emancipation

How the fight of one Black Texas family to make freedom real offers lessons for Texas lawmakers trying to erase history from the classroom.

Harry Washington fought for his enslaver's enemy during the American Revolution. Later, he migrated to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.

In the late 19th century, William Dorsey Swann's private balls attracted unwelcome attention from authorities and the press.

Likely the child of Martha's son from her first marriage, William Costin used his position to advocate for D.C.'s free Black community.

The real history of Juneteenth is much messier—and more inspiring.

Jefferson’s system depended on shoring up the bulwarks of race and basing the law on a theory of government that withdrew protection from unfavored groups.

Dean Calbreath’s biography, “The Sergeant,” relates the improbable adventures of a brilliant 19th-century Black man.

Leftists have regarded Lincoln as a pro-labor hero who helped vanquish chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today within the radical democratic tradition.

How dreams of other worlds, above and below our own, reflect the unfulfilled promises of Emancipation.

Instead of using the Underground Railroad as a route north, thousands of enslaved Black people fled to communities in the South.

One war, in one city, Philadelphia, and the fate of the men, women, and children left behind as collateral damage in the wake of conflict.

The Natchez USCT not only contributed to the war effort but was essential to establishing a post-war monument honoring President Lincoln and emancipation.

The senator from Massachusetts and the birth of the Republican Party.

Enslaved women's use of birth control, abortifacients, and even infanticide showed that they resisted by exerting control over their reproductive lives.

Looking back at the short but deep friendship of John Brown and Harriet Tubman, who gave their lives to the abolitionist cause.

Seating was segregated, and the ceremony's only Black speaker was forced to drastically revise his speech to avoid spreading "propaganda."

The cruelty of enslavers when it came to reproduction and families shaped the 13th and 14th Amendments.

“I am one who tells the truth and exposes evil and seeks with Beauty and for Beauty to set the world right,” W.E.B. Du Bois said in his June 1926 lecture.

A new book examines the ways white slaveholders were compensated, while formerly enslaved people were not.

Why abolitionist Lydia Maria Child raged at President Lincoln’s political calculations.