过去半个多世纪中，许多历史学家的开创性研究让这段在美国独立战争和英国历史上不被人重视的“插曲”，变成了某种接近范式转移的东西。本书便是以他们的研究为基础，深蒙其惠。这些重要作品包括：Sylvia R. Frey所著的Water From the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age (Princeton, 1991); Graham Russell Hodges编辑的The Black Loyalist Directory (New York and London, 1996)；以及同前，Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey 1613–1683 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and London, 1999); John W. Pulis 编辑的Moving On: Black Loyalists in the Afro-Atlantic World (New York and London, 1999); Benjamin Quarles的经典著作The Negro in the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1996)一书，附有Gary B. Nash撰写的全新（且重要的）导读；James St G. Walker所著的 The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone 1783–1870 (New York, 1976)；以及著述颇丰的Ellen Gibson Wilson那些通俗易懂的著作，尤其是细节详尽的The Loyal Blacks (New York, 1976)。
奴隶制问题与美国革命要想了解奴隶制和独立革命这对令人痛苦的悖论，首先要读的书依然是David Brion Davis所著的The Problem of Slavery in the Age of the American Revolution (Ithaca, New York, 1973)。不过，了解亲历历史的人如何面对相关的思想和道德问题也很重要，此类作品有Ira Berlin所著的Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003); Sidney Kaplan和Emma Nogrady Kaplan所著的The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, revised edition (Amherst, Massachusetts, 1989)；另见Henry Wiencek所著的An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves and the Creation of America (London, 2005)。Elizabeth A. Fenn所著的Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775–1782 (New York, 2001)介绍了战争期间的天花流行，但涉及的内容要远超书名表面所暗示的话题，是一本叙事与批评分析俱佳的杰作。
英国的反奴隶贸易运动：夏普和克拉克森兄弟与此相关的文献现在很丰富，且在不断增加。对全球反奴隶贸易运动的概述，见Robin Blackburn的The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776–1848 (London and New York, 1988)，和Hugh Thomas的The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440–1870 (New York and London, 1997)。David Eltis与James Walvin合编的Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Origins and Effects in Europe, Africa and the Americas (Madison, Wisconsin, 1981)，也是一份重要的文集。另见Walvin所著的England Slaves and Freedom 1776–1838 (Jackson, Mississippi, 1986)； 同前，Black Ivory: A History of British Slavery (London, 1992); Adam Hochschild所著的Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves (New York, 2004)，在本书完稿后出版，其中也对本书涉及的一些历史事件和人物进行了精彩介绍，不过全书主要关注的还是英国国内的运动情况。Deidre Coleman所著的Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery (Cambridge, 2005)，讨论的内容也一样，但出版时我已交稿，故未能全面参考。另一些出版相对较近且十分重要的著作还有，David Eltis所著的Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Oxford, 1987); Judith Jennings所著的The Business of Abolishing the British Slave Trade 1783–1807 (London and Portland, Oregon, 1997)；J. R. Oldfield所著的Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery: The Mobilization of Public Opinion against the Slave Trade (Manchester and New York, 1995)；David Turley所著的The Culture of English Anti-Slavery 1780–1860 (London and New York, 1991)。与个人有关的研究包括：Kevin Belmonte所著的Hero for Humanity: A Biography of William Wilberforce (Colorado, 2002)，但此书取代不了John Pollock所著的William Wilberforce (London and New York, 1977); Folarin Shyllon所著的James Ramsay, the Unknown Abolitionist (Edinburgh, 1977); Ellen Gibson Wilson所著的Thomas Clarkson: A Biography (York, 1980)。
革命前后在伦敦的黑人这方面的重要著作有Stephen J. Braidwood所著的Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement 1786–1791 (Liverpool, 1994)。现在还有许多关于黑人在英国经历的综述性历史作品，如Peter Fryer所著的Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain(London, 1984),和James Walvin所著的Black and White: The Negro and English Society 1555–1945 (London, 1973)；另见Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina所著的Black London: Life Before Emancipation (London and New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1985)。Norma Myers所著的Reconstructing the Black Past: Blacks in Britain 1780–1830 (London and Portland, Oregon, 1996)，是一本重要作品，批判地分析了黑人历史资料的来源（尤其是刻板印象）。相关文化和文学议题的讨论，可参见David Dabydeen所著的Hogarth's Blacks: Images of Blacks in Eighteenth Century Art (Kingston-upon-Thames, 1985)，以及他的黑人作品选集Black Writers in Britain, 1760–1890 (Edinburgh, 1991)。Vincent Carretta所著的Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man (Athens, Georgia, 2005)，是有关欧拉达·伊奎亚诺的人生和作品最近也是最棒的一本评论介绍。
新斯科舍和黑人除了James St G. Walker的重要研究外，Robin Winks所著的The Blacks in Canada: A History (Montreal, New Haven and London, 1971)，也用两章内容详细介绍了战争影响及保皇党移民（黑、白人都有）。值得注意的是，Barry Cahill在新斯科舍出版的历史杂志Acadiensis (Autumn 1999)上发表过一篇文章，挑起了有关新斯科舍地区黑人保皇党“神话”的激烈讨论，James Walker对此给予了同样激烈（且在我看来很有说服力）的回应。有关新斯科舍的情况，见Marion Robertson, King's Bounty: A History of Early Shelburne (Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1983)。
塞拉利昂和黑人保皇党Christopher Fyfe是这方面的权威，尤其是History of Sierra Leone (Oxford, 1962) and Sierra Leone Inheritance (Oxford, 1964)。他编辑的Narrative of Two Voyages to the River Sierra Leone During the Years 1791–1792–1793 by Anna Maria Falconbridge (Liverpool, 2000)和Our Children Free and Happy: Letters from Black Settlers in Africa in the 1790s (Edinburgh, 1991)，包含了丰富的学术信息和批判评论。Ellen Wilson Gibson的John Clarkson and the African Adventure (London, 1980)，是这位作者的又一部精彩叙事，笔者从中获益良多、不胜感谢。