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
1714 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
2137 The Last Days Of Pompeii Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1834 British English
2199 Trojan Women Euripides -415 Greek Ancient greek
2240 Flashman George MacDonald Fraser 1969 British English
2361 Our Nig Harriet E. Wilson 1859 American English
2381 Battle Cry of Freedom James M. McPherson 1988 American English
2443 Pudd'nhead Wilson Mark Twain 1894 American English
2471 Roll, Jordan, Roll Eugene Genovese 1974 American English
2502 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
2561 Segu Maryse Condé 1984 French French
2612 Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant U. S. Grant 1885 American English
2855 A Mercy Toni Morrison 2008 American English
2896 Indigo Beverly Jenkins 1996 American English
2959 Jefferson and His Time Dumas Malone 1948 American English
2990 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
3019 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
3920 Staying Power Peter Fryer 1984 British English
3934 The Sun Is My Undoing Marguerite Steen 1941 British English
3951 Clotel William Wells Brown 1853 American English
4151 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
4163 The Good Lord Bird James McBride 2013 American English
4165 Confederates Thomas Keneally 1979 Australian English
4202 Ain't I A Woman? bell hooks 1981 American English
4215 Andromache Euripides -425 Greek Ancient greek
4217 Hecuba Euripides -424 Greek Ancient greek
4409 Salammbô Gustave Flaubert 1862 French French
4580 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4657 Lanterns on the Levee William Alexander Percy 1941 American English
4677 Of Love And Other Demons Gabriel García Márquez 1994 Colombian Spanish
4732 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4811 Slave Old Man Patrick Chamoiseau 1997 French French
4865 The Love Songs Of W.E.B. Dubois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 2021 American English
4898 The Foxes Of Harrow Frank Yerby 1946 American English
5034 Black Reconstruction In America W. E. B. Du Bois 1935 American English
5123 Killing The Black Body Dorothy E. Roberts 1997 American English
5264 Anowa Ama Ata Aidoo 1970 Ghanaian English
5275 Slave Of The Huns Géza Gárdonyi 1901 Hungarian Hungarian
5328 Grant Ron Chernow 2017 American English
5485 Dark symphony James A. Emanuel (Comp), Theodore L. Gross 1968 American English
5573 Lincoln Gore Vidal 1984 American English
5640 These Truths Jill Lepore 2018 American English
5689 All God’s Dangers Theodore Rosengarten 1974 American English
5701 The Persian Boy Mary Renault 1972 British English
5759 The Scar China Miéville 2002 British English
5831 Pseudolus Plautus -191 Roman Latin
5846 The Rope Plautus -204 Roman Latin
5915 Reveille in Washington Margaret Leech 1941 American English
5908 The Warlord of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1914 American English
5968 The Life Of Ismail Ferik Pasha Rea Galanaki 1989 Greek Greek
5987 Bloodchild Octavia E. Butler 1984 American English
5994 Paradise Abdulrazak Gurnah 1994 British English
6002 A Woman Named Solitude André Schwarz-Bart 1972 French French
6239 The Chaneysville Incident David Bradley 1981 American English
6333 Spartacus Raffaello Giovagnoli 1874 Italian Italian
6444 The Bridge Of Beyond Simone Schwarz-Bart 1972 French French
6453 The Arrivants Kamau Brathwaite 1973 Barbadian English
6465 The Overseer's Cabin Edouard Glissant 1981 French French
6491 Moses, Man Of The Mountain Zora Neale Hurston 1939 American English
6498 The Black Count Tom Reiss 2012 French English
6506 Indigo Marina Warner 1992 British English
6632 Land Of Wooden Gods Jan Fridegård 1932 Swedish Swedish
6663 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6732 Jubilee Margaret Walker 1966 American English
6766 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
7215 Poems Of John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1838 American English
7215 The Short Fiction Charles W. Chesnutt 1899 American English
7215 R.U.R. Karel Čapek 1920 Czech Czech
7679 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7797 The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi 2009 American English
7847 The Darkangel Meredith Ann Pierce 1982 American English
8026 The Class Struggle In The Ancient Greek World G. E. M. de Ste. Croix 1981 British English
8067 All That She Carried Tiya Miles 2021 American English
8075 The White Nile Alan Moorehead 1960 British English
8101 I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem Maryse Condé 1986 Guadeloupean French
8105 Thirty Years As A Slave And Four Years In The White House Elizabeth Keckley 1868 American English
8105 The History Of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave Mary Prince 1831 British English
8255 Someone Knows My Name Lawrence Hill 2007 Canadian English
8350 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8412 This Hallowed Ground Bruce Catton 1956 American English
8421 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms N. K. Jemisin 2010 American English
8426 Those Across The River Christopher Buehlman 2011 American English
8513 Os Escravos Castro Alves 1883 Brazilian Portuguese
8563 Slavery by Another Name Douglas A. Blackmon 2008 American English
8704 Tom Cringle's Log Michael Scott 1829 British English
8759 Prentice Alvin Orson Scott Card 1989 American English
8774 Proud Shoes Pauli Murray 1956 American English