Dr. NEIL A FRANKEL's
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY IN AMERICA
YOUR STARTING POINT FOR SLAVERY INFORMATION AND SOURCES
Dr. NEIL A FRANKEL's
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY IN AMERICA
YOUR STARTING POINT FOR SLAVERY INFORMATION AND SOURCES
Primary Sources
Jerome S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite Jr., The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php
fizzog's photostream, Gate of No Return, Cape Coast Castle, www.flickr.com
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Reading Room,_Images of African-American Slavery and Freedom www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/082_slave.html
Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Doubleday: Reissue edition (August 17, 1976), copyright 1976 by Alex Haley
Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rourke, Power and Plenty: Trade, War and the World Economy in the Second Millennium, Princeton University Press, New Jersey. In the UK, Princeton University Press, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. c. 2007 by Princeton University Press.
wayfaring stranger, The door of no return, Gorée Island, www.flickr.com
Mark Moxon, La Maison des Esclaves (Slave House) Image www.moxon.net/senegal/ile_de_goree.html
Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade, The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, c. 1997 Hugh Thomas
Slavery in America, Map of West African Slave Ports c. 1750, www.slaveryinamerica.org
Slavery in America, Slave Trade From Africa to the Americas 1650-1860, www.slaveryinamerica.org
Slavery in the North, Slavery in Massachusetts, www.slavenorth.com
Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery, A History of Slavery in Africa, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, New York, c1983, second edition c2000 Paul E. Lovejoy
Joseph C. Miller, Mortality in the Atlantic Slave Trade: Statistical Evidence on Causality, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 11:385-423
James Ciment, Atlas of African-American History, Checkmark Books, An Imprint of Facts On File, Inc., c2001 by Media Projects Inc.
Charles T. Webber, The Underground Railroad, Oil on Canvas at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Subscription Fund Purchases, Accession Number 1927.26, www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org [inscribed, verso: This picture is painted for the love of my dear wife Frances Augusta Webber-C.T.W. Dec 22, 1891]
Ohio Memory, An Online Scrapbook of Ohio History, Underground Railroad Painting, omp.ohiolink.edu
Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834, www.ancestry.com
Ancestry.com, U.S. Census Collection, ancestry.com/?rc=locale%7E&us=0 [contains key word searchable census records from 1790 to 1930. Paid membership required]
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet, African-American, www.cyndislist.com/african.htm
Voyages, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces [this site contains the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database known as the Voyages Database]
BeyondBooks.com, Guest Experts, Professor Ira Berlin, http://www.beyondbooks.com/chat/1999/berlinarchive.asp [an interview with Professor Ira Berlin, a noted historian of southern and African American life. Berlin is Professor of History at the University of Maryland, and has authored a number of books on African American history]
Family Tree of Beth Nolan - Tasmania Australia, Compiled by Beth (Nolan) Stott, stott.customer.netspace.net.au/famtree2.htm [a typical family tree]
University of Massachusetts Lowell, African-American Roots Project, www.uml.edu/roots/Default.asp
Visit Zambia, New DNA test results trace Oprah Winfrey's ancestry to Liberia / Zambia, www.visitzambia.co.zm/lk/news/new_dna_test_results_trace_oprah_winfrey_s_ancestry_to_liberia_zambia [discussion of Oprah Winfrey's DNA analysis and the tribes she is likely descended from]
Mitochondria Interest Group Website, MIG icon image: Rat brain dendrite illustrating 6 mitochondria. Courtesy of Dr. M. Brightman and L. Chang. NINDS, NIH, tango01.cit.nih.gov/sig/home.taf?_function=main&SIGInfo_SIGID=60 [image of a rat brain dendrite illustrating six mitochondria. Courtesy of Dr. M. Brightman and L. Chang, NINDS, NIH.]
Library of Congress, American Memory, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875, Feb. 27, 1869, Fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=015/llsl015.db&recNum=379 [resolution by the Senate and the House of Representatives, regarding the 15th amendment to the Constitution, providing voting rights to all adult males including former slaves]
Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/07.html [contains the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, online]
David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage, The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World, Oxford University Press, New York, c. 2006 David Brion Davis
Street Law & The Supreme Court Historical Society Present... Landmark Cases Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), www.landmarkcases.org/dredscott/home.html [a description of the Dred Scott case and Supreme Court decision. Provides a teacher's guide for covering the material with students.]
