The Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery in America is an excellent resource for learning about the daily lives of slaves in America.  It has 568 pages of information on the slave trade, the middle passage, and the work, family life, and leisure activities of slaves.  Two other reference books that we have are Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia (Ref. E441 .S635 2007) and Slavery in the South: A State-by-State Guide (Ref. 441 .J49 2004).

The library has many other books about slavery and the slave trade that are available to check out.  Here are some that talk about slavery around the world, not just about the United States.

• Walvin, James.  Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Short Illustrated History.  Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1983.  (link to ALICE record)
• Turley, David.  Slavery.  Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000. (link to ALICE record)
• Thomas, Hugh.  The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.  (link to ALICE record)
• Postma, Johannes.  Slave Revolts.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2008.  ( link to ALICE record)

We also have many books on slavery within the United States.  Here is a sample:

• Berlin, Ira.  Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves.  Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2003. (link to ALICE record)
• Rose, Willie Lee, ed.  A Documentary History of Slavery in North America.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.  ( link to ALICE record)
• Morgan, Kenneth.  Slavery in America: A Reader and Guide. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2005. ( link to ALICE record)
• Heuman, Gad, and James Walvin, eds.  The Slavery Reader.  New York: Routledge, 2003. (link to ALICE record)
• Schneider, Dorothy and Carl J. Schneider.  Slavery in America: From Colonial Times to the Civil War.  New York: Facts on File, 2000.  (link to ALICE record)

Slave narratives are personal reminiscences of former slaves, usually written down either after they escaped or after slavery was abolished.  The library has many narratives from individual slaves.  You can find these in ALICE, the library catalog, by doing a keyword search for “slave narratives.”  Here are a few books that are compilations of many of these stories.

• Blassingame, John W., ed.  Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.  (link to ALICE record)
• Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., ed.  The Classic Slave Narratives.  New York: Penguin, 1987.  (link to ALICE record)
• Berlin, Ira, Marc Favreau, and Steven F. Miller.  Remembering Slavery.  New York: New Press, 1998.  (link to ALICE record)

Among the writings that Zakes Mda consulted in doing his background research for Cion were books by J. A. Rogers and George Fitzhugh. Alden Library has several books by each man.

Joel Augustus Rogers (1883-1965) was a  Jamaican-born African American historian and journalist. You can read a biographical sketch about him in the Oxford African American Studies Center, and you can view a list of his books in our collection.

George Fitzhugh (1806-1881) was a Virginia-born lawyer and pro-slavery author. You can read a biographical sketch about him in the American National Biography Online, and see a list of his books in our collection.