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The Birth of the Ku Klux Brand

A new book re-traces the origins of the 19th-century KKK, which began as a social club before swiftly moving to murder.
by Malcolm Harris via Pacific Standard on February 19, 2016
Sign reading "Is your child vaccinated?"
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Contagion

How prior generations of Americans responded to the threat of infectious disease.
via BackStory on February 19, 2016
Lithograph of Freedman's Bureau official separating freedmen from hostile whites.

The Freedmen's Bureau

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.
by Hillary Brady via Digital Public Library of America on October 14, 2015

Killing Reconstruction

During Reconstruction, elites used racist appeals to silence calls for redistribution and worker empowerment.
by Heather Cox Richardson via Jacobin on August 19, 2015

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

Mapping Occupation: Force, Freedom, and the Army in Reconstruction

A detailed look at when and where the U.S. Army was able to enforce the new rule of law in the years following the Civil War.
by Gregory P. Downs, Scott Nesbit via Mapping Occupation on March 1, 2015
Photo of Jimmy Lee Jackson.

The Killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson

How a post-Civil War massacre impacted racial justice in America.
by Debo Adegbile via The Marshall Project on February 27, 2015

How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope

Before its subversion in the Jim Crow era, the fruit symbolized black self-sufficiency.
by Bill Black via The Atlantic on December 8, 2014
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How Suffering Shaped Emancipation

Jim Downs discusses the plight of freed slaves during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
by Jim Downs, Robin Lindley via HNN on August 6, 2012
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Who Invented Memorial Day?

As Americans enjoy the holiday weekend, does anyone know how Memorial Day originated?
by Jim Downs via HNN on May 28, 2012

A Topic Best Avoided

After the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln faced the issue of sorting out a nation divided over the issue of freed slaves. But what were his views on it?
by Nicholas Guyatt via London Review of Books on December 1, 2011
Political cartoon of Freedman's Bureau agent separating angry whites from defensive freedmen.

The Freedmen's Bureau

“No sooner had Northern armies touched Southern soil than this old question, newly guised, sprang from the earth: What shall be done with slaves?”
by W.E.B. Du Bois via The Atlantic on March 1, 1901
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
Enslaved women and children in a cotton field

Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad

The president’s latest criticism of museums is a thinly veiled attempt to erase Black history.
by Clint Smith via The Atlantic on August 22, 2025
Two African American children gallop through a field on horseback.

Riding to Freedom: On the Importance of the Horse in Escaping Slavery

“Horses were a part of the daily fabric of life for many enslaved Black people.”
by Bitter Kalli via Literary Hub on August 19, 2025
Black man's face, and maps of Chicago, in an outline of a detective.

The Talented Mr. Bruseaux

He made his name in Chicago investigating race riots, solving crimes, and exposing corruption. But America’s first Black private eye was hiding his own secrets.
by Matthew Wolfe via The Atavist on July 23, 2025
A group of men in 19th-century clothing groom their beards.

The First Time America Went Beard Crazy

A sweeping new history explores facial hair as a proving ground for notions about gender, race, and rebellion.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on July 21, 2025
Engraving of the burning of Portland, Maine, in 1776

The Biggest Coverup of the American Revolution

The Declaration of Independence condemns King George III. But the British were not to blame for one of the war’s most infamous conflagrations.
by Andrew Lawler via The Bulwark on July 4, 2025
Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

States’ Rights to Racism

On the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, racism, and federal power.
by Brando Simeo Starkey via Literary Hub on June 5, 2025
Cover of "Sedition" featuring smoke engulfing the Capitol dome.
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An Attempt to Defeat Constitutional Order

After the Civil War, conservatives used terrorism, cold-blooded murder, and economic coercion to fight the new state constitution in South Carolina.
by Marcus Alexander Gadson via HNN on May 13, 2025
Drawing of Black and white Liberian Senators sitting behind desks while one speaks and a crowd watches

Freedom and Its Limits

Edward Wilmot Blyden sorted through competing ideas about the meaning of freedom in 19th-Century Liberia.
by Shae Omonijo via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on April 30, 2025
A drawing of Confederate soldiers on horseback violently forcing Black people to walk south.

After Confederate Forces Took Their Children, These Black Mothers Fought to Reunite Their Families

Confederates kidnapped free Black people to sell into slavery. After the war, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved ones.
by Robert K. D. Colby via Smithsonian Magazine on February 6, 2025
A girl in Native American tribal regalia being crowned as homecoming queen.

The Complex Politics of Tribal Enrollment

How did the U.S. government become involved in “adjudicating Indianness”?
by Rachel Monroe via The New Yorker on November 20, 2024
Run on a bank during the Great Depression.

The Radical Past and Future of Debt Resistance

The deep roots of debt relief activism in the United States.
by Astra Taylor via The Nation on September 25, 2024
John Andrew Jackson riding a galloping horse and tipping his hat.
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How Do We Tell a Tale of People Who Sought to Disappear?

The life of John Andrew Jackson — and the vacillating richness and scarcity of the archive.
by Susanna Ashton via HNN on August 13, 2024
Harriet Tubman.

The Radical Faith of Harriet Tubman

A new book conveys in dramatic detail what America’s Moses did to help abolish slavery. Another addresses the love of God and country that helped her do so.
by Casey N. Cep via The New Yorker on June 24, 2024
An 1863 illustration from “Le Monde illustré” of formerly enslaved people celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation.

What If Reconstruction Didn’t End Till 1920?

Historian Manisha Sinha argues that the Second Republic lasted decades longer than most histories state and achieved wider gains.
by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on June 11, 2024
A rider from the 9th US Cavalry, one of several segregated units called the Buffalo Soldiers.

Meet The Black Cowboys Who Shaped Colorado History

The gunslingers, innovators, and explorers who carved their destinies from the sprawling promise of the West.
by Corey Buhay via Atlas Obscura on May 29, 2024

An Unholy Traffic: How the Slave Trade Continued Through the US Civil War

In a new book, Robert KD Colby of the University of Mississippi shows how the Confederacy remained committed to slavery.
by Rich Tenorio via The Guardian on April 28, 2024
Map of New York state from 1813
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Suppressing the Black Vote in 1811

As more Black men gained the right to vote in New York, the state began to change its laws to reduce their power or disenfranchise them completely.
by Livia Gershon, Sarah L. H. Gronningsater via JSTOR Daily on February 23, 2024
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