The Greatest Books of All Time on Slavery

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
705 Oroonoko Aphra Behn 1688 British English
725 The Kingdom of This World Alejo Carpentier 1949 Cuban Spanish
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
776 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
906 Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington 1901 American English
913 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass 1845 American English
951 A Princess Of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 American English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1218 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 Finnish Finnish
1434 R. E. Lee Douglas Southall Freeman 1934 American English
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1489 Abraham Lincoln, Speeches And Letters Abraham Lincoln 1907 American English
1541 The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron 1967 American English
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
1715 Go Down, Moses William Faulkner 1942 American English
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1925 The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano 1789 African English
1971 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
1998 Ben-Hur Lew Wallace 1880 American English
2003 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
2138 The Last Days Of Pompeii Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1834 British English
2200 Trojan Women Euripides -415 Greek Ancient greek
2241 Flashman George MacDonald Fraser 1969 British English
2363 Our Nig Harriet E. Wilson 1859 American English
2383 Battle Cry of Freedom James M. McPherson 1988 American English
2445 Pudd'nhead Wilson Mark Twain 1894 American English
2473 Roll, Jordan, Roll Eugene Genovese 1974 American English
2504 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
2562 Segu Maryse Condé 1984 French French
2613 Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant U. S. Grant 1885 American English
2858 A Mercy Toni Morrison 2008 American English
2898 Indigo Beverly Jenkins 1996 American English
2961 Jefferson and His Time Dumas Malone 1948 American English
2992 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
3022 Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini 1922 British English
3396 Cities of the Red Night William S. Burroughs 1981 American English
3513 Mary Chesnut's Civil War Mary Boykin Chesnut 1981 American English
3557 The Black Jacobins C. L. R. James 1938 British English
3638 Letters from an American Farmer J. Crevecoeur 1782 American English
3919 Staying Power Peter Fryer 1984 British English
3934 The Sun Is My Undoing Marguerite Steen 1941 British English
3952 Clotel William Wells Brown 1853 American English
4152 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
4164 The Good Lord Bird James McBride 2013 American English
4166 Confederates Thomas Keneally 1979 Australian English
4203 Ain't I A Woman? bell hooks 1981 American English
4216 Andromache Euripides -425 Greek Ancient greek
4218 Hecuba Euripides -424 Greek Ancient greek
4410 Salammbô Gustave Flaubert 1862 French French
4582 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4659 Lanterns on the Levee William Alexander Percy 1941 American English
4679 Of Love And Other Demons Gabriel García Márquez 1994 Colombian Spanish
4734 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4813 Slave Old Man Patrick Chamoiseau 1997 French French
4867 The Love Songs Of W.E.B. Dubois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 2021 American English
4900 The Foxes Of Harrow Frank Yerby 1946 American English
5038 Black Reconstruction In America W. E. B. Du Bois 1935 American English
5126 Killing The Black Body Dorothy E. Roberts 1997 American English
5266 Anowa Ama Ata Aidoo 1970 Ghanaian English
5277 Slave Of The Huns Géza Gárdonyi 1901 Hungarian Hungarian
5330 Grant Ron Chernow 2017 American English
5488 Dark symphony James A. Emanuel (Comp), Theodore L. Gross 1968 American English
5575 Lincoln Gore Vidal 1984 American English
5643 These Truths Jill Lepore 2018 American English
5692 All God’s Dangers Theodore Rosengarten 1974 American English
5704 The Persian Boy Mary Renault 1972 British English
5762 The Scar China Miéville 2002 British English
5834 Pseudolus Plautus -191 Roman Latin
5849 The Rope Plautus -204 Roman Latin
5918 Reveille in Washington Margaret Leech 1941 American English
5911 The Warlord of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1914 American English
5972 The Life Of Ismail Ferik Pasha Rea Galanaki 1989 Greek Greek
5991 Bloodchild Octavia E. Butler 1984 American English
5998 Paradise Abdulrazak Gurnah 1994 British English
6005 A Woman Named Solitude André Schwarz-Bart 1972 French French
6243 The Chaneysville Incident David Bradley 1981 American English
6336 Spartacus Raffaello Giovagnoli 1874 Italian Italian
6447 The Bridge Of Beyond Simone Schwarz-Bart 1972 French French
6455 The Arrivants Kamau Brathwaite 1973 Barbadian English
6467 The Overseer's Cabin Edouard Glissant 1981 French French
6493 Moses, Man Of The Mountain Zora Neale Hurston 1939 American English
6500 The Black Count Tom Reiss 2012 French English
6508 Indigo Marina Warner 1992 British English
6634 Land Of Wooden Gods Jan Fridegård 1932 Swedish Swedish
6664 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6733 Jubilee Margaret Walker 1966 American English
6767 Harriet, The Moses Of Her People Sarah H. Bradford 1886 American English
6882 Lincoln at Gettysburg Garry Wills 1992 American English
6906 Washington Black Esi Edugyan 2018 Canadian English
7131 Tales Of Neveryon Samuel R. Delany 1979 American English
7216 Poems Of John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1838 American English
7216 The Short Fiction Charles W. Chesnutt 1899 American English
7216 R.U.R. Karel Čapek 1920 Czech Czech
7680 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7799 The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi 2009 American English
7848 The Darkangel Meredith Ann Pierce 1982 American English
8027 The Class Struggle In The Ancient Greek World G. E. M. de Ste. Croix 1981 British English
8068 All That She Carried Tiya Miles 2021 American English
8076 The White Nile Alan Moorehead 1960 British English
8103 I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem Maryse Condé 1986 Guadeloupean French
8107 Thirty Years As A Slave And Four Years In The White House Elizabeth Keckley 1868 American English
8107 The History Of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave Mary Prince 1831 British English
8257 Someone Knows My Name Lawrence Hill 2007 Canadian English
8352 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8415 This Hallowed Ground Bruce Catton 1956 American English
8425 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms N. K. Jemisin 2010 American English
8430 Those Across The River Christopher Buehlman 2011 American English
8517 Os Escravos Castro Alves 1883 Brazilian Portuguese
8567 Slavery by Another Name Douglas A. Blackmon 2008 American English
8708 Tom Cringle's Log Michael Scott 1829 British English
8764 Prentice Alvin Orson Scott Card 1989 American English
8779 Proud Shoes Pauli Murray 1956 American English