The Known World
By Edward P. Jones

This is a fictional narrative of a free slave in Virginia who becomes a landowner and slave owner himself. It's a peculiar situation but historically accurate. Jones recounts that some black owners would treat their slaves as they themselves had been treated. It's like child abuse in a family lineage, the way that's passed down from generation to generation. I found the novel an acutely sad reminder of a time when, in our own backyards, humans were property and lives were considered dispensable.