I read this book a few years back: Worse Than Slavery, by David Oshinsky. An eye-opening read for anyone interested in the genuine history of these deliberately divided United States. After I read it, I sat down and wrote the piece below, which is, of course, still relevant today — as it has been all-too-relevant these past 150 years.
As I said, this was written about nine years ago, but I just musicked it upduring our most recent days of rage and grief:
https://soundcloud.com/chris-floyd/sons-of-the-south