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Cartoon depiction of an Black owned oyster cellar in the 1830s with drunk patrons.

Equity on the Rocks: Using the Past to Stir Up New Possibilities

Discussion of how liquor licensing has shaped Black economic opportunity and equity from antebellum oyster cellars to modern Boston.
by Mackenzie Tor via The Panorama on January 28, 2026
A fiber art piece depicting the Mason-Dixon line.

The Most Rancorous Line

How did the Mason–Dixon Line—meant to resolve a longstanding colonial border dispute—come to represent the US’s foundational divide between slavery and freedom?
by Nicholas Guyatt via New York Review of Books on December 25, 2025
"Declaration of Independence" by John Trumbull

Give Me Independence: On 1776, the Pivotal Year For What Would Become America

Why 1776 became the year Americans declared themselves an independent nation.
by Edward J. Larson via Literary Hub on December 5, 2025
William Lloyd Garrison.

From William Lloyd Garrison to Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

There has been a long history of nonviolent resistance in the United States, from William Lloyd Garrison to Martin Luther King Jr.
by Bennett Parten via Public Seminar on November 18, 2025
The Jefferson Memorial, with storm clouds outside, and light from within.

How Jefferson’s Words Were Doctored in his Memorial

A great-great-grandson pushed to portray Jefferson as an abolitionist, leaving a misleading impression about his actions on equality and slavery.
by Michael Kranish via Washington Post on November 2, 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
Collage illustration of a founder, Declaration of Independence, and the body of an enslaved person whose arms are in chains.

Whose Independence?

The question of what Jefferson meant by “all men” has defined American law and politics for too long.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via The Atlantic on October 9, 2025
Charles Sumner

The Senator Will Not Yield

Charles Sumner's example reminds us that "with enough courage and drive, can alter the trajectory of American racial history."
by H. W. Brands via The Washington Free Beacon on August 10, 2025
Totwar Land Office building.

No Place of Grace

Coming to terms with free-state slavery through historic buildings and public history.
by Richard Newman via The Panorama on July 7, 2025
Samuel Gompers the president of the American Federation of Labor in December 1920.

America’s Brutal Capitalist Class Tamed Its Labor Movement

The unique brutality of the US capitalist class bred a labor movement that has often limited itself to being a private insurance provider.
by Maya Adereth via Jacobin on July 7, 2025
Graphic of a nickel displays the words "nullification," "compact," and "sever" on Jefferson's head.

Thomas Jefferson Would Like A Word With You

Thomas Jefferson's limited government ideal quickly conflicted with the U.S. Constitution and the dominant Federalist Party, prompting a radical proposal.
by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on June 16, 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
Karl Marx gazing off into the distance while surrounded by books

Karl Marx’s Legacy in the United States

For two centuries, Karl Marx’s thoughts have significantly impacted US politics. In turn, his close study of the US informed the development of his ideas.
by Andrew Hartman, Cal Turner, Sara Van Horn via Jacobin on May 18, 2025
Mark Twain sits in thought on stone steps surrounded by nature while holding papers

Twain Dreams

The enigma of Samuel Clemens.
by John Jeremiah Sullivan via Harper’s on April 29, 2025
The “Visscher Map of the New World” including North and South America, 1658.

The Impossibly Intertwined History of the Americas

A conversation with Greg Grandin about his groundbreaking new book "America, América: A New History of the New World."
by Greg Grandin, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on April 21, 2025
Harvard University "veritas" seal displayed on flags on its campus.

Harvard Stood Up to Trump. Too Bad the School Wasn’t Always So Brave.

The university’s last “finest hour” was more than 200 years ago.
by Timothy Noah via The New Republic on April 16, 2025
A drawing of cannons being fired at Fort Sumter.

What Can We Learn From the Jewish Debate Over Slavery?

This Passover, American Jews should embrace the fight for “emancipation of all kinds.”
by Richard Kreitner via Slate on April 10, 2025
An 1851 painting of Patrick Henry speaking to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

Discover Patrick Henry’s Legacy, Beyond His Revolutionary ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’ Speech

Delivered 250 years ago, the famous oration marked the Henry’s influence. The politician also served in key roles in Virginia’s state government.
by Cassandra A. Good via Smithsonian Magazine on March 21, 2025
Black and white photograph of a lake.

Not So Close

For Henry David Thoreau, it is only as strangers that we can see each other as the bearers of divinity we really are.
by Ashley C. Barnes via Commonweal on March 18, 2025
Collage of protesters holding up signs against war taxes.

Could Tax Protests Defund the American War Machine?

Tax resistance has long opposed war and empire in North America, and could be a way to resist U.S. funding of violence in Gaza today.
by Lauren Fadiman via Current Affairs on March 18, 2025

‘This Land Is Yours’

The missing Black history of upstate New York challenges the delusion of New York as a land of freedom far removed from the American original sin of slavery.
by Nell Irvin Painter via New York Review of Books on March 9, 2025
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1858.

A Constitutionalist or a Revolutionist?

Which one was Abraham Lincoln?
by Herman Belz via Modern Age on February 17, 2025
Painting imagining Washington shaking hands with Lincoln in front of liberty's flame.
partner

Praising Washington in Lincoln’s Day

At the time of the Civil War, many Americans revered the nation’s Founding Fathers, and both supporters and opponents of slavery recruited them to their sides.
by Livia Gershon, Jeffrey J. Malanson via JSTOR Daily on February 12, 2025
Drawings of King George III and George Washington.

Parallel Lives

King George and George Washington, featured in an upcoming exhibit.
by Julie Miller via Library of Congress Blog on February 6, 2025
A drawing of a slave revolt on a ship.

Rare Portraits Reveal the Humanity of the Slaves Who Revolted on the Amistad

William H. Townsend drew the rebels as they stood trial, leaving behind an invaluable record.
by Kate McMahon via The Conversation on February 3, 2025
Adolphe Duperly’s painting depicting the destruction of the Roehampton Estate in Jamaica during the Baptist War in January 1832.

For Enslaved People, the Holiday Season Was a Brief Window to Fight Back

The week between Christmas and the new year offered a rare opportunity for enslaved people to reclaim their humanity.
by Ana Lucia Araujo via The Conversation on December 18, 2024
Burgundy leather book cover with "Published By The Author" written in gold.
partner

Self-Publishing and the Black American Narrative

"Published by the Author" explores the resourcefulness of Black writers of the nineteenth century.
by Tim Brinkhof, Bryan Sinche via JSTOR Daily on December 11, 2024
Illustration of sex workers behind waving American flag.

How the United States Tried to Get on Top of the Sex Trade

Why should American exceptionalism end at the red-light district?
by Rebecca Mead via The New Yorker on December 9, 2024
Political cartoon depicting 1856 presidential candidates

The First Punch

There are uncanny parallels between the elections of 2024 and 1856, with one big exception: in 1856, it was the political left that was on the offensive.
by Matthew Karp via Harper’s on December 5, 2024
Collage of Matilda Gage and good and bad witches from "The Wizard of Oz" and "Wicked."

The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz

The story of suffragist Matilda Gage, the woman behind the curtain whose life story captivated her son-in-law L. Frank Baum as he wrote his classic novel.
by Evan I. Schwartz via Smithsonian Magazine on November 18, 2024
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