Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), photograph, Library of Congress

Slavery, Abolition, & African American Roles in the Civil War

Updated July 16, 2003

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TIMELINES & OUTLINES

PRIMARY DOCUMENTS / MAPS

  SLAVERY / ABOLITION & REBELLION / SLAVE SPIRITUALS

  AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIERS

  RECONSTRUCTION: AFTER THE WAR

  AFRICAN AMERICAN CEMETERIES
 

TIMELINES & OUTLINES (Most include info, too)
TIMELINE: American Slavery to 1800 
TIMELINE: History of Slavery, 1619 - 1789 
TIMELINE: History Of Slavery And Racism: 1790 - 1829
TIMELINE: History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
  TIMELINE: Slavery and Religion in America: 1440-1866 
  TIMELINE: Chronology of Emancipation 
  TIMELINE: African American History, 1852-1880 - 1881-1900 - 1901-1925 
  TIMELINE: John Brown
  TIMELINE: Frederick Douglass 
  TIMELINE: African Slave Trade & European Imperialism 
  OUTLINE: Colonial Slavery 
  OUTLINE: The Peculiar Institution of American Slavery 
  History Of Liberia: A Time Line 


PRIMARY DOCUMENTS
Informed ReSource: Historical Documents Regarding Slavery
  Slavery Images 
  Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection  
Slave Voices from the Duke University Special Collections Library 
  PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project 
  North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920 
  Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War 
   PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: Slavery 
  PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Jefferson on Slavery 
PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: Readings on Slavery from  the Early Presidents 
  THE ALABAMA SUPREME COURT ON SLAVES
  Slave Narratives
DPLS Archive: Slave Movement During the 18th and 19th Centuries 
Description of a Slave Auction
Slave Narrative: "I Saw a Slave Ship" by Gustavus Vassa, 1791 
THE GENERAL FEATURES OF SLAVERY ARE THE SAME
"MY BEDSTEAD CONSISTED OF A BOARD WIDE ENOUGH TO SLEEP ON"
"WE LODGED IN LOG HUTS"
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REST"
Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days
"I CANNOT DO ANYTHING FOR YOU": Childhood in Slavery Narrative
"THE WANT OF PARENTAL CARE AND ATTENTION": Slave Child Narrative
"I DISCOVERED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MYSELF AND MY MASTER'S WHITE CHILDREN"
  William Lloyd Garrison, Editorial in The Liberator, Volume I, 1831 
  CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI SLAVERY SOCIETY, 1833
  PRIMARY DOCUMENT: John C. Calhoun, "Slavery a Positive Good," 1837 
  PRIMARY DOCUMENTPlaindealer (New York), "The Blessings of Slavery," 1837 
  The Amistad Case - The Arguments of John Quincy Adams before the Supreme Court - 1841 
  JOHN BROWN'S LAST SPEECH November 2, 1859  
Emancipation in the Federal Territories, June 19, 1862
Lincoln's Appeal to Border State Representatives on Compensated Emancipation
Maryland Fugitive Slave to his Wife 
  Congressional Joint Resolution on compensated emancipation, April 10, 1862
Congressional Joint Resolution Freeing Families of Black Soldiers
  PRIMARY DOCUMENT: A Letter from a Slave to His Former Master, 1865 
  Hannah Valentine & Lethe Jackson Slave Letters - Duke Special Collection 
Scartoons Introduction
    UNESCO - Slave Trade Archives Project 
  PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: Pluralism: Removal; Freedom; Slavery
   African American Literature: Voices of Slavery and Freedom - Earliest Works and Literary Legacy of Slavery - More African American Literature is available on my African Americans page. 
  IMAGES: Beyond Face Value - Depictions of Slavery on Confederate Currency 
  Beyond Face Value - The Images 
Slavery and Slavery-Like Practices 
  Creative Quotations from Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) 
More available in each section on this page and on my Civil War Primary Documents page.


