AP African American Studies Resource Archive | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Scan of a signed contract engaging a captain to oversee a set of men acting as a slave patrol, with manuscript accomplishment, signed by Obadiah Woodson and Horace L. Robards.

Slave Patrol Contract

1856

Explore an effort to enforce North Carolina’s slave codes in 1856.

Primary Source

A black and white etching of Haitian revolutionaries fighting French soldiers.

Connections Between the American and Haitian Revolutions

by Laurent Dubois

Understand the relationship between the Haitian Revolution and American Revolution.

Essay

The front cover of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, featuring a small photorealistic illustration of Eliza and Lizzie Scott in dresses holding hands above two larger illustrations of Dred and Harriet Scott, pictured separately

Dred and Harriet Scott: A Family Story of Slavery and Freedom

with Matthew Pinsker

Learn about the family that brought the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) case to the Supreme Court.

Video

Photograph shows a procession of African Americans, with two women in the foreground, carrying signs for equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing, and an end to bias.

The March on Washington: A Virtual Tour

with Clayborne Carson

Join the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University for a virtual tour of the 1963 March on Washington.

Video

Scan of NAACP poster listing statistics regarding the 3,436 lynchings that occurred between 1889 and 1922. States "Do you know that the United States is the Only Land on Earth where people are burned at the stake?" Reports that 83 women have been lynched in the United States.

Origins of the Civil Rights Movement

with Anthony J. Badger

Learn more about the start of the Civil Rights movement.

Video

Illustration from 1867 issue of Harper's Weekly showing an African American man voting for the first time

Reconstruction and Citizenship

with Eric Foner

Discover the changes in definitions of citizenship before, during, and after the Civil War.

Video

Photograph of a man with graying, curly hair, smiling at the camera in front of a wooden wall. He wears a dark suit jacket, a blue collared shirt, and a red and blue paisley tie.

Slavery and the Early American Economy

with Edward L. Ayers

Consider how contemporary events affected American slavery at different points in history.

Video

Broadside with text of varying sizes. On the top it reads in all capital letters, "MEN OF COLOR; TO ARMS! TO ARMS!; NOW OR NEVER."

Generations in Captivity: Slavery in America

with Ira Berlin

Understand how the interplay of regional and