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- African American History
- Chattel Slavery in America
African American History
Chattel Slavery in America
In the “colonies” that became the United States, slavery took on uniquely appalling features. From New England to Texas, Black people were dehumanized and abused while they were enslaved and denied basic freedoms. Legal and political systems were created to codify racial hierarchy and ensure white supremacy. Slavery became permanent and hereditary, defined by race-based ideologies that insisted on racial subordination of Black people for decades after the formal abolition of slavery.
- Human Pictures, from the "EJI: The Transatlantic Slave Trade" report linked below, and cited at the bottom of this page;
used here under Fair Use guidelines. (click to enlarge)
Missing & Runaway Slave Advertisements
"RANAWAY from the subscriber, on the night of the 2d instant, a negro man who calls himself Henry May , about 22 years old, 5 feet 6 or 8 inches high, ordinary color, rather chunky built, bushy head, and has it divided mostly on one side, and keeps it very nicely combed; has been raised in the house, and is a first rate dining-room servant, and was in a tavern in Louisville for 18 months. I expect he is now in Louisville trying to make his escape to a free state, (in all probability to Cincinnati, Ohio.) Perhaps he may try to get employment on a steamboat...."
$150 Reward. (1838) $150 reward cut of runaway slave...William Burke, Bardstown, Ky., September 3d. Bardstown, from the Library of Congress, used here under Fair Use guidelines and cited below (click on image to enlarge)
Featured Advertisements for the Runaway & Missing Enslaved
Linked below are websites, online exhibits, and other digital collections with resources on topics related to African American history in the US
- Freedom on the Move: A Database of Fugitives from North American Slavery"Freedom on the Move is a database of fugitives from North American slavery" and provides images of slave ads and posts from historic newspapers.
- The Geography of Slavery in VirginiaThis is "a digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers."
- Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery"Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery aims to identify, digitize, transcribe, and publish ads placed in newspapers across the United States (and beyond) by formerly enslaved people searching for family members and loved ones after emancipation. "
- North Carolina Runaway Slave Notices, 1750-1865"The North Carolina Runaway Slave Notices project provides online access to all known runaway slave notices (more than 5000 items) published in North Carolina newspapers from 1751 to 1865. These brief notices provide a glimpse into the social, economic, and cultural world of the American slave system and the specific experience within North Carolina."
- Runaway Slave Ads"Runaway Slave Ads cover the period from 1842 to 1863 and primarily advertise slaves that ran away from the Baltimore County, Maryland area.
- Texas Runaway Slave Project"The Texas Runaway Slave Project is a database of runaway slave advertisements, articles and notices from newspapers published in Texas, as well as materials from court records, manuscript collections, and books. It documents more than 2,500 fugitive slaves from Texas. The project is ongoing and new content is regularly added to the webpage."
- Slavery Images"This educational resource is a two-part website created for teachers, researchers, students and the general public. It exists to assist anyone interested in visualizing the experiences of Africans and their descendants who were enslaved and transported to slave societies around the world. "
Featured Websites & Collections
Linked below are websites, online exhibits, and other digital collections with resources on topics related to African American history in the US
- Black Freedom Struggles in the United StatesThis website contains over 3,000 documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom: Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement; The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era; Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression; The New Deal and World War II; The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements; The Contemporary Era
- Hidden Voices: Enslaved Women in the Lowcountry and U.S. SouthFrom the Lowcountry Digital Library at the College of Charleston - this exhibit focuses "on the experiences of enslaved women in the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry in both rural and urban contexts, the exhibit examines African American women’s labor, interconnected relationships, and cultural practices. It reveals the types of violence they were subjected to as well as the joys and triumphs they created for themselves"
- International Slavery Museum"The International Slavery Museum increases the understanding of transatlantic, chattel and other forms of enslavement. Through our collections, public engagement and research, we explore their impact and legacies."
- Manuscript Collections Relating to Slavery (New York Historical Society)The library of the New-York Historical Society holds among its many resources a substantial collection of manuscript materials documenting American slavery and the slave trade in the Atlantic world. With over 12,000 pages of text dating from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, these collections constitute a rich archive of primary source materials that will be of value to anyone researching the history of slavery, the slave trade, and the abolitionist movement.
- National Archives - American Slavery, Civil RecordsThe National Archives maintains records that pertain to American slavery and the international slave trade.
- The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum"The Legacy Museum provides a comprehensive history of the United States with a focus on the legacy of slavery."
- EJI: The Transatlantic Slave TradeFrom the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), this online report/exhibit has 13 topical sections and features information about the Slave trade, includes linked resources, images, and more.
