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Statue of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Wasn't Born an Abolitionist, He Became One

We live in polarized times when freedom is threatened but this Juneteenth we should remind ourselves that we have overcome far worse.
by Manisha Sinha via The UnPopulist on June 19, 2025
Black men stand on trains derailed by Sherman's destruction of infrastructure.

The Other Side of Sherman’s March

The general’s campaign through the South is known for its brutality against civilians. For the enslaved who followed his army, though, it was a shot at freedom.
by Scott Spillman via The New Yorker on January 29, 2025
Drawings of refugees arriving at Fort Monroe.
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Expect Freedom Upon Arrival

On the slow path to federal action on emancipation during the Civil War.
by Bennett Parten via HNN on January 22, 2025
Engraving of freed slaves arriving at Union lines, New Bern, North Carolina, 1863.

The Emancipators’ Vision

Was abolition intended as a perpetuation of slavery by other means?
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on December 1, 2022
Emancipation Day in South Carolina
Exhibit

Emancipation

The long history of emancipation in the United States, from individual escapes and manumissions, through Civil War fighting and Reconstruction legislation, to Juneteenth commemorations.
A group of the newly emancipated working with the US army, 1862.

The Promise of Freedom

A new history of the Civil War and Reconstruction examines the ways in which Black Americans formed networks of self-reliance in their pursuit of emancipation.
by Elias Rodriques via The Nation on October 3, 2022
Kris Manjapra standing outside by a wall. He examines the history of when slavery ended, emancipation laws kept the enslaved in bondage—and rewarded the enslavers.

How Slavery Ended Slowly, and Emancipation Laws Often Kept the Enslaved in Bondage

Tufts Professor Kris Manjapra examines the history of the injustice of abolition in the U.S. and abroad and the need for reparations in his new book.
by Taylor McNeil via TuftsNow on June 15, 2022
6 African American's at an Emancipation Day celebration on June 19, 1900

The History of How Emancipated People Were Kept Unfree Needs To Be Remembered Too

Emancipation Days symbolized America’s attempt to free the enslaved across the nation. But those days were unable to prevent new forms of economic slavery.
by Kris Manjapra via The Conversation on June 15, 2022
A drawing of President Abraham Lincoln with African Americans outside of the White House.

Guests of the Great Emancipator

Lin­coln’s interactions with black Americans provides a valuable resource for understanding a more farseeing Lincoln than the voices of despair have described.
by Allen C. Guelzo via National Review on March 17, 2022
Ramón Castilla

Emancipation in War: The United States and Peru

A comparative look at the U.S. and Peru's emancipation proclamations' nuances in declaring the freedom of enslaved peoples.
by Niels Eichhorn via Muster on September 15, 2020
Painting of a sinking ship on fire, in which the fire looks like the American flag.

The Confederate Project

What the Confederacy actually was: a proslavery anti-democratic state, dedicated to the proposition that all men were not created equal.
by Stephanie McCurry via Medium on June 16, 2020

Pushing the Dual Emancipation Thesis Beyond its Troublesome Origins

"Masterless Men" shows how poor whites benefited from slavery's end, but does not diminish the experiences of the enslaved.
by Adrienne Petty via Black Perspectives on March 8, 2018

Abraham Lincoln's Secret Visits to Slaves

Former slaves claimed the president came to plantations disguised as a beggar or a peddler, telling them they’d soon be free. 
by Bill Black via The Atlantic on February 12, 2018

The Thrilling Tale of How Robert Smalls Seized a Confederate Ship and Sailed it to Freedom

He risked his life to liberate his family and became a legend in the process.
by Cate Lineberry via Smithsonian Magazine on June 13, 2017

A Dual Emancipation

How black freedom benefited poor whites.
by Keri Leigh Merritt via Black Perspectives on April 15, 2017

The Hidden History Of Juneteenth

The internecine conflict and the institution of slavery could not and did not end neatly at Appomattox or on Galveston Island.
by Gregory P. Downs via Talking Points Memo on June 18, 2015
A room in Monticello.

