Slavery Links

https://acwm.org/the-impending-crisis Apr 27, 2024 The American Civil War Museum will launch a major exhibition at ACWM-Tredegar in Richmond, Virginia, on April 27th, 2024. Titled The Impending Crisis, this exhibit will delve into the events, individuals, and topics that led to the division of the United States on the verge of civil war. The Impending Crisis exhibit takes visitors on a journey through differing national viewpoints on faith, politics, and patriotism in the years leading up to the Civil War. While touring the exhibit, visitors meet both well-known and lesser-known people, hearing their words, seeing the families and communities they built, and the extreme hardships they suffered. Visitors gain a better understanding of what was truly at stake during this pivotal time in the nation’s history, and how the actions to engage in a civil war remade America. The American Civil War Museum

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/slave-shackle-removed-british-sailor-1907 Nov 23, 2021 "A British blacksmith removing the leg irons off a slave, 1907. This photograph shows a sailor removing the manacle from a newly freed slave. The picture is part of a small collection donated by Samuel Chidwick to the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth. His father Able Seaman Joseph Chidwick, born in 1881, was serving aboard HMS Sphinx." Rare Historical Photos

http://www.personal.psu.edu/cjm5/blogs/benjamin_franklin_then_and_now/2013/04/benjamin-franklin-and-slavery.html provides background about Franklin's thoughts about slavery throughout his life.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h308.html shows an image of this device that was described by Olaudah Equiano.

https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2015/09/23/constitutionally-slavery-was-not-a-national-institution Sep 23, 2015 "A major criticism of the Constitution in recent years is that prior to the passage of the 13th Amendment it had maintained slavery as a national institution. Yet this claim does not match what took place at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 nor is it reflected in what the document actually says about slavery itself...the United States was not “founded on slavery,” calling this “one of the most destructive falsehoods in all of American history.” Although many proslavery elements were present at the Constitutional Convention and strove to make slavery a permanent part of the Constitution, their efforts failed despite securing compromises that merely tolerated the existence of slavery rather than endorse it." Tenth Amendment Center

https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197495 May 19, 2021 "A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The songs proliferated in the last few decades of the eighteenth century leading up to the abolishment of legalized slavery in the 1860s. The African American spiritual (also called the Negro Spiritual) constitutes one of the largest and most significant forms of American folksong." Libray of Congress Web Page

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/25/us/vermont-remove-slavery-constitution-trnd/index.html April 25, 2019 This article provides background about how Vermont abolished slavery in 1777.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-slavery/chronology-who-banned-slavery-when-idUSL1561464920070322 provides a timeline of major years involving the beginning and abolition of slavery.

https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/summary.html provides a summary about this famous narrative.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/index.htm is a Scholastic lesson plan that provides numerous resources.

https://theconversation.com/the-underground-railroad-attempts-to-upend-viewers-notions-of-what-it-meant-to-be-enslaved-160855 May 21, 2021 "Speaking on NPR’s Fresh Air, Barry Jenkins, the director of “The Underground Railroad,” noted that “before making this show … I would have said I’m the descendant of enslaved Africans.” “I think now that answer has evolved,” he continued. “I am the descendant of blacksmiths and midwives and herbalists and spiritualists.” As a scholar interested in how modern representations of enslavement shape our understanding of the past, I am struck by the ways Jenkins seeks to change the way viewers think about – and talk about – Black American history. In doing so, he takes the baton from scholars, activists and artists who have, for decades, attempted to shake up Americans’ understanding of slavery. Much of this work has centered on reimagining slaves not as objects who were acted upon, but as individuals who maintained identities and agency – however limited – despite their status as property." The Conversation

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/myths.htm explores Myths and the actual Truths of how enslaved African Americans escaped to freedom.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/alphaautobio.html publishes numerous electronic slave accounts listed in alphabetical order.

https://www.heritage.org/constitution provides numerous annotations and essays to the Constitution of the United States of America.

https://www.juneteenth.com explains background about this holiday and the celebrations that take place marking the end of slavery.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html is a CNN story that exposes how Mauritania still allows slavery to exist, although the practice was officially ended in 1981.

https://historytogo.utah.gov/slavery Apr 1, 1995 "Although the practice was never widespread, some Utah pioneers held African-American slaves until 1862 when Congress abolished slavery in the territories...Slavery was legal in Utah as a result of the Compromise of 1850, which brought California into the Union as a free state while allowing Utah and New Mexico territories the option of deciding the issue by “popular sovereignty.” Some Mormon pioneers from the South had brought African-American slaves with them when they migrated west. Some freed their slaves in Utah; others who went on to California had to emancipate them there." History to Go