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The Last Slave

In 1931, Zora Neale Hurston recorded the story of Cudjo Lewis, the last living slave-ship survivor. It languished in a vault... until now.
Surveyor and enslaved people working in Barbados.
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‘Whiteness’ Was Created to Keep Black People From Voting

When slaves got close to voting rights, slaveowners changed the rules of the game.

Can Art Museums Help Illuminate Early American Connections To Slavery?

New labels at the Worcester Art Museum are drawing attention to the connections between art, slavery, and wealth in early America.

What Thomas Jefferson’s Daughters Can Teach Us About the False Promises of Patriarchy

Women have always come to the aid of men in power, but the costs of such actions have not always been immediately apparent.

NYC Will Move—But Not Remove—Statue of Gynecologist Who Experimented on Slaves

Some say the decision to move the statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims from Central Park to a Brooklyn cemetery is a "slap in the face."

The Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862

While a far cry from full emancipation, it was an important step towards the abolition of slavery.

Factory Made

A history of modernity as a history of factories struggles to see beyond their walls.

Say Goodbye To Your Happy Plantation Narrative

Only a small percentage of historical interpreters are black, and Cheyney McKnight is trying to change that.
Statue memorializing Irish immigrants.

No, the Irish Were Not Slaves Too

The myth of Irish slavery has found fertile ground in Internet memes as a way to derail conversation about the need for affirmative action today.

A “Malicious Fabrication” by a “Mendacious Scribbler for the ‘New York Times’”

The Times, as a “venomous Abolition Journal” could not be trusted to provide the truth for a white, slave-owning southerner.

Today’s Eerie Echoes of the Civil War

We may not be in the midst of a war today, but the progress of democracy in this country is still tied to the rights of its most vulnerable citizens.
Illustration of enslaved persons singing and dancing

Teaching White Supremacy: U.S. History Textbooks and the Influence of Historians

The assumptions of white priority and white domination suffuse every chapter and every theme of the thousands of textbooks that have blanketed the schools of our country.

In the Shadows of Slavery’s Capitalism

"Masterless Men" shows how the antebellum political economy made poor southern whites into a volatile, and potentially disruptive, class.
Painting of peasants and landlords on Yuri's Day

How American Slavery Echoed Russian Serfdom

Russian serfdom and American slavery ended within two years of each other; the defenders of these systems of bondage surprisingly shared many of the same arguments.

When Emancipation Finally Came, Slave Markets Took on a Redemptive Purpose

During the Civil War, slave pens held captive Confederate soldiers. After, they became rallying points for a newly empowered community.

Dressmaking Led Elizabeth Keckley From Slavery to the White House

But her memoir caused a rift with Mary Todd Lincoln.
Charles Dickens writing at his table, 1858.

Charles Dickens, America, & The Civil War

What might Charles Dickens have thought about the American Civil War and the American struggle for abolition and social reforms?
Mural of a wedding on a plantation, while African Americans working in fields.

'Until Death or Distance Do You Part'

African American marriages before and after the Civil War.

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. 

White Americans Fail to Address Their Family Histories

There is a conversation about race that white families are just not having. This is mine. 

The Slave Revolution That Gave Birth to Haiti

A rebellion against French colonial rule in 1791 led to a new kind of society.

One of History's Foremost Anti-Slavery Organizers Is Often Left Out of Black History Month

The Reverend Dr. Henry Highland Garnet may be the most famous African American you never learned about.
Thomas Jefferson's two-volume personal copy of George Sale's 1734 translation of the Qur'an. Library of Congress.

Why Thomas Jefferson Owned a Qur’an

Islam in America dates to the founding fathers, says Smithsonian’s religion curator Peter Manseau.
Drawing of a black man holding a shovel (out of frame).

Arlington Is More Than a Cemetery

Arlington House’s transformations mirror our own.
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Encountering the Plantation Myth Where You'd Least Expect It

Well off Savannah's tourist trail, there's a replica of an antebellum plantation home in the middle of a public housing project.
Millard Filmore.
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Remembering the Sins of Millard Fillmore

A little-remembered president's most notorious act.

The US Medical System is Still Haunted by Slavery

Medicine’s dark history helps explain why black mothers are dying at alarming rates.
Protestor outside the Supreme Court, with a Bible and a sign denouncing bigotry.
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Discriminating in the Name of Religion? Segregationists and Slaveholders Did It, Too.

If religious freedom trumps equality under the law, it provides a “cover” that actually encourages discrimination.
Atticus Finch and children at the diningroom table in the film "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Prop and Property

The house in American cinema, from the plantation to Chavez Ravine.
Ed Ayers next to the cover of his book, "The Thin Light of Freedom."
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The Thin Light of Freedom

On this episode of BackStory, Brian sits down with Ed to talk about a project of his that’s been twenty-five years in the making.

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