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
8854 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
8867 Crisis Of The House Divided Harry V. Jaffa 1959 American English
8929 A Escrava Isaura Bernardo Guimarães 1875 Brazilian Portuguese
8938 Queen Of The Conquered Kacen Callender 2019 American English
8938 The Rage Of Dragons Evan Winter 2019 Canadian English
9029 Citizen Of The Galaxy Robert A. Heinlein 1957 American English
9043 Blues People Leroi Jones 1963 American English
9092 River God Wilbur Smith 1993 South African English
9340 Master Of The Crossroads Madison Smartt Bell 2000 American English
9548 Poems Of Nicolás Guillén Nicolás Guillén 1972 Cuban Spanish
9915 Crooked Plow Itamar Vieira Junior 2019 Brazilian Portuguese
10035 Goat Days Benyamin 2008 Indian Malayalam
10076 Habibi Craig Thompson 2011 American English
10106 Lose Your Mother Saidiya Hartman 2007 American English
10170 March Geraldine Brooks 2005 American English
10291 La Otra Mano De Lepanto Carmen Boullosa 2004 Mexican Spanish
10450 Empire Of Cotton Sven Beckert 2014 American English
10495 Battlefield Earth L. Ron Hubbard 1982 American English
10583 Heartfire Orson Scott Card 1998 American English
10610 The 272 Rachel L. Swarns 2023 Unknown English
10659 Louisiana Maurice Denuzière 1977 French French
10723 Dominion Calvin Baker 2006 American English
10723 The Amalgamation Polka Stephen Wright 2006 American English
10748 The Moor's Account Laila Lalami 2014 American English
10759 A Moonless, Starless Sky Alexis Okeowo 2017 American English
10785 Washington Ron Chernow 2010 American English
10820 Pym Mat Johnson 2011 American English
10867 Copper Sun Sharon M. Draper 2006 American English
10943 Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston 2018 American English
11109 Powers Ursula K. Le Guin 2007 American English
11137 The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture David Brion Davis 1966 American English
11164 Foe J. M. Coetzee 1986 South African English
11212 Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi 2010 American English
11246 The Island Of Slaves Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux 1725 French French
11253 Lemon Swamp And Other Places Mamie Garvin Fields 1983 American English
11387 The Devil In America Kai Ashante Wilson 2014 American English
11442 The Land Of Look Behind Michelle Cliff 1985 American English
11514 The Other Slavery Andrés Reséndez 2016 American English
11537 Benito Cereno Herman Melville 1855 American English
11661 On Juneteenth Annette Gordon-Reed 2021 American English
11661 Shakespeare In A Divided America James Shapiro 2020 American English
11661 A World On Fire Amanda Foreman 2011 British English
11661 The Ordeal Of Elizabeth Marsh Linda Colley 2007 British English
11852 Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation Allen Guelzo 2004 American English
11939 Crusader in Crinoline Forrest Wilson 1941 American English
11939 John C. Calhoun Margaret Louise Coit 1950 American English
11939 Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War David Donald 1960 American English
11939 Grant William S. McFeely 1981 American English
11939 Harriet Beecher Stowe Joan D. Hedrick 1994 American English
11939 Chasing Me To My Grave Winfred Rembert, Erin I. Kelly 2021 American English
12022 The Amulet of Samarkand Jonathan Stroud 2003 British English
12324 Lincoln David Herbert Donald 1995 American English
12324 Cloudsplitter Russell Banks 1998 American English
12448 Changó, The Biggest Badass Manuel Zapata Olivella 1983 Colombian Spanish
12938 Slaves In The Family Edward Ball 1998 American English
13214 The Crisis Winston Churchill 1901 British English
13246 Stamped Ibram X. Kendi, Jason Reynolds 2020 American English
13302 Kushiel's Dart Jacqueline Carey 2001 American English
13359 The Slave Isaac Bashevis Singer 1962 Polish Yiddish
13530 Wild Seed Octavia E. Butler 1980 American English
