Paul Cuffee
Paul Cuffee, a sea captain and an entrepreneur, was perhaps the wealthiest black American of his time. Cuffee was born on Cuttyhunk Island, off Southern...
Category : History
The Free Soil Party
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The Free Soil Party was an American political party that only survived through two presidential elections, in 1848 and 1852. Essentially a single issue reform...
The Abolition Movement
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As the enslavement of African-Americans became a preferred aspect of the United States’ society, people began questioning the morality of bondage. Throughout the 18th and...
Gabriel Prosser
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GABRIEL’S INSURRECTION, a slave uprising in Virginia in 1800. The democratic ideals expressed in the slogan of the French Revolution (1789)—”liberty, equality, fraternity”—resonated in France’s...
Henry Christophe
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Henry Christophe, born into slavery on Grenada, rose through sheer determination to become a pivotal figure in Haiti’s fight for independence. Illiterate and unschooled, he...
Royal African Company
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In West Africa, where the tapestry of history was profoundly woven with Europe’s commercial ambitions, a vibrant gold trade flourished long before the Age of...
If the South Had Won the Civil War, Slavery Could Have Lasted Until the 20th Century
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Aaron Sheehan-Dean is the Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University. He is the author of titles such as Why Confederates...
Free State of Jones reminds us that slavery didn’t end with the Civil War and its poisonous legacy is real
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I recently watched Free State of Jones starring Matthew McConaughey, and as a scholar of both the American Civil War and the broader subject of...
Presidents Who Owned Slaves
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John Adams: The second president did not approve of slavery and never owned slaves. He and his wife Abigail were offended when the federal government moved...
A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison
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Paul Jennings is the author of A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison (1865), a memoir about his service as an enslaved footman in the...