The Louisiana Purchase, A Heritage Explored, An Online Educational Resource from LSU Libraries Special Collections, www.lib.lsu.edu/special/purchase/history.html#outline1 [an interesting history of the Louisiana Purchase]
PBS.org, Africans in America, Judgement Day, Dred Scott's fight for freedom, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2932.html [a very good description of Dred Scott's life at the time he was pursuing his freedom in the courts]
Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, Supreme Court Collection, Scott v. Sandford, Taney, C.J., Opinion of the Court, www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0060_0393_ZO.html [transcript of the opinion of Chief Justice Taney. Each Justice wrote his own opinion, and all of the documents are included on this website]
Christine's Genealogy Website, Who are your people?, ccharity.com
Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves (Paperback), Mariner Books, Reprint Edition (February 10, 2006), c. 2005 by Adam Hochschild, Hardcover Edition published by Houghton Mifflin, New York (January 7, 2005)
CNN.com Transcripts, Live From President's Day, Aired February 16, 2004, Miles O'Brien, CNN Anchor, and Rick Shenkman, Presidential Historian, transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/16/lol.01.html [a humorous interview about the Presidents on Presidents Day, sharing little known facts]
Wikipedia, Franklin Pierce, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Pierce
Wikipedia, Ain't I a Woman?, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't_I_a_Woman%3F
New Jersey State Bar Foundation, Students' Corner, Forty Acres and a Mule, www.njsbf.org/njsbf/student/respect/fall02-2.cfm [a concise discussion of the origin of the phrase '40 acres and a mule,' a promise made to freed slaves as the Civil War was in its final months. Unfortunately, the benefits turned out to be short lived.]
Yale University, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, What About My 40 Acres & A Mule? www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1994/4/94.04.01.x.html [an interesting discussion by Gerene L. Freeman of the promise of 40 acres and a mule, in the context of teaching a predominantly African-American group of students about playwrights of African descent who emerged as a result and/or in spite of the American slave system.]
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Citizen Information Service, Massachusetts Facts, Part Four, Sergaent William H. Carney, Civil War Hero, www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cismaf/mf4.htm [provides a brief biography of Sergaent William H. Carney, Civil War hero and member of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, a black brigade that became famous for the assault on Fort Wagner. Carney was the first African-American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest honor. The site includes an account of the battle of Fort Wagner in Carney's own words.]
Wikipedia, Strange Fruit, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit
PBS, Independent Lens, Strange Fruit, www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/film.html [includes a sound clip of the song 'Strange Fruit,' sung by Billie Holiday]
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Finding Oprah's Roots - Finding Your Own, First Edition, Crown Publishers, New York, c. 2007 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
African Ancestry, trace your dna . find your roots, www.africanancestry.com [a commercial site that offers DNA testing. One of the labs used in the PBS African American Lives genealogical study of prominent African-Americans, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.]
Wikipedia, Sojourner Truth, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth
Wikipedia, Henry Box Brown, en.widipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Box_Brown
eSSORTMENT, Henry 'box' brown information, va.essortment.com/henryhenry_rnls.htm
Amistad Research Center, www.tulane.edu/~amistad/amessays.htm
Fort Taylor.org, Key West, Florida, Fort Taylor Features www.forttaylor.org/features.html
BBC, Long lost roots of Black Britons revealed by groundbreaking BBC TWO documentary, Motherland: A Genetic Journey, www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/02_february/05/motherland.shtml [Describes a BBC Documentary about the Motherland Project, The study took DNA samples from 229 volunteers, all of whom had four African-Caribbean grandparents. It was found that 13% of the ancestors of today's Black Britons of Caribbean descent are of European origin. Analysis of the male and female lines showed that 27% have a Y chromosome passed from father to son that traces back to Europe (the male line), whereas only 2% have mitochondrial DNA that traces to Europe, passed from mother to child (the female line).]
Science Museum (UK), Genetic Journey to the Motherland, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/motherland/index.asp [Information about the Motherland Project. Using DNA analysis, hundreds of British Afro-Caribbeans discovered the part of Africa their forebears came from. Some of the results are surprising.]