MAPS & GRAPHS
Africans in America: Clickable Map of the British Colonies
Slave Population: MAP
Virginia Slave Migration, frames
The Geography of Virginia's Slave Market
  MAP: Triangle Trade Routes 
  MAP: West African Slave Trade 
MAP: Underground Railroad Routes 1860 
  MAP: Free and Slave Areas, 1821-1850 
  MAPS: Charting the African American Journey 
  MAP: Free and Slave Areas, 1861 
  GRAPH: Slavery and the U.S. Presidents 
More maps available in other sections on this page and on my Civil War Maps page.


BEFORE THE WAR
Constitution On Slavery
  African American Ancestry 
African American Heroes 1750-1860 
  Africans in America: New York's Revolt of 1712 
  Africans in America: Witchunt in New York - The 1741 Rebellion 
  Free Blacks before the Revolutionary War 
  Free Blacks Before the Civil War 
  First Blacks Of Portsmouth, NH
  Slavery and the American Revolution 


FREE-BLACKS
Free Blacks before the Revolutionary War 
  Free Blacks Before the Civil War 
  Freedom's Journal, the first African-American owned and operated newspapers 
On Borrowed Ground: Free African-American life in Charleston, SC
  Fort Mose: Free African Settlement in Florida 
  American Colonization Society (ACS) (Library of Congress)
  Liberia: African-American Mosaic Exhibition (Library of Congress) 
Liberian Colony in 1822
  The Roanoke Island Freedmens Colony -1863 
  Ignatius Sancho: African Man of Letters 
  Quobna Ottabah Cugoano: a Former Slave Speaks Out 
  Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African 
  Black Moderates And Black Militants in the early 1800s. 


THE "PECULIAR" INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY
 
MAP: Triangle Trade Routes - more maps available above. 
  MAP: West African Slave Trade 
  Slave/Free Maps - currently unavailable 
  TIMELINE: African Slave Trade & European Imperialism - more timelines available in above. 
  Subject: Indentured Servants - From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery 
  The Growth of Slavery in North America 
  The Economics of Slavery
  African Slave Trade 
  The Beginnings of the European Slave Trade  
  New World Exploration and English Ambition 
  The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage 
  European Voyages of Exploration: The Sugar & Slave Trades 
  The Last Slave Ships
  Colonial Period Slavery 
  Colonial African Americans 
  Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Slavery During the Colonial Period 
  Slavery and the Law in Virginia 
  Transcriptions of Virginia Gazette Runaway Slave Ads 
  A Struggle from the Start: African American Journey to Freedom 
  Don't Wanna Slave No More: Introduction to Colonial African-American Life  
  From Africa to America 
Africans in America 
Africans in America: 1450-1750 - 1750-1805 - 1791-1831 - 1831-1865 
  African American Journey 
  Charting the African American Journey 
  The Slave Trade
  The UNESCO Triangular Slave Trade Project (TST)
  Black Experience in America: The Human Market - Slavery as Capitalism (For an excellent E-text of the history of Africans in America to the present day, check out Coombs: Black EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA)
  Welcome to African American History! 
  Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery 
    Beyond Face Value 
  Living with the Hydra: The Documentation of Slavery and the Slave Trade
   Slavery and Exclusion Laws in Oregon Territory
Extension of Slavery 
From Slavery to Freedom
Records of Slave Ship Movement Between Africa and the Americas, 1817-184
Slave Ships of Eighteenth Century France 1748-1756, 1763-1792
MIDDLE PASSAGE
Slave Trade to Rio de Janeiro, 1795-1811
Virginia Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century, 1727-1769
  Kunta Kinte History 
  Slave Codes of the State of Georgia, 1848 
Slave Codes
The Henrietta Marie, an English merchant slave ship 
USA:(4)Cotton promotes slavery
  Agriculture an Important Part of Black History 
   A SHORT HISTORY OF ALABAMA AGRICULTURE, 1820-1945 
  Influences of British Imperialist Economic Fortunes on Slavery 
  Economics of the Antebellum Period 
  Understanding the Colonial Period Through Economic Theory 
  UNESCO Slave Route Project - Sugar and Slavery  
  Slaves of Latta Plantation 
  Slavery in the Capitol (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress 
  African-American Heritage in the Delta - Lower Mississippi Delta Region 
DPLS Archive: Slave Movement During the 18th and 19th Centuries
Amistad Trial Home Page
  THE AMISTAD, 40 U.S. 518 (1841)  
  Teaching With Documents: The Amistad Case 
  Exploring Amistad  
  Welcome to Amistad America 
Securing the Leg Irons: Restriction of Legal Rights for Slaves in Virginia 
Africa Reparations Movement Information Sheets
  Yes, there was slavery in New York City!
  Colonization; Southern Colonies, slavery
   Chronicling Black Lives in Colonial New England 
The Peculiar Institution of American Slavery
  The Museum of African Slavery
  Pre-Civil War Era Art About African-Americans
  The Slaver "Fredensborg" 
  UNESCO Slave Route Project - Welcome 
  UNESCO Slave Route Project - Links and resources for school projects 
  UNESCO Slave Route Project - African Slave Trade
The Fugitive Slave Act
  Political Compromises: Fugitive Slave Laws 
  Description of a Slave Auction
Slave Narrative: "I Saw a Slave Ship" by Gustavus Vassa, 1791
Free at Last
Scartoons Introduction 
  Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 
  Dred Scott: America in 1857 
  Dred Scott: Case Background 
  Dred Scott: In the Federal Judicial System 
  Dred Scott: The Supreme Court's Decision 
  Dred Scott: Republican Reactions 
  Dred Scott: Democratic Reaction 
  Dred Scott: Impact of Dred Scott  
  Dred Scott | Washington University in St. Louis 
  Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation
  From Slave Women to Free Women: The National Archives and Black Women's History in the Civil War Era  
  THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY 
  NARA | ALIC | Records that pertain to American Slavery and the International Slave Trade  
  Race, Ethnicity and the Archaeology of the Atlantic Slave Trade 
  The Emancipation Proclamation: An Act of Justice 
The Atlantic Slave Trade: Demographic Simulation 
  More info on Demographic Simulation 
  Transatlantic Traffic 
  The African-American Mosaic Exhibition (Library of Congress) 
  Intercultural Dialogue: The Slave Route 
  UNESCO - Slave Trade Archives Project 

