Books - Abolitionism, Slave Rebellions & Fugitive Slave Laws

Shinha, Manisha. The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (2016) 784 pages. 
This very recent book is the first to cover the whole history of abolitionism. This is the one to buy if you only want one.


Newman, Richard. The Transformation of American Abolitionism: Fighting Slavery in the Early Republic (2002)

Horton, James Oliver & Lois, E. In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community and Protest among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1860 (1998, 2005)

Jeffrey, Julie Roy. The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the Antislavery Movement (1998)

Jeffrey, Julie Roy. Abolitionists Remember: Antislavery Autobiographies and the Unfinished Work of Emancipation (2008)


The Underground Railroad

Foner, Eric. Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (2015)

Brodewich, Fergus. Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America (2005) (non-academic)


The Dred Scott case

Allen, Austin. Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857 (2006)

Fehrenbacher, Don. The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics (1978)


The Fugitive Slave Act

Lubet, Steven. Fugitive Justice: Runways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial (2011)

Slaughter, Thomas. Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North [1851, PA] (1991) 272 pages.

Reinhardt, Mark.  Who Speaks for Margaret Garner?  (2010)  320 pages.

Brant, Nat. The Town that Started the Civil War [Oberlin, OH, 1858] (1991) 338 pages.Reinhardt, Mark. Who Speaks for Margaret Garner   (2011)


Slave Rebellions

Lepore, Jill. New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan [NYC, 1741] (2005) 352 pages.

Hoffer, Peter. Cry Liberty: The Great Stono River Slave Rebellion of 1739 [S.C.] (2011) 196 pages.

Egerton, Douglas. Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802 (1993)

Rasmussen, Daniel. American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt [1811, German Coast, LA] (2012) 288 pages.

Robertson, David. Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It [1823, VA] (1999) 202 pages.

Greenberg, Kenneth (ed.). Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory [1831, VA] (2003) 312 pages.

Rediker, Marcus. The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom (2013)

Downey, Arthur. The Creole Affair: The Slave Rebellion that Led the U.S. and Great Britain to the Brink of War (shipboard, 1841) (2014) 236 pages.

Horwitz, Tony. Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War (2012)

Reynolds, David. John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights (2006)
  McGinty, Brian. John Brown's Trial ( 2009)


The Haitian Revolution

Popkin, Jeremy. You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery (2010)

Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2005)


This book does not exactly fit the categories but is very interesting.

Ely, Melvin. Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War (2005)



Abolitionist Biographies

Jackson, Maurice. Let This Voice Be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism (2010)

Hinks, Peter. To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance (1996)

Traub, James.  John Quincy Adams:  Militant Spirit  (2016) (640 pages)
 
Meyer, Henry. All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (2008)

Clinton, Catherine. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom (2005)
 
Aisèirithe, A.J (et al.) Wendell Phillips, Social Justice, and the Power of the Past  (2016, forthcoming)  (This collection of essays on Phillips will cost $55 when it is released).  

Winch, Julie.  A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten  (2003)  528 pages. 
   
Trefousse, Hans.  Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth Century Egalitarian (2000)  330  pages.

Painter, Nell Irwin.  Sojourner Truth:  A Life,  A Symbol  (1997)  384 pages.

Hambrick-Stowe, Charles.  Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism  (1996)  336 pages.

Grodzins, Dean.  American Heretic: Theodore Parker and Transcendentalism  (2003)  660 pages.

Stahr, Walter.  (William)  Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man  (2013)  720 pages.

Donald, David Herbert.  Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man  (1970)  539 pages.

Stauffer, John. Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln   (2009)  448 pages.



Abolitionist's Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Writings

Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass : Autobiographies : Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

Douglass, Frederick. Selected Speeches and Writings (2000)