Cameron Maynard stands at attention by the monument to Confederate soldiers at the South Carolina Statehouse on July 10, 2017, in Columbia, S.C.
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What We’ve Gotten Wrong About the History of Reconstruction

The erasure of Black leaders from the most misunderstood period in American history.
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Conservatives Are Once Again Trying to Erase Black History

The battles over Critical Race Theory and Southern heritage are really about a narrow, exclusionary reading of our past.
Painting of a couple kissing under a broomstick

Broomstick Weddings and the History of the Atlantic World

From Kentucky to Wales and all across the Atlantic, the enslaved and downtrodden got married – by leaping over a broom. Why?
A stone marked as a slave auction block and tagged with graffiti.
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What PTSD Tells Us About the History of Slavery

June, PTSD Awareness month, is a time to recognize how trauma has shaped our history.

Slave Hounds and Abolition in the Americas

How dogs permeated slave societies and bolstered European ambitions for colonial expansion and social domination.

A Meditation on Natural Light and the Use of Fire in United States Slavery

Responding to “Race and the Paradoxes of the Night,” by Celeste Henery.

The Curious History of Anthony Johnson: From Captive African to Right-Wing Talking Point

Certain pundits are misrepresenting the biography of the "first black slaveholder."
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How Right-Wing Talking Points Distort the History of Slavery

As we debate reparations, we need to get the facts right.

The Role of Water in African American History

Have historians privileged land-based models and ignored how African Americans participated in aquatic activities?

Enslaved People and Divorce in the African Diaspora

Restoring agency to enslaved people means acknowledging not only that they created marriages, but that they ended them, too.

Police Dogs and Anti-Black Violence

Police brutality has been a hot topic in contemporary society, but when did this all really start and where did dogs get involved?

The Canine Terror

Since slavery, dogs have been used to intimidate and control African Americans.