RELIGION & SLAVERY
TIMELINE: Slavery and Religion in America: 1440-1866 
  Noah’s Curse and the Southern Defense of Slavery 
  Slavery and the Civil War as Viewed by the Churches of God 
  Biblical Defenses of Segregation 
  The theology of slavery 
  Why does the Bible seem to tolerate the institution of slavery? 
  The Slavery Question and Civil War, 1844–1865 
PRIMARY DOCUMENT: The Bible View of Slavery by Rabbi M. J. Raphall, 1861
  George Bourne, 1780-1845. A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument 
  Documenting the American South: The Church in the Southern Black Community 
  African-American Religion in the Nineteenth Century

Harriet Tubman

ABOLITION
BBC - History: Abolition
The Struggle to Abolish Slavery
 
  Conflict of Abolition and Slavery
   The Abolition Movement 
  Abolition Exhibit from the Library of Congress 
  Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection 
  Influence of Prominent Abolitionists 
  British Abolitionists: Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation in the UK 
  Civil Rights: Opposition to Slavery Mounts 
  Abolitionist Art- African-American History Through the Arts
PRIMARY DOCUMENT: THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY: CONSTITUTION, 1833 
  Rhetoric of freedom: Lincoln, Emerson, Douglass 
  TIMELINE: Frederick Douglass 
  Creative Quotations from Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) 
    Frederick Douglass (American Memory, Library of Congress)
  American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass
  Who was Sojourner Truth? 
  The San Antonio College LitWeb Sojourner Truth Page 
  VMI Cadets at the execution of John Brown, 1859. 
    Angelina Grimke Weld (1805 - 1879) & Sarah Grimke (1792 - 1873) 