Waynet.org, Levi Coffin House State Historic Site, www.waynet.org/levicoffin/default.htm
Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute, Supreme Court Opinions, Amistad, Opinion of Justice Story www.law.cornell.edu/background/amistad/opinion.html [Opinion of the court in the Amistad case, delivered by Justice Story]
Selected Links & Sources
Image Collections
Jerome S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite Jr., The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php [an outstanding collection]
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Reading Room, Images of African-American Slavery and Freedom, www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/082_slave.html [an outstanding collection]
About Parliament, Abolition of Slave Trade 1807, www.parliament.uk/about/images/historical/1807slavetrade.cfm [image of 1807 document]
Virginia Center for Digital History, Valley Project, Civil War Images, valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/cwimages1.html [e.g., search 'African Americans']
New York Public Library, The Picture Collection Online, digital.nypl.org/mmpco/ [select 'slavery' or 'slave ships' or 'African-Americans']
Harvard University Library, Visual Information Access, Search VIA, via.harvard.edu:9080/via/deliver/advancedsearch?_collection=via [e.g., 'slavery', & check digital images box. Update: May need a Harvard ID and PIN to access this site.]
HarpWeek Presents... Toward Racial Equality: Harper's Weekly Reports on Black America, 1857-1874, blackhistory.harpweek.com/default.htm [fascinating items from Harper's Weekly]
U.S. Civil War Center, Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency, www.lib.lsu.edu/cwc/beyondfacevalue/beyondfacevalue.htm [also includes some images on currency from reconstruction period]
Map Collections
University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries, Map Imagery Library, www.uflib.ufl.edu/maps/MAPNEWDIR.HTML [nice collection]
Afriterra Foundation Online Maps Catalog, catalog.afriterra.org/home.cmd;jsessionid=18llvvh13t737 [over 1000 maps focused on Africa]
MSU Map Library, Online Map Collection, www.lib.msu.edu/coll/main/maps/images.htm [12 maps of Africa, from 1858]
Virtual Library, Map History / History of Cartography: The Gateway to the Subject, Images of early maps on the web, 5. Africa (& the islands) www.maphistory.info/imageafrica.html [this useful site provides links to websites with 'early' map images of Africa]
American Museum of Natural History, American Museum Congo Expedition 1901-1915, Map Gallery, diglib1.amnh.org/galleries/maps/index.html [maps from 1562]
Vanity Fair, Africa: An Interactive Map, www.vanityfair.com/politics/africa/map [a very nice interactive map of Africa as it exists today (includes Madagascar but not the smaller island nations such as Cape Verde). Click on a country, and you can read about its history & culture, and choose from links to Vanity Fair stories and other links related to that country.]
Songs, Narratives, Plays and Online Exhibitions
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, History Now, Songs of the Civil Rights Movement, www.historynow.org/06_2006/interactive.html [you will love this site, you can't help feeling emotion when listening to these songs of the civil rights movement in America]
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Online Exhibitions, www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/online/index.html [outstanding site, contains many unique images; exhibitions include Dred Scott decision; abolition; freedom: a history of US; letters from America's wars; Lincoln in the media; & several interactive sites]
The Library of Congress, American Memory, Voices from the Days of Slavery, memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/ [priceless - recorded voices and songs of 23 former slaves]
The Library of Congress, American Memory, Born in Slavery, Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1938, memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html [2300 narratives of former slaves collected during the WPA]
The Library of Congress, American Memory, Southern Mosaic, The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip, memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html [from the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Contains 25 hours of recordings featuring 300 performers that John and Ruby Lomax recorded during their three-month trip through the southern United States in 1939. For example, click 'Audio Subject,' then click 'spirituals,' and many of these songs would likely have been sung by escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad. Note: these MP3 format songs can be played with Windows Media Player, for example. If your system is not set up to play MP3 songs, select 'save' after clicking on the music file, and then right click on the saved song, select 'open with' and then select 'choose default program,' and then select 'Windows Media Player' or other MP3 player.]
