Frederick Douglass

The pro-life movement needs to know that such culture wars result not in outright victory for one side but in reaction and compromise.

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

A haunting exploration of “My Old Kentucky Home” reveals how a minstrel song rooted in slavery became a nostalgic American icon embedded in consumer culture.

An accounting of racist murders in nineteenth-century America.

The struggle for progress is always two steps forward and at least one step back.

Emily Bingham’s new book explores the roots of the Kentucky Derby’s anthem. It may not be pretty, but it’s important to know.

Black Americans continue to fight for access to the public school systems their forebears created, against a history of white backlash and appropriation.

When Charles Sumner died in 1874, a bill he had sponsored two years earlier threatened to overshadow his legacy.

On the Black doctors who received their medical degrees and a new sort of freedom in Europe.

Denmark Vesey expressed the Bible’s anti-slavery messages.

The US Civil War was a revolutionary upheaval that crushed slavery and stoked hopes of a broader emancipation against the rule of property.

Woody Holton’s "Liberty is Sweet" charts not only the contest with Great Britain over “home rule” but also the internal struggle over who should rule at home. 

Digitization allows researchers to trace editorial and authorial changes in archival content. Both are central to the study of this famous abolitionist pamphlet.

Pauline Hopkins, Booker T. Washington, and the fight for "The Colored American" magazine.

How shall a generation know its story, if it will know no other?

The Underground Railroad conductor's understanding of botany, wildlife biology, geography and astronomy allowed her to guide herself and others to safety.

From Phillis Wheatley to Lil Uzi Vert, Black names and their evolution tell the story of America.

Roscoe Conkling was a successful politician and an able lawyer. But the colorful and irascible senator had no desire to serve on the high court.

The most influential preacher in the country, Beecher aggressively agitated for the Union to extend complete forgiveness to Confederates.

As Frederick Douglass’s master put it, a slave who learned to read and write against the will of his master was tantamount to “running away with himself.”