These books have helped me to better understand issues that arise when one is handling pre-Civil War music.

Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000.
From the New York Times Book Review: “In this masterly work, Ira Berlin has demonstrated that earlier North American slavery had many different forms and meanings that varied over time and from place to place. Slavery and race did not have a fixed character that endured for centuries but were constantly being constructed or reconstructed in response to changing historical circumstances. Many Thousands Gone illuminates the first 200 years of African-American history more effectively than any previous study.”

Miller, William Lee. Arguing About Slavery: John Quincy Adams and the Great Battle in the United States Congress. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
From the book’s back cover: “In the 1830’s slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could not even be discussed in Congress, which had enacted a ‘gag rule’ to ensure that anti-slavery petitions would be summarily rejected. This stirring book chronicles the parliamentary battle to bring the ‘peculiar institution’ into the nation debate, a battle that some historians have called ‘the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy.’”

Gubar, Susan. Racechanges: White Skin, Black Face in American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Midwest Book Review writes: “Unlike Afro-Americans, who often must act 'white' to gain rights, white people have chosen racial masquerades to transmit a variety of impressions. This [book] gathers illustrations to pair with discussions on racism in representation and art, examining minstrelsy's presence in modern American art circles. The result is an important, in-depth exploration of race in this culture.”

Kennedy, Randall. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. New York: Random House, 2002.
"The Philadelphia Inquirer" said of this book, "Demonstrates a key truth about the N-word. Epithet or cool insider term of endearment, it tracks our racial history and stars in a slew of court decisions that reveal large truths about bigotry and free expression."

Masur, Louis P. 1831: Year of Eclipse. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001.
From the dust cover: “Americans saw the eclipse of 1831 as a portent of their future. The year...was a crucial time when the nation was no longer a young, uncomplicated republic but, rather, a dynamic and conflicted country inching toward cataclysm. By the year’s end, nearly every aspect of its political, social, and cultural life had undergone profound change.”