UNC University Library, Documenting the American South, North American Slave Narratives, docsouth.unc.edu/neh/ [a collection of autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published in English up to 1920, as well as many biographies of fugitive and former slaves published in English before 1920]
BBC Beds Herts and Bucks website, Abolition, A Slave's Story, www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/articles/2007/02/28/abolition_a_slaves_story_feature.shtml [listen to a play called 'A Slave's Story' on this BBC site. There is dialogue and singing and music, and it is fascinating to listen to. Johanne Hudson-Lett reflects on her role in this emotional new play about the slave trade ...."Playing a character called Blessing for over a year has made me readdress who I am, why I'm here and where did I really come from? ... A story of pain, tears and brutal punishment, but above all this is a story of hope and most importantly - freedom! ... There is no fluff in this story as it follows over six generations of females from the time they were stolen from their homeland in Africa to the present day. You see how they learnt to be devious; so as to avoid beatings and rapings by outsmarting their masters." Note: the link requires that RealPlayer be installed on your computer. I used the free version 10.5 on a system with Windows Vista with a broadband connection, with good results.]
Lincoln/Net, Northern Illinois University Libraries' Abraham Lincoln historical digitization project, Sound Files, lincoln.lib.niu.edu/sound.html [a very good collection of songs from the Lincoln era, including 'Listen to the Mockingbird,' Donizetti's 'Funeral March' performed at Lincoln's funeral, and many others. This is an excellent Lincoln historical site, including Lincoln's writings, the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, teacher resources and lesson plans, and numerous digitized documents relating to Lincoln.]
The National Archives (UK), Research, Education & Online Exhibitions, Caribbean Histories Revealed, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/caribbeanhistory/default.htm [An exhibition about the history of the British Caribbean, including original documents, photographs and maps dating from the 17th century to the 1920's. Includes a section on slavery, including original documents relating to slave rebellions, abolition and the period of apprenticeship between slavery's end in 1834 and complete freedom in 1838. Other sections discuss the people of the British Caribbean and their religious and cultural identities, and the changes following abolition. A very interesting site.]
Museums, Libraries, Institutes, Databases
New York Historical Society, www.nyhistory.org/web/ [permanent exhibition on slavery in New York]
Smithsonian, National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/ [to be built in Washington, DC]
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, www.freedomcenter.org/
Washington University, University Libraries, Dred Scott Case Collection, library.wustl.edu/vlib/dredscott/ [contains images of 85 documents from the Dred Scott legal proceedings]
Library of Virginia, Death or Liberty - Gabriel, Nat Turner and John Brown, www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/deathliberty/index.htm [exhibition documenting three famous events that took place in Virginia]
Wisconsin Historical Society, African-American Newspapers and Periodicals, www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/aanp/freedom/ [includes all 103 issues of the Freedom's Journal, the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States (1827-1829)]
Library of Congress, American Memory, Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860, memory.loc.gov/ammem/sthtml/ [contains over a hundred pamphlets and books about trials and cases, arguments, decisions, proceedings, journals, and other works of historical importance]
Library of Congress, American Memory, The Frederick Douglass Papers, memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/doughome.html [contains approximately 7400 items (38,000 images) relating to Douglass' life, spanning the years 1841-1964. The collection consists of correspondence, speeches and articles by Douglass and his contemporaries, a draft of his autobiography, financial and legal papers, scrapbooks, and other items.]
The British Library, African Collections, www.bl.uk/collections/african.html
University of Pennsylvania, African Studies Center, www.africa.upenn.edu/
Yale University Library, African Collection,www.library.yale.edu/african/internet.html
Yale University, Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, www.yale.edu/glc/info/index.htm [The Gilder Lehrman Center strives to make a vital contribution to the understanding of slavery and its role in the development of the modern world. Includes resources for teachers and students. The Institute also sponsors lectures, forums and workshops, supports online historical databases, and conducts collaborative efforts with other institutions.]
African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum, www.afroamcivilwar.org/
Duke University Libraries, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, library.duke.edu/specialcollections/ [includes African-American women - online archival exhibits; John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American Documentation; Third Person, First Person: Slave Voices from the Special Collections Library]
Data & Information Services Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, On-Line Data Archive, Slave Movement During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, www.disc.wisc.edu/slavedata/index.html [a useful site, provides access to raw data and documentation on the slave trade between particular countries and between particular years. Not as extensive as the W. E. B. Du Bois Transatlantic Slave Trade database at Harvard University]
University of North Carolina, Center for the Study of the American South, More Southern Studies Activities at UNC, www.unc.edu/depts/csas/more_southern_studies/index.html [includes a variety of southern topics]
Sojourner Truth Institute, www.sojournertruth.org/Default.htm [The Institute, located in Battle Creek Michigan, was established to "expand the historical and biographical knowledge of her life's work and carry on her mission by teaching, demonstrating and promoting projects that accentuate the ideals and principles for which she stood." Sojourner Truth was born a slave, named Isabella, and after gaining her freedom became an abolitionist, preacher, and advocate of women's rights. Her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech was given at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. In 1864, she was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C. During the Civil War, she advocated for enlisting black troops into the Union Army, and for freeing the slaves.]
