I know that title sounds rough, but I'm in position where I know little but it's expected from me to know a lot. I'm not very well educated on slavery mostly because we didn't learn about it in school and since it didn't happen (as much) where I live it was just one of those things that happen "all the way there in the USA" as if we don't even live on the same planet.
I've seen so many fights online and I would like to understand history better. Many times if I ask a question it ends up with me being called rude or ignorant, so it's hard for me to learn on that way.
I'm not trying to make myself a victim or something, I would just like to be more educated about life since I'm not 18 anymore and I don't live in my own little bubble of comfort.
If it's possible, I would like to read books that have some sort of personal experience. It is important to me to learn what happend in what order and on what date, I'm also much more interested about people behind those numbers.
Thank you
Morgan, Edmund. American Freedom, American Slavery
Berlin, Ira. Generations of Captivity. He has many books on American slavery, and is one of the leading experts, so you probably can't go wrong with his work.
Davis, David Brion. Inhuman Bondage.
Blight, David. A Slave No More. - This is an interesting blend of slave narrative and historical interpretation by one of the best working historians.
For a first-hand, primary source, you can do no better than the most famous surviving slave narrative, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.