I have been reading through this book on the matter: The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14894629-the-half-has-never-been-told

The descriptions of violence toward slaves is heavily discussed and is quite eye-opening to me, since this is not the version I was taught in school!

The number of times I have canceled plans last minute because of this embarrassment is too damn high!