13532 The Writings Of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson 1903 American English
13715 The Just City Jo Walton 2015 Canadian English
13885 An Unkindness Of Ghosts Rivers Solomon 2017 American English
13885 Underground Airlines Ben H. Winters 2016 American English
13968 In The Matter Of Nat Turner Christopher Tomlins 2020 Unknown English
14025 Ardency Kevin Young 2011 American English
14160 The Little Shepherd Of Kingdom Come John Fox Jr. 1903 American English
14232 Foundryside Robert Jackson Bennett 2018 American English
14232 The Carpet Makers Andreas Eschbach 1995 German German
14347 Middle Passage Charles R. Johnson 1990 American English
14362 Water Music T. C. Boyle 1982 American English
14367 A History Of The American People Woodrow Wilson 1902 American English
14498 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Michael Swanwick 1993 American English
14553 волкодав Maria Semyonova 1995 Russian Russian
14666 Sacred Hunger Barry Unsworth 1992 British English
14671 Abraham Lincoln Lord Charnwood 1916 British English
14696 The Brothers Menaechmus Plautus -184 Roman Latin
14984 The March E. L. Doctorow 2005 American English
14984 Freedom Orlando Patterson 1991 Jamaican English
14984 The Hemingses of Monticello Annette Gordon-Reed 2008 American English
14984 A Nation under Our Feet Steven Hahn 2003 American English
14984 The Fiery Trial Eric Foner 2010 American English
14984 The Internal Enemy Alan Taylor 2013 American English
14984 Stamped from the Beginning Ibram X. Kendi 2016 American English
14984 The Freedom Maze Delia Sherman 2011 American English
14984 Property Valerie Martin 2003 American English
14984 The Real Story Stephen R. Donaldson 1991 American English
14984 Crossing The River Caryl Phillips 1993 British English
14984 Native Guard Natasha Trethewey 2006 American English
14984 The Sweetness Of Water Nathan Harris 2021 American English
14984 The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones 2020 American English
14984 Ship Of Magic Robin Hobb 1998 American English
14984 Salt Earl Lovelace 1996 Trinidadian English
14984 The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman Ernest J. Gaines 1971 American English
14984 Horse Geraldine Brooks 2022 Australian English
15561 The Mosquito Timothy C. Winegard 2019 Canadian English
15661 Born In Blackness Howard W. French 2021 American English
15857 Sapphira And The Slave Girl Willa Cather 1940 American English
15899 The Masters and the Slaves Gilberto Freyre 1933 Brazilian Portuguese
15899 Iola Leroy Frances Harper 1892 American English
15899 The House Of Dies Drear Virginia Hamilton 1968 American English
15899 Mi'raj Al Su'ud Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti, Hunqick J. 1615 Malian Unknown
15899 Blues Fell This Morning Paul Oliver 1960 British English
15899 Lydia Bailey Kenneth Roberts 1940 American English
15899 House Divided Ben Ames Williams 1947 American English
17120 The Land Where the Blues Began Alan Lomax 1993 American English
17120 Rough Crossings Simon Schama 2005 British English
17120 Medical Apartheid Harriet A. Washington 2007 American English
17120 A History of the Civil War James Ford Rhodes 1917 American English
17120 Theory of War Joan Brady 1993 American English
17120 A History of the United States Edward Channing 1905 American English
17120 Washington, Village and Capital, 1800-1878 Constance McLaughlin Green 1962 American English
17120 Neither Black Nor White Carl N. Degler 1971 American English
17120 The Impending Crisis, 1841-1867 David M. Potter 1976 American English
17120 The Dred Scott Case Don E. Fehrenbacher 1978 American English
17120 Been in the Storm So Long Leon F. Litwack 1979 American English
17120 The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 Rhys L. Isaac 1982 American English
17120 Chesapeake James A. Michener 1978 American English
17120 Delicious Foods James Hannaham 2015 American English
17120 The Silence of the Girls Pat Barker 2018 British English