- Historical Eras > Antebellum America (1816-1860) (x)
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A Virginia Slave Puts His Writing Skills to Good Use
In this selection from an oral history interview, William L. Johnson, Jr., describes a fellow slave who resisted slavery by learning to read and write and in turn helped other slaves to resist. The interview was one of thousands conducted with [...]
A Slave Named Sukie Resists a Master's Advances
While slaves knew that they would face harsh punishments for acts of open resistance, many did so anyway. In this selection from an oral history interview, Fannie Berry describes a surprising act of defiance by a fellow slave, one that illustrates [...]
Selections from Alabama's Laws Governing Slaves
While slaveholders defended slavery as a benign system, this selection of laws, on the books in Alabama in 1833, suggest that slaves themselves were finding many ways to resist and escape it. Whites became particularly concerned about slave [...]
Pro-Slavery Pamphlet, circa 1860
Two pages from a proslavery tract published around 1860 present the contrasting fates of free and unfree labor. After decades of attack from abolitionists, in the 1850s slavery advocates defended plantation slavery as the most efficient and most [...]
A Former Slave Recalls "a Mournful Scene" in the New Orleans Slave Market
In 1841, Solomon Northup, a free African American living in New York, was kidnapped while visiting Washington, D.C., and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years working on plantations in Louisiana, finally attaining freedom in 1853. His [...]
Doing as They Can: Slave Life in the American South Viewer's Guide
This booklet is curriculum support for the American Social History Project's 30-minute documentary Doing as They Can: Slave Life in the American South. The viewer's guide contains background information on issues raised by the documentary as well [...]
Five Points: New York's Irish Working Class in the 1850s Viewer's Guide
This booklet is curriculum support for the American Social History Project's 30-minute documentary Five Points: New York's Irish Working Class in the 1850s. The viewer's guide contains background information on issues raised by the documentary as [...]
Daughters of Free Men Viewer's Guide
This booklet is curriculum support for the American Social History Project's 30-minute documentary Daughters of Free Men. The viewer's guide contains background information on issues raised by the documentary as well as additional primary source [...]
Acts of Resistance Journal Writing worksheet
This worksheet helps students plan and write a journal entry from the perspective of an enslaved person describing how they might resist slavery. This worksheet accompanies the activity "Slavery: Acts of Resistance."
Focus Question Worksheet: Running for Freedom
This worksheet helps students analyze two documents to understand the role of runaway slaves in the intensifying conflicts over slavery in the 1850s. This worksheet contains vocabulary and other reading supports. It is part of the activity [...]