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
MAP: Underground Railroad Routes 1860
The Underground Railroad
  Underground Railroad: Network to Freedom
Underground Railroad from the National Park Service
LCLC: The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad Site - Table of Contents
    Underground Railroad - Lower Mississippi Delta Region
  The Life of Harriet Tubman

REBELLION
Rebellion for Slaves is no way to Freedom  
Slave Resistance and Rebellion 
  Africans in America: New York's Revolt of 1712 
  Africans in America: Witchunt in New York - The 1741 Rebellion 
  The Stono Rebellion, 1739
  Prosser Rebellion  "First Major Slave Insurrection"  August 30, 1800 
  Vesey, Denmark 
  Denmark Vesey and Gabriel Prosser 
  Denmark Vesey brought before the Court 
  PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Denmark Vesey Rebellion of 1822 - Atlantic Monthly(1861) 
  Nat Turner - 1831 
  Nat Turner's Rebellion 
The American Experience | John Brown's Holy War
PRIMARY DOCUMENT: JOHN BROWN'S LAST SPEECH November 2, 1859
John Brown Case
  VMI Cadets at the execution of John Brown, 1859.  


HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC & LITERATURE
Heart and Souls: Celebration of African American Music
  African American Spirituals
The Underground Railroad Site - Music
"Denoting Difference: The Writing of the Slave Spirituals"
  "Negro Spirituals"
Georgia Sea Island Singers - St. Simons Island Gullah African American Music
  African American Literature: Voices of Slavery and Freedom - Earliest Works and Literary Legacy of Slavery - More African American Literature is available on my African Americans page.  
White guy, Joel Chandler Harris totally missed the point when he published the Uncle Remus stories.  When published in the late 19th century, the result was pure racism.
  PAL: Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) 
  Selected Text Page-Uncle Remus 
  The Wonderful Tar Baby Story
More info on Racism Reflected in the Arts can be found on my Reconstruction and the Lost Cause page.


Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Shaw Memorial (detail)

AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIERS & THE CIVIL WAR
 The Union
Remember the excellent movie GLORY? Now get the whole story: 54th. Mass. Volunteer Infantry, Co. I
Battery Wagner, the Assault of July 18, 1863
Currier and Ives print of the Battle of Fort Wagner(picture)
54th Mass Casualty List
Sergeant Carney wins the Congressional Medal of Honor
Battle of Sol Legare Island, James Island(54th's first test under fire)
Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry
  National Gallery of Art -- Shaw Memorial
Robert Gould Shaw - Commander of the Mass. 54th
55th. Mass. Burials on James Island
RECORDS of the 105th US COLORED TROOPS
  African American Civil War Links 
  5th Regiment Cavalry, United States Colored Troops 
The Civil War: Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence
   PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Law equalizing pay of black soldiers, June 15, 1864
PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Mother of a Northern Black Soldier to the President
  UNITED STATES COLORED TROOPS IN THE CIVIL WAR

The Confederates - more "Lost Cause" point of view
A Proposal For Negro Enlistments In The Confederate Army
  Confederate Negro Enlistments 
   Blacks who fought for the South (News Article) 
BLACK CONFEDERATES PAROLED

AFTER THE WAR - RECONSTRUCTION & BEYOND
The First Years of Freedom, 1865-1945
Juneteenth - June 19, 1865: the date word of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas(two years late!)
  After the Civil War: State of Blacks 
  LAWS DESIGNED TO DISARM SLAVES, FREEDMEN, AND AFRICAN-AMERICANS 
  After the Civil War: Plessy v. Ferguson 
  The Political Graveyard: Politicians Born in Slavery 
  North By South/Great Migrations Page
  Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World 
For much more, check out my Reconstruction page.


MISC. SITE
History of African-American Cemeteries
  Books On Slavery | USA African-American History


FOR MORE ON THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS, VISIT MY African Americans PAGE!

RETURN TO THE MAIN CIVIL WAR PAGE.  

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