Voyages Database, www.slavevoyages.org/tast/database/index.faces [The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database comprises nearly 35,000 individual slaving expeditions between 1514 and 1866. Records of voyages have been found in archives and libraries throughout the Atlantic world. They provide information about vessels, enslaved peoples, slave traders and owners, and trading routes. The website provides full interactive capability to analyze the data and report results in the form of statistical tables, graphs, maps, or on a timeline.]
Genealogy
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet, African-American, www.cyndislist.com/african.htm [from the most complete listing of genealogy sources on the internet, a very complete list of African-American sources]
Ibiblio.org, Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1719-1820, www.ibiblio.org/laslave/index.html [records of the origins of slaves brought to Louisiana. Provides detailed data on more than 100,000 slaves and free blacks in Louisiana from 1718 to 1820 gathered from notarial documents by historian Dr. Gwendolyn Hall.]
How Do I Trace My Slave Ancestors?, www.myslaveancestors.com/ [do it yourself guide. This is a commercial site.]
PBS.org, African American Lives, Who Am I? A Genealogy Guide, www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/genealogy.html [a good introduction to the methods and challenges of conducting an African American genealogical search. A commercial site, offering DVD's and other materials related to PBS programming. One of the excellent DVD's that can be purchased on this site is 'African American Lives, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.' From the DVD back cover: "Eminent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uses revolutionary breakthroughs in genealogical research and DNA analysis to take eight prominent African Americans on once-unimaginable journeys into their past - tracing their family sagas down through U.S. history and even back to Africa."]
Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834, www.ancestry.com/ [ancestry.com recently added key word searchable digital slave registers from Barbados for the year 1834, when slavery was officially abolished. The records include the name of the owner; residence parish; and the name, gender, age, and nationality of the slave. There are 99,349 slave records, and 5,206 slave owners in the database. When additional records of other British colonies are digitized and added to the online database (estimated completion about January, 2008), it is expected that there will be a total of more than 3 million slave records. The records were required to be submitted by each colony after the implementation of the Abolition of Slave Trade Act in 1807, which made the trade of slaves from Africa to the British colonies illegal. Note: Requires paid membership in Ancestry.com]
University of Massachusetts Lowell, African-American Roots Project, www.uml.edu/roots/Default.asp [A non-profit, collaborative effort of Dr. Bruce Jackson of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Dr. Bert Ely of the University of South Carolina Department of Biological Sciences. The Roots Project is using forensic DNA science as a tool to reestablish the link between African-Americans and their ancestral families in Western Africa.]
National Geographic Genographic Project, A Partnership Between National Geographic Society and IBM, Gene Project to Trace Humanity's Migrations, reference.aol.com/natgeo/_a/gene-project-to-trace-humanitys/20050413141909990001 [a five year endeavor. It will combine population genetics and molecular biology to trace the migration of humans from the time we first left Africa, 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, to the places where we live today. The Genographic Project hopes to collect more than a hundred thousand DNA samples to create the largest gene bank in the world. Efforts are being made to collect and analyze blood samples from indigenous populations, many in remote areas of the world. Members of the public are also being invited to participate.]
Christine's Genealogy Website, Who are your people?, ccharity.com [one of the best sites for African-American genealogy information and related articles]
Christine's Genealogy Websites, Freedmen's Bureau Online, www.freedmensbureau.com [the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established by the War Department in 1865 to supervise all relief and education activities for refugees and freedmen after the Civil War. The Bureau was responsible for issuing rations, clothing, and medicine, and it also had custody of confiscated lands in the former Confederate States and other designated territories. The site contains an extensive collection of key word searchable Freedmen’s Bureau records and reports.]
