Solomon Northrop’s 12 Years a Slave (1851) was made into an award-winning movie in 2014. This focused the spotlight on the book, which I finished while awaiting sentencing in a county jail.

The story is quite an adventure, telling a free black man’s account of being abducted into slavery in the American South in the 1840’s. It is also unapologetically a book of its time, serving a propaganda purpose. Filled with cited sources and sometimes microscopic details, the story invites nonbelievers to check it. This is because the book served to coalesce northerners against slavery, eventually contributing to the start of the Civil War. So, it is interesting to read on two levels: as an adventure story and as a primary historical document.

Link to 12 Years a Slave (book) on Powells.com