There is a wealth of history at your local historical society.
My Faves:
Timothy D Walker, Ed. Sailing To Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad. University of Massachusetts Press, 2021
Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Frederick Douglass, 1845
Jeffrey Bolster. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Harvard University Press, 1997.
Skip Finley. Whaling Captains of Color: America’s First Meritocracy. Naval Institute Press, June 2020.
Martha Putney. Black Sailors: Afro-American Merchant Seamen and Whalemen Prior to the Civil War. Greenwood Press, 1987.
Betty Deramus. Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories From the Underground Railroad. Atria Books 2005.
Betty DeRamus. Freedom by Any Means: Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Lawsuits on the Underground Railroad. Atria Books, 2009.
David Walker. Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America, Written in Boston, State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829.
Other Resources:
Black Classic Press (blackclassicpress.com)
Black Classic Press is devoted to publishing obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent. We specialize in republishing works that are out of print and quite often out of memory.
John Blassingame. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Ante-Bellum South. Oxford University Press, 1972.
David Blight. A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped To Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives Of Emancipation. Harcourt Inc 2007
Charles Blockson. The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. Flame International Inc, 1981
Catherine Clinton. Harriet Tubman: The Road To Freedom. Little, Brown and Company, 2004
Miles Mark Fisher. Negro Slave Songs in the United States. Citadel Press, 1953.
John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger. Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Thomas Gray. The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Virginia. Lucas & Deaver, 1831.
Herbert Gutman. The Black Family in Slavery & Freedom, 1750-1925. Pantheon Books, 1976
James Weldon Johnson & J. Rosamond Johnson. The Books of American Negro Spirituals. Viking Press, 1925.
Bernard Katz, Ed. The Social Implications of Early Negro Music in The United States. Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969.
James Mellon. Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember: An Oral History. Grove Press, 1988.
Edyth Ann Quinn. Freedom Journey: Black Civil War Soldiers and The Hills Community, Westchester County, New York. Excelsior Editions, 2015.
Albert Raboteau. Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South. Oxford University Press, 1978.
Daniel Rasmussen. American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt. Harper Collins, 2011.
RC Smedley. History of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania. Stackpole Books, 2005.
Eileen Southern. The Music of Black Americans: A History. WW Norton & Co Inc, 1971.
Eileen Southern, Ed. Readings in Black American Music. WW Norton & Co Inc, 1971.
William Still. The Underground Railroad. Echo Library, 2006.
William J Switala. Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. Stackpole Books, 2001.
William J Switala. Underground Railroad in Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia. Stackpole Books, 2004.
Richard Wade. Slavery in the Cities: The South 1820-1860. Oxford University Press, 1964.