The United States Colored Troops Institute for Local History and Family Research at Hartwick College, info.hartwick.edu/usct/usct.htm [An educational institute to promote and encourage historical and genealogical research about the 200,000 colored men and their 7,000 white officers who comprised the US Colored Troops during the Civil War.]
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Finding Oprah's Roots - Finding Your Own, First Edition, Crown Publishers, New York, c. 2007 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Tony Burroughs, Black Roots, A Beginner's Guide to Tracing The African American Family Tree, Fireside, a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc, New York, c. 2001 by Tony Burroughs [a very fine reference and how-to guide for anyone interested in searching African American ancestry. Written by a leading African American genealogist.]
Science Museum (UK), Genetic Journey to the Motherland, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/motherland/index.asp [Information about the Motherland Project. Using DNA analysis, hundreds of British Afro-Caribbeans discovered the part of Africa their forebears came from. Some of the results are surprising.]
Resources for Teachers and Students
PBS, Africans in America, Part 4: 1831-1865, Judgement Day, www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/title.html [this four-part site describing America's journey through slavery is excellent, providing a historical narrative; a resource bank with annotated images and documents, stories, biographics and commentaries; and a teacher's guide. Part 4 covers the critically important period 1831-1865, including Abolitionism and the Civil War, and highlights important events including the sale of 429 slaves belonging to Pierce Butler in 1859, the largest slave sale in U.S. history. Also included in the series are Part 1: 1450-1750, The Terrible Transformation; Part 2: 1750-1805, Revolution; and Part 3: 1791-1831, Brotherly Love. An Africans in America companion book, and an Africans in America soundtrack are available for purchase.]
PBS, Slavery and the Making of America, Resources, www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/resources/online.html [provides links to resources about slavery, the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction periods]
Slavery in America, An Educator's Site Made Possible By New York Life, Teacher Resources, A selection of classroom resources in social studies, literature and the humanities, www.slaveryinamerica.org/resources/overview.htm [includes lesson plans, interactive exhibitions. Roads to Freedom is an interactive exhibition that allows students to explore the six routes most frequently taken by enslaved men and women who were seeking their liberty.The Melrose Interactive Slavery Environment takes students into Melrose, a pre-Civil War suburban estate. Students explore the estate from the perspective of the men, women and children who were enslaved there.]
Library of Congress, The African-American Mosaic, A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture, www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html [a LOC resource guide for the study of Black History and Culture, covering four areas - Colonization, Abolition, Migrations, and the WPA. Each section provides links to additional information in the extensive Library of Congress collections. A book is available for purchase.]
Library of Congress, From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909, memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/slavery/ [resources for teachers. The American Memory Collection includes lesson plans]
National Geographic Online, The Underground Railroad, www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/ [an interactive journey on the Underground Railroad, including images, sound, and some choices to be made by the student. Entertaining and informative. Well done.]
University of Virginia, Virginia Center for Digital History, The Valley of the Shadow, Two Communities in the American Civil War, valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/ [award winning site details life in two American communities, one northern and one southern, from the time of John Brown's raid through the era of reconstruction. Primary sources included on the site include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records. Provides teaching resources and lesson plans.]
University of North Carolina Library, Documenting the American South, docsouth.unc.edu/ [provides access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Includes classroom resources.]
Digital History, Teaching Resources Related to Slavery, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ [contains resource guides by period and topic.]
Street Law & The Supreme Court Historical Society Present... Landmark Cases Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), www.landmarkcases.org/dredscott/home.html [a description of the Dred Scott case and Supreme Court decision. Provides a teacher's guide for covering the material with students.]
Yale University, Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, www.yale.edu/glc/info/index.htm [The Gilder Lehrman Center strives to make a vital contribution to the understanding of slavery and its role in the development of the modern world. Includes resources for teachers and students. The Institute also sponsors lectures, forums and workshops, supports online historical databases, and conducts collaborative efforts with other institutions.]
The Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia, British History 1700-1930, The Slave Trade, www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/slavery.htm [good source material on slavery in America and the events leading to abolition. Contains a number of excerpts from slave narratives and published accounts of slave life.]
Bristol Slavery, The City of Bristol and its links with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, www.bristolandslavery.4t.com [description of the role of the city of Bristol, England, in the Atlantic slave trade. Includes an interesting account of the competition among the ports of London, Bristol and Liverpool.]
