Hey!
So I'm not really one to get all into history. (Sorry!) I do find it interesting, especially when we start looking at cultures of the past; I can never really seem to get myself to sit down and buckle into a full book on something.
However, inexplicably, I ended up sitting down just a few days ago and reading "The Book of American Negro Poetry" x James Weldon Johnson cover to cover!
I found myself entirely piqued on the struggles of early black americans leading up to the 1900s; and how those struggles became reflected in poetry and spirituals.
I'd love to learn more about black american history, and the culture(s?) that developed as time grew on.
I would strongly advocate for Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom by Heather Williams. It's academic but not terribly dense. The last chapter of the book includes all of the anti-literacy laws passed to keep Blacks from getting an education and from white abolitionists from helping them.
I'm also a fan of They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie Rogers-Jones because her research upends a great deal of what we think is true about people's lived experiences in antebellum America.
Hi there! While you wait for further answers here, you may be interested in these sections of our Books and Resources List:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/americas#wiki_antebellum_slavery
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/americas#wiki_race.2C_immigration.2C_ethnicity