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Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.

"The New Laws of the Indies, 1542 The Laws and ordinances newly made by His Majesty for the government of the Indies and good treatment and preservation of the Indians created a set of pro-Indian laws - so pro-Indian that they some had to be revoked in Mexico and in Peru due to settler opposition. where the viceroy was killed when he attempted to enforce them. The conflict was between "feudalists" who favored the encomienda system because it maintained society as in the Old World, and the more centralizing "regalists" who wanted to preserve royal power in Spain;s new Empire. Eventually the encomienda was allowed to continue. Charles by the divine clemency Emperor ever august, King of Germany. . . . To the Most Illustrious Prince Don Philip our very dear and very beloved grandson and son, and to the Infantes our grandsons and sons, and to the President, and those of our Council of the Indies, and to our Viceroys, Presidents and Auditors of our Audiencias and royal Chanceries of our said Indies, Islands and Continent of the Ocean Sea; to our Governors, Alcaldes mayores and our other Authorities thereof, and to all the Councils, magistrates, regidores, knights, esquires, officers, and commoners of all the cities, towns, and villages of our said Indies, Islands, and Tierra-firme of the Ocean Sea, discovered and to be discovered; and to any other persons, captains, discoverers, settlers, and inhabitants dwelling in and being natives thereof, of whatever state, quality, condition and pre-eminence they may be. . . . Know ye, That having for many years had will and intention as leisure to occupy ourselves with the affairs of the Indies, on account of their great importance, as well in that touching the service of God our Lord and increase of his holy Catholic faith, as in the preservation of the natives of those parts, and the good government and preservation of their persons; and although we have endeavoured

A thorough examination of slave life, first-person accounts by slaves, the abolitionist groups and abolitionists, legislation, etc from the British POV, plus a section on USA campaigners against slavery.

In Who Abolished Slavery? Slave Revolts and Abolitionism, the historian of Portuguese abolition, João Pedro Marques, argues against what he describes as two misinterpretations. For Marques, these were: "first, that revolts were always ways of fighting slavery; and secondly, that the decision to end the system of slavery in most Western nations was for the most part the outcome of such revolts."(p. 5) Marques disagrees with both of these views and maintains that it is not possible to establish a correlation between slave uprisings and the acts of emancipation in the West.

The Geography of Slavery in Virginia is a digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers. Building on the rich descriptions of individual slaves and servants in the ads, the project offers a personal, geographical and documentary context for the study of slavery in Virginia, from colonial times to the Civil War.

"In the 3¼ centuries between 1492 and about 1820, four enslaved Africans left the Old World for every European. During those years, Africans comprised the largest forced oceanic migration in the history of the world. Who were they? Who organized the slaving voyages? Which parts of Africa did they come from? How did they reach the Americas? And where exactly did they go?"

Kim and Sal talk about increased tensions between slave and free states as new territory is added after Mexican-American War and from Compromise of 1850 (especially the Fugitive Slave Act).

Thanks for this site, Nate. Excellent resource for a historical investigation into the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Information on almost 35,000 slaving voyages

Information on numbers of slaves transported from the C16th to C19th in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Some of the numbers look a little too precise to be exactly reliable. Interesting though.

Georgetown University site including images from the log book from 1795 of a slave ship

"Unchained Memories is a riveting compilation of more than forty narratives drawn from interviews with former slaves conducted in the 1930s by the government's Works Progress Administration. "

An incredible animated, interactive map of the trans-Atlantic slave trade

"This teaching resource includes digitized selections from the Cameron Family Papers extracted from the Southern Historical Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill. The resource is designed for non-commercial use by educators and students interested in themes associated with antebellum plantation life. The original Cameron Family Papers (1757-1978) include some 35,000 undigitized items available for public perusal in the university's Wilson Library. This web resource presents only a small fraction of the total available documents, as identified and digitized by the site designers to best represent themes associated with traditionally underrepresented persons on antebellum plantations, namely slaves, women, and children. The Camerons regularly communicated by post with their family, friends, and business associates (overseers, tradespersons, and merchants). The level of detail provided in their personal communication provides a rich context for the study of antebellum plantation life in the southern United States. Site users may either search for letters related to a particular theme, or browse available letters using the index of letters page. All letters have been tagged by subject/theme. Letters are available in Macromedia Flashpaper format (.swf). Users may choose to view the original source letter, a typed transcription of the original text (easier to read), or both. The transcription is recommended to teachers and students with limited time, given the difficulty in deciphering original text. "

This is a very interesting and unusual idea. Historians at Stanford have collected very specific and detailed information about historical events within short time frames and then produced graphic representations of these events that you can play over maps. It's very precise and perhaps too detailed for many high school level students to make sense of, however some of them helped show how historical phenomena occurred. Particularly chilling was the graphic showing slave purchases in the Rio slave market in the mid-C19th; you can see individual children being bought at specific times by specific people.

21st century readers may be surprised to hear Jeff Davis's language when he talks about the north a year and a half into the Civil War.

Compare North and South states on interactive maps to identify the differences between free and slave populations before the Civil War. Also includes discussion questions.

Youtube Playlist Learn about the political, social, and economic changes in the Union and the Confederacy and the Civil War's long-term economic and intellectual impact. A New Birth of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865 narrates the history of the American Civil War. While the course examines individual engagements and the overall nature of the military conflict, the focus is less on the battlefield than on political, social, and economic change in the Union and the Confederacy. Central to the account are the road to emancipation, the role of black soldiers, the nature of Abraham Lincoln's wartime leadership, internal dissent in both the North and South, the changing position of women in both societies, and the war's long-term economic and intellectual impact. We end with a look at the beginnings of Reconstruction during the conflict. This course is part of the series, The Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. The series will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history - how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present. See other courses in this series: The Civil War and Reconstruction - 1850-1861 The Civil War and Reconstruction - 1865-1890 "The Civil War and Recons

Youtube Playlist The Civil War and Reconstruction - 1850 -1861 Discover how the issue of slavery came to dominate American politics, and how political leaders struggled and failed to resolve the growing crisis in the nation. A House Divided: The Road to Civil War, 1850-1861 is a course that begins by examining how generations of historians have explained the crisis of the Union. After discussing the institution of slavery and its central role in the southern and national economies, it turns to an account of the political and social history of the 1850s. It traces how the issue of the expansion of slavery came to dominate national politics, and how political leaders struggled, unsuccessfully, to resolve the growing crisis. We will examine the impact of key events such as Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and end with the dissolution of the Union in the winter of 1860-61. This course is part of the series, The Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. The series will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history - how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present. Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor o

Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. This XSeries will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history - how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present.