The Bristol Slavery Trail, History Footsteps from the Victoria County History, Part of the National Grid for Learning, www.englandpast.net/education/bristol_index.html [students are taken on a virtual visit to the streets of Bristol, England, in the era of the slave trade. The characters they meet are based on real people, and the letters, advertisements, and stories are based on genuine historical documents. Includes a teacher's guide.]
Furman University Department of History, Secession Era Editorials Project, history.furman.edu/editorials/see.py [a collection of editorials written during the antebellum period, relating to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the caning of Senator Sumner of Massachusetts by Representative Brooks of South Carolina in the Senate Chamber, the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Editorials from Northern and Southern newspapers are included, and the reader is encouraged to read some from the North and some from the South to gain an understanding of the points of view in each region. A fascinating educational site.]
Living Easton, Bristol, UK, Bristol and the Slave Trade, www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~rstephen/livingeaston/local_history/slavery.html [the site contains a history of the port of Bristol's involvement in the slave trade, and a very comprehensive listing of 'slave revolts, rebellions, revolutions, rebels, conspiracies & the maroon wars.' The events are listed in chronological order and the year of occurrence identified. In most cases a summary of the event is also provided.]
Breaking the Silence, Learning About the Transatlantic Slave Trade, www.antislavery.org/breakingsilence/educationproject.shtml [a joint initiative of UNESCO, Anti-Slavery International, the British Council, and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). Developed in connection with UNESCO's ASPnet Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project, Breaking the Silence. The site aims to help teachers and educators to Break the Silence that continues to surround the story of the enslavement of Africa that began over 500 years ago. Includes teacher 'Briefings,' supporting information and images, downloadable lesson plans and activities, and other resources. The 'Up from Slavery Activity,' designed for young students, takes the user on a journey through slavery in nine stages. The user must read or listen to a narrative and then answer a question correctly before moving on to the next stage.]
Miscellaneous
Patricia C. Click, The Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, www.roanokefreedmenscolony.com/ [records of Union-occupied Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, which became home to thousands of former slaves during the Civil War]
The Virginia Center for Digital History, Virginia Runaways, people.uvawise.edu/runaways/ [runaway slave advertisements from 18th century Virginia newspapers]
The History Place, Abraham Lincoln, Timeline, Photos, Words, www.historyplace.com/lincoln/index.html [all about Lincoln, with photos and complete copies of his famous speeches and documents, including the 'house divided' speech at the state convention in Springfield, another speech in Springfield where he speaks out against the Dred Scott decision, and an impassioned speech on slavery in New Haven, Connecticut.]
The Africa Guide, African People and Culture, Tribes & People Groups, www.africaguide.com/culture/tribes/index.htm [listing of 26 tribes of Africa, with brief comments about each]
Art & Life in Africa Online, Peoples Resources, www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people.html [listing of 107 African tribes, with information about each]
Wikipedia, List of African Ethnic Groups, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_african_ethnic_groups [listing of 57 African tribes, with information about each]
Rebirth Africa, Rebirth Collection African Tribal Masks, www.rebirth.co.za/african_mask.htm [a collection of tribal masks, with information about each. This is a commercial site.]
Galen R. Frysinger's Travel Site, the Gambia, www.galenfrysinger.com/gambia.htm [wonderful photo's of modern day Gambia and its people, along with some history of the country. The site also includes photo tours of many other African countries, including Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Zanzibar.]
Mark Moxon's Travel Site, www.moxon.net [an excellent travel site that includes photos and some history of a number of African countries, including The Gambia, Ghana, and Senegal]
Niemeyer Fine Art Photography, LNS Art, A Santa Fe Photographic Arts Enterprise, The Sudan Slave Story, www.lnsart.com/Sudan%20Slave%20Story.htm [images and stories of the genocide in Sudan that has been taking place since 1983, during which time an estimated two million people have been killed and many taken as slaves. This site tells a distressing story in an effective way. It asks, when will the civilized world put a stop to this? The site also includes a Rwanda refugee image gallery.]
Without Sanctuary, Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America, James Allen, withoutsanctuary.org/main.html [collector James Allen has compiled numerous photographs and postcards with images of lynchings throughout America. The author notes that "....much of the material is very disturbing." Most of the images are accompanied by a brief account of the circumstances that led to the lynching. A part of American history that many would prefer to forget. On the contrary, we must never forget.]
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