- Slavery and Remembrance: Culture & Artifacts"Investigate the history and legacy of slavery and slave trade by examining objects, structures, landscapes, and culture of institutions and sites of memory in Europe, Africa, and the Americas."
- Slavery and Remembrance: History & MemoryIn this section of the Slavery and Remembrance website, created in partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and UNESCO’s Slave Route Project, you can find overview articles with embedded primary source content, such as images and documents, with the following sections: The Making of an Atlantic World, Transatlantic Slave Trade, Africans in the Americans, Slavery in the Age of Revolutions, Emancipation Movements, and Slavery Remembered
- Slavery Images"This educational resource is a two-part website created for teachers, researchers, students and the general public. It exists to assist anyone interested in visualizing the experiences of Africans and their descendants who were enslaved and transported to slave societies around the world. "
- Slavery Resource GuideThe Library of Congress makes many materials about slavery available online. This guide is the easiest way to discover them. Materials include online versions of the WPA oral histories that we have in print at the TCC library.
- Thomas Jefferson's MonticelloSearch online exhibits and learn about Jefferson and his relationship with US slavery at this museum website.
- The Whitney Plantation MuseumClick on the "History" tab to find overview articles about the slave trade and and primary source images from this plantation museum located in Louisiana
- The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration"The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration is situated on a site in Montgomery where Black people were forced to labor in bondage. Blocks from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America, the Legacy Museum is steps away from the rail station where tens of thousands of Black people were trafficked during the 19th century. "
- Slavery in America: The Montgomery Slave TradeFrom the Equal Justice Initiative, "Slavery in America: The Montgomery Slave Trade documents American slavery and Montgomery’s prominent role in the domestic slave trade. The report is part of EJI’s project focused on developing a more informed understanding of America’s racial history and how it relates to contemporary challenges."
Featured Videos
Linked below are videos both freely online through websites like YouTube or TED, as well as from the library's collection in such databases as Kanopy, Films on Demand, or Academic Video Online. Click or hover your cursor over the icon to learn more about each item.
- The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, Episode 2, The Age of Slavery: 1800-1860Streaming on Alexander Street
- America Explained, 81, The Lincoln-Douglas DebatesA short video from Untold History - streaming on Alexander Street
- America Explained, Episode 135, All Men are Created Equal? The Founding Father's Views on SlaveryA short video from Untold History - streaming on Alexander Street
- TED Talks: Slavery and the North: What You Didn't Learn in History ClassA 2020 talk by Christopher Leman
- Whitney Plantation: A Story of SlaveryA short video streaming on YouTube about the history of slavery at one southern plantation
Featured Podcasts
Linked here are full podcasts or podcast episodes, as well as short audio recordings from news programs such as National Public Radio (NPR) and the like.
- The Lost History of James Madison's Black Family [Podcast]An episode from the, History Unplugged Podcast
- Slave Codes, Black Codes & Jim Crow: Codifying the Color Line [Podcast]An episode of Dig: A History Podcast
- Slavery and its Legacies [Podcast]The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition is pleased to announce “Slavery and Its Legacies,” a podcast series featuring visiting scholars, activists, and others about their contributions to the understanding of slavery past and present and its ongoing role in the development of the modern world.
- The 1619 Project"1619 is a New York Times audio series, hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, that examines the long shadow of American slavery. "
- Voices from the Days of Slavery [Podcast]Oral histories and interviews with African Americans who endured the hardships of slavery. These recordings document the first-person accounts of several individuals whose life experiences spanned the period during and after slavery. The podcasts are drawn from several collections in the American Folklife Center Archives, one of the preeminent audio-visual repositories of national and international folklife, history and cultural expressions.
- The History of Slavery, Part 4: African Slavery in the New World, 1500-1865 [Podcast]An episode of the podcast, History Unplugged
Sources used on this page:
Equal Justice Initiative, "The Transatlantic Slave Trade" (2022).
Human Pictures. (n.d.). [A statue of chained hands]. Equal Justice Initiative. https://eji.org/ report/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/slavery-americas-chained-hands-1900x1267-1.jpg
$150 Reward. (1838) $150 reward cut of runaway slave Ranaway from the subscriber, on the night of the 2d instant, a negro man, who calls himself Henry May, ... William Burke, Bardstown, Ky., September 3d. Bardstown. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.0220120b/.
Featured Books & eBooks
Use the arrows to scroll through titles; click on the titles for more info and/or access
Carry Me Back: the Domestic Slave Trade in American Life
Print copy in Main Collection E449.D525 2005
River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom
Print copy in Main Collection E449.J695 2013
Historical dictionary of slavery and abolition
Click "Read Online" to view book.
Cotton and Race in the Making of America : the Human Costs of Economic Power
Print copy in Main Collection E441 .D237 2009
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