Featured Primary Sources
Slavery and Anti-Slavery
Nothing can enrich and enliven our understanding of the nation’s past, or dispel apathy about it, more powerfully than primary sources. The primary sources below open up a variety of viewpoints and have been chosen by master teachers specifically for use in the classroom. Affiliate School members can print a packet that includes an image of the document, photograph, or other resource, a transcript where applicable, and text to place the document in historical context. Additionally, you may want to search the Gilder Lehrman Collection itself for other resources to enrich your lessons.
American Colonization Society membership certificate, 1833
Creator: American Colonization Society Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:
Harriet Beecher Stowe sends Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Victoria and Albert, 1852
Creator: Harriet Beecher Stowe Curriculum Subjects: Literature Grade Levels:
John Quincy Adams and the Amistad case, 1841
Creator: John Quincy Adams Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:
Runaway Slave Ad, 1860
Creator: Enoch M. Duley Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels:
“The whole land is full of blood,” 1851
Creator: James W. C. Pennington Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:Primary Sources from Other Sub-Eras
A proposed Thirteenth Amendment to prevent secession, 1861
Creator: Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels:
African American soldiers at the Battle of Fort Wagner, 1863
Creator: Currier & Ives Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:
Lincoln on abolition in England and the United States, 1858
Creator: Abraham Lincoln Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+
Lincoln on the execution of a slave trader, 1862
Creator: Abraham Lincoln Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:
Slavery in the New York State census, 1800
Creator: Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: