Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine
This book introduces young readers to the experiences of enslaved people in America through the eyes of Henry “Box” Brown, the man who mailed himself to freedom.

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill
Following the true story of David Drake, this picture book explores the life of an enslaved potter in South Carolina and introduces some of his remarkable creations.

Amistad: The Story of a Slave Ship by Patricia C. McKissack & Sanna Stanley
This book tells the story of the Amistad revolt, introducing the Atlantic slave trade with humanity and clarity, with heroic captive Africans at the center of the narrative.

Meet Addy: An American Girl by Connie Porter
Readers are introduced to important themes in the history of enslavement through the eyes of Addy, whose character was based on a real person living in North Carolina in the mid-1800s.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
This book explores the juxtaposition between enslavement and the American Revolution’s fight for freedom with the story of Isabel, a 13-year old enslaved girl living in New York.

A Picture of Freedom: Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl by Patricia C. McKissack
This fictional diary documents the daily life of Clotee, a young girl enslaved on a Virginia plantation who finds ways to resist enslavement and seek freedom on the eve of the Civil War.

Slavery in Small Things: Slavery and Modern Cultural Habits by James Walvin

This book reminds the reader of the role of slavery in creating many essential materials from early American material culture, including mahogany and silver.

Architecture and Empire in Jamaica by Louis P. Nelson
This author spoke to the student-curators of this exhibition about the role of slavery in observational objects, such as telescopes. This book describes how the control of enslaved bodies was built into the architecture and material culture of the Caribbean.

Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz
A persuasive study into how sugar changed our social and material world, Mintz explores the ties between sugar production and the Caribbean slave trade and delves into the changes wrought in the consumer market as sugar was increasingly consumed across Europe and the colonies.

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
This book traces this history of Ona Judge, an enslaved woman owned by George and Martha Washington who escaped and lived in freedom for the remainder of her life.

The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez
Truths of the Trade primarily addresses the trade networks that brought enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, but there was also an extensive system of slavery of indigenous peoples in the Americas, addressed in this book.

Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America by Jennifer Anderson
Tracing the material from tree to home, Anderson’s study of mahogany provides a case study for the ways that beautiful objects were entangled with slavery from creation to consumption.

An African American and LatinX History of the United States by Paul Ortiz