The 2013 movie 12 Years a Slave (DVD DRAMA TWE) is the true story of Solomon Northup, based on his 1853 memoir. Northup, a free African American man living in Saratoga Springs, New York, works as a farmer and a violinist. When two white men offer him work playing the violin, he travels with them to Washington, DC, but they drug, kidnap, and sell him into slavery. He contends that he is a free man, but to no avail. He spends the next 12 years surviving oppressive conditions while attempting to procure his freedom.
A book with a similar theme is Kindred, (SF BUTLER, O) by science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. This 1979 novel follows a “modern day” 
African American woman named Dana who is transported through time from California to a plantation in the antebellum South. Her mission is to protect Rufus, the son of a slave owner (and Dana’s ancestor) who needs to survive so that Dana’s life is a certainty. Dana is pulled back to the plantation many times, each time returning to the present with wounds and scars from her time in the past.
Each of these titles not only gives a realistic (and heartbreaking) look at slavery in America and the cruel conditions that millions were forced to endure, but also shows the strength and determination of people suffering during this terrible chapter of America’s history.