In all of the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, slavery was a staple of the economy during the period from 1607-1754. In this video, Kim discusses the ties between the environment and slavery, the rise of increasingly restrictive slave codes, and the overt and covert methods by which enslaved people resisted the dehumanizing nature of slavery.

This is intended to provide primary and secondary sources to educators as they teach the history of slavery and famous abolitionists. This is an additional resource to help students understand the humanity of slaves as smart, creative, and talented individuals. This includes primary and secondary resources inclusing examples of architecture, artwork, music, and literature. 

Slavery to Liberation: The African American Experience gives instructors, students, and general readers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of African Americans’ cultural and political history, economic development, artistic expressiveness, and religious and philosophical worldviews in a critical framework. It offers sound interdisciplinary analysis of selected historical and contemporary issues surrounding the origins and manifestations of White supremacy in the United States. By placing race at the center of the work, the book offers significant lessons for understanding the institutional marginalization of Blacks in contemporary America and their historical resistance and perseverance.

Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860, contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States. The documents, most from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, comprise an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance.

In this lesson, students read the story of Sojourner Truth and discuss events that took place during her lifetime. Among these were the abolition of slavery and the effects of policies pertaining to abolition. Students will determine the costs, benefits, and unintended consequences of policies, beginning with an analysis of costs, benefits, and unintended consequences of a policy that would allow them to take two years off of school before advancing to middle school. They will analyze the effects of policies noted in the book and continue the analysis by examining government policies.

This annotated bibliography contains resources about Sojourner Truth's life and legacy, categorized by Elementary, Middle School, and General/Adult. Resources listed on the bibliography include books, websites, videos, interactive timelines, and newspaper articles. Resources are annotated to instruct educators in how they might best use the resources in their classes.

A considerably idealized view of slave life in the American South, appearing on a printed label for cigars "expressly manufactured for Georgia and Alabama." The New York firm Salomon Brothers may have sought to appeal to Southern consumers and sympathizers in the tense period immediately preceding the Civil War. The illustration shows a tobacco plantation with manor house and a field in which black slaves harvest tobacco. In the foreground is a well-dressed black couple out for a stroll.|Entd . . . 1859 by Salomon Brothers . . . N.Y.|Title from item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1859-4.

StoryWorks Theater’s Teaching the Constitution Through Theater develops inclusive and transformative educational theater experiences that provides students with the opportunity to examine our history and to foster a deeper understanding of the U.S. Constitution. Through content consistent with school curriculum standards, the program engages students in experiential learning and inspires them to ask complex questions about the historical underpinnings behind contemporary issues. The process creates pathways to civic engagement, creates lasting memories and instills a tangible sense of social belonging. Now’s The Time opens at the dawn of Reconstruction, the Civil War has just ended but the nation is plunged again into crisis with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Andrew Johnson ascends to the Presidency determined to restore white supremacy in the South. Congressional radicals led by Thaddeus Stevens are fighting for a different vision. They intend to create a new society of full racial equality, where Black Americans will have real economic and political power, including ownership of land confiscated from the rebels, education, suffrage and election to public office. This titanic political battle between President and Congress culminates in the first impeachment and trial of a U.S. president, and to more than 150 years of continuing violence and discrimination against Black Americans.View the complete play Now’s The Time on the StoryWorks Theater site. Implementation1. Now’s The Time Performance Classroom watches a prerecorded, staged reading of the play Now’s The Time, written by Jean P. Bordewich and Produced by StoryWorks Theater.2. Lesson Plan Activities Following the six lesson plan structure, students will read aloud or act out scenes from the play. This participatory interaction with the text and the historical events promotes a high level of engagement from the students and encourages experiential learning. These activities directly correspond to scenes in the play and to specific content area standards. Throughout the curriculum, teachers will lead guided discussions and help to explain the historical context and theme of each scene. Students/actors will have the ability to share their experiences having portrayed these historical figures. Students/historians will have the unique opportunity to work with primary source materials to further their understanding of the complexities of the era and to gain insight into the critical legislative debates of the time.

Through the play Now's The Time and the accompanying curriculum, students will explore the Reconstruction Era through the life of Thaddeus Stevens and his colleagues as they sought to push for radical change in the making of a "new" America.  