Jefferson Divided

Though his writings grappled with the contradiction between bondage and liberty, Thomas Jefferson’s life was indebted to those he enslaved.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on December 1, 2025
Drawing of Yale University, from likely the 17th century.

Reckoning With Yale’s Ties to Slavery

An institutional history of the “peculiar institution.”
by James Steichen via The Chronicle of Higher Education on November 14, 2025
Enslaved people working on a coffee farm in Brazil.

Way Down South: Slavery Far Beyond the United States

Slavery in Latin America, on a huge scale, was different from that in the United States. Why don’t we know this history?
by Ana Lucia Araujo via Aeon on November 13, 2025
'A slave auction at the South' by Theodore R. Davis, from Harper’s Weekly, July 1861

Speculation in Human Property

The survival of slave trading during the Civil War suggests that enslaved people remained valuable commodities in a time of economic upheaval.
by James Oakes via New York Review of Books on October 30, 2025
A mule carrying packs sits defiantly, while one man pushes, another pulls, and a third cracks a whip.

Mule Power

Unpacking empires and diaspora in Mexico and the United States.
by Jayson Maurice Porter via Distillations on October 16, 2025
Lincoln, Washington, and a snippet from a lyceum address.

The Lincoln Way

How he used America’s past to rescue its future.
by Jake Lundberg via The Atlantic on October 10, 2025
British flag with writing that says, "Liberty for Slaves."

The Black Loyalists

Thousands of African Americans fought for the British—then fled the United States to avoid a return to enslavement.
by Andrew Lawler via The Atlantic on October 8, 2025
Federal encampment on Cumberland Landing, Virginia.
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How the Union Lost the Remembrance War

The victors of the American Civil War failed to write their story into the history books, leaving a gap for the mythologizing of the Confederacy.
by Matthew Wills, Robert J. Cook via JSTOR Daily on October 5, 2025
Page excerpting Louisiana's Reconstruction constitution and featuring portraits of its Black legislators.

The Long Struggle for Equality in the American South: Louisiana as a Test Case

Louisiana’s 1845 and 1852 conventions reveal partisan tensions over the economy that shaped Black struggles and opportunities for decades.
by Lacy K. Ford via The Panorama on September 23, 2025
James M. Hinds portraits shown blurry as if ink colors were misaligned during printing.

The Eloquent Vindicator in the Electric Room

No one remembers the assassination of Congressman James M. Hinds. What do we risk by making it just another part of American history?
by Drew Johnson via Longreads on September 9, 2025
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln in front of a collage of letters.

When Historians Rediscovered These Frederick Douglass Letters, His Words on Lincoln Surprised Them

In correspondence with an abolitionist in London, the great American orator didn’t hold back when talking about Abraham Lincoln, or the maligned Andrew Johnson.
by Jonathan W. White, Lucas E. Morel via Smithsonian Magazine on September 3, 2025
An abolitionist lithograph depicting enslaved people celebrating the Fourth of July while a white judge sits on bales of cotton with his feet on the Constitution, 1840

The Contradictory Revolution

Historians have long grappled with “the American Paradox” of Revolutionary leaders who fought for their own liberty while denying it to enslaved Black people.
by David S. Reynolds via New York Review of Books on July 31, 2025
Charles Sumner

How Charles Sumner Convinced Abraham Lincoln and the Union To Take a Stand Against Slavery

The domestic and international dynamics of the early days of the Civil War.
by Zaakir Tameez via Literary Hub on June 11, 2025
Abraham Lincoln

Was the Civil War Inevitable?

Before Lincoln turned the idea of “the Union” into a cause worth dying for, he tried other means of ending slavery in America.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on April 21, 2025
A family of formerly enslaved people outside their house in Fredericksburg, Virginia, circa 1862–1865.

The Missing Persons of Reconstruction

Enslaved families were regularly separated​. A new history chronicles the tenacious efforts of the emancipated to be reunited​ with their loved ones.
by Joshua D. Rothman via The New Republic on February 26, 2025
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