, focusing on sexual exploitation of enslaved women.

History of the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, the only successful slave revolt that led to the founding of an independent state.

Groundbreaking thesis that British industrial capitalism was funded by profits from the slave trade.

First volume of The Arrivants trilogy, tracing the Atlantic journey of enslaved Africans and their descendants through jazz, blues, and Caribbean rhythms. Brathwaite invented the concept of 'nation language.'

A violent, anti-heroic history of the fictional Nakem empire and its ruling Saif dynasty — implicating African rulers in the slave trade and resisting any romantic vision of pre-colonial Africa.

Third and final volume of The Arrivants trilogy, returning to the Caribbean to interrogate what remains after the Middle Passage, slavery, and colonialism — and what can be built.

Based on a Ghanaian legend, the play follows Anowa who defies her parents to marry the man she loves, only to watch him become a slave trader. A bold critique of complicity in the slave trade.

Four generations of women in Guadeloupe, from slavery to the mid-20th century, told through the voice of Télumée. A lyrical, feminist celebration of Black women's resilience rooted in Creole culture.

Trilogy of poetry (Rights of Passage, Masks, Islands) tracing African diaspora experience across Middle Passage.

An epic history of the African people across two thousand years of Arab and European conquest, slavery, and colonialism. Written in a collective 'we' voice drawing on oral tradition.

Blues singer Ursa Corregidora deals with family trauma descended from slavery in Brazil.

Tracing Haley's family from Kunta Kinte's capture in Gambia through slavery to Civil War and beyond.

Satirical neo-slave narrative mixing antebellum setting with contemporary anachronisms.

Ojebeta is sold into domestic slavery by her brother in colonial Nigeria. The novel traces her servitude and eventual 'freedom' — only to be bound again by marriage. A damning portrait of women's double enslavement.

Modern Black woman is transported to antebellum Maryland, confronting slavery firsthand.

Examination of sexism's impact on Black women during slavery through modern feminism's failures.

Historical analysis of racism and sexism in America from slavery through women's suffrage movement.

Philosophical slave narrative following Andrew Hawkins from slavery to passing as white.

A sequence of poems tracing the Middle Passage, slavery, and survival through the voice of a Caribbean woman. Winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.

Epic novel following a Bambara family in 18th-19th century Mali through Islam's spread and slave trade.

A landmark collection of African American folktales — animal stories, supernatural tales, and the title story of enslaved Africans who remember how to fly and escape their bondage.

Novel giving voice to Tituba, the enslaved woman accused of witchcraft in Salem, exploring slavery and Black womanhood.

Play set in 1911 Pittsburgh boarding house where former slave searches for his wife.

Sethe, an escaped slave, is haunted by the ghost of her daughter whom she killed to save from slavery, exploring trauma's legacy.

Play about siblings fighting over family piano carved with their ancestry during slavery.

A gunny sack of family memories anchors Salim's journey through the history of Tanzania's Asian community — from the slave trade era through independence. Vassanji's debut novel.

Freed slave Rutherford Calhoun stows away on slave ship, blending adventure with philosophy.

Emily, an English woman visiting her father's Caribbean plantation in the early 19th century, and Cambridge, an enslaved African man who converted to Christianity, each narrate their experience of the same place.

Narrated by the elderly Marie-Sophie Laborieux, the novel spans the history of Martinique from slavery through the shantytown of Texaco on the outskirts of Fort-de-France. A polyphonic explosion of Creole language.

An African father who sold his children into slavery 250 years ago watches their descendants scatter across the Black Atlantic — a missionary in Africa, a slave in America, a GI's wartime companion in England.

Young Yusuf is sold into bondage to pay his father's debt in early 20th century East Africa, exploring pre-colonial trade routes.

Whitechapel, the oldest slave on a Virginia plantation, inadvertently causes his own son's death and must live with that knowledge. Told in multiple voices, a spare, devastating exploration of slavery's moral corruption.

Analysis of everyday violence of slavery and its afterlife in American society.

In antebellum Virginia, a free Black man owns slaves. After his death, his plantation unravels while the county sheriff — also a former slave — struggles to maintain order. A profound meditation on freedom and its perversions.

A Brazilian journalist searching for a missing woman in Angola discovers connections between Angola's civil war, Brazilian slavery, and a mysterious manuscript. Agualusa's most internationally acclaimed work.

Hartman's journey to Ghana tracing the slave route and grappling with African-American identity.

Set in 1680s America, explores the origins of slavery and racism through multiple voices on a farm in New York.

Satirical novel about Black man who reinstates slavery and segregation in Los Angeles suburb.

Spanning 300 years from 18th century Ghana to contemporary America, tracing two family lines descended from half-sisters—one sold into slavery, one who marries a British slaver.

Generation ship novel where Black passengers live in lower decks under plantation-like conditions.

Novel about enslaved man with photographic memory who discovers supernatural power of Conduction.

Novella about underwater people descended from pregnant African women thrown from slave ships.