The third in Thomas W. Strong's "Dime Caricatures" series of antisecessionist prints published early in 1861. Here Topsy, the impish slave child in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," personifies the secessionist state South Carolina. An elegantly dressed lady, Columbia, is based on Stowe's Miss Ophelia, the New England spinster who attempted the moral education of the child. Topsy appears repentant at the steps of a porch before Columbia, who sits on a chair with an American flag on her lap and a liberty cap behind her. On the floor beside her is a bald eagle. Columbia shows the flag to Topsy, displaying the holes in its blue field. She scolds her, "So, Topsey, you're at the bottom of this piece of wicked work--picking stars out of the sacred Flag! What would your forefathers say, do you think? I'll just hand you over to the new overseer, Uncle Abe [i.e., President-elect Abraham Lincoln]. He'll fix you!" Topsy responds, "Never had no father, nor mother, nor nothing! I was raised by speculators! I's mighty wicked, anyhow! ๖_ัhat makes me ack so?' Dun no, missis--I 'spects cause I's so wicked!" Behind her another slave turns to run down the steps exclaiming, "Hand us over to ole Abe, eh? Ize off!" Several more slaves watch or clown about in the yard beyond.|Entered . . . 1861 by T.W. Strong . . . New York.|Published by T.W. Strong, 98 Nassau St., N.Y.|Signed: John H. Goater del.|Thomas W. Strong Sc.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 127.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1861-11.

What has been said of Moby-Dick—that it’s the greatest novel no one ever reads—could just as well be said of any number of American “classics” like The Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This course reconsiders a small number of nineteenth-century American novels by presenting each in a surprising context.

This seminar looks at two bestselling nineteenth-century American authors whose works made the subject of slavery popular among mainstream readers. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain have subsequently become canonized and reviled, embraced and banned by individuals and groups at both ends of the political and cultural spectrum and everywhere in between.

Was the American Revolution inevitable? This lesson is designed to help students understand the transition to armed resistance and the contradiction in the Americans' rhetoric about slavery through the examination of a series of documents. While it is designed to be conducted over a several-day period, teachers with time constraints can choose to utilize only one of the documents to illustrate the patriots' responses to the actions of the British.

This seminar examines the global history of the last millennium, including technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. Students engage with economic history, medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval world systems; the age of discovery; the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems; global population movements; the industrial revolution; the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; the curse of natural resources fate of Africa; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

Students will examine the Three-Fifths Compromise. They will look at how the Constitutional Convention decided to handle the issue of enslavement in legislation. Students will analyze primary and secondary sources to learn more about the development and lasting impact of this compromise.

Poster showing German soldiers overseeing slave labor in a factory, and whipping one of the workers. B3002 Wt 5852/2598 10M 6/18. E3114. Title from item.

One of the most compelling novels of the twentieth century, Beloved by Toni Morrison has been read in classrooms across the country since its publication in 1987. The novel follows Sethe's escape to freedom, the murder of her child, and her difficult psychological journey as she copes with her past as a slave.  As both an historical account of the experiences of slavery and an insightful novel about a supernatural ghost, this text is ideal for upper level high school students and students in AP programs.

A mild reproof of Zachary Taylor's evasion of the slavery question in the campaign of 1848. Although Taylor's views were widely broadcast in the form of published letters, his stand on the main issue--the Wilmot Proviso--remained unexpressed. (The Wilmot Proviso would have banned slavery in U.S. territories acquired during the Mexican War.) Here, in a clearing with the Capitol in the distance, Taylor is confronted by a country dweller and an urban dandy. The clearing stands between a forest on the left and a grove of cane on the right at which a black man, a stereotype like the others, cuts with a long knife. The rustic (far left) holds a shotgun or rifle and has a clay pipe between his teeth. In contrast, the city gentleman is finely dressed and holds a small cane. Taylor (center) wears a uniform and holds a walking stick or baton, and is flanked by two dogs (probably bloodhounds, reminders of his controversial use\ of dogs against the Indians in Florida during the Second Seminole War). The Wilmot Proviso lies on the ground before him. Country: "Now then General, in one word, What er yer Principles? for d'ye see, if yer devoid o priciple, yer aint fit to govern this great Nation, not by a darn'd long chalk." Town: "Why-aw! yes Genl? demme! we must know your princi- ples before we vote. we must indeed, aw!--demme!" Taylor: "Confound you both, Read my last Letter!" Country: "It's darn easy to read Genl. but rather difficult to to understand--I guess." To the right of Taylor a black man cutting cane remarks of Taylor, "He! He! He dam cunning, he wants to get in fust. he keep dark on de Wilmot Provis till de beery last. de dam ole Fox."|Drawn by Edward Williams Clay.|Entered . . . 1848 by H.R. Robinson.|Lith: & pub.: by H.R. Robinson 51 Park Row (adjoining Lovejoy's Hotel, N.Y.).|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 95.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1848-32.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database has information on almost 36,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The actual number is estimated to have been as high as 12.5 million. The database and the separate estimates interface offer researchers, students and the general public a chance to rediscover the reality of one of the largest forced movements of peoples in world history.

This resource includes a database of Trans-Atlantic slaving voyages searchable by a wide range of variables in additional to essays, maps, and numerical estimates of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and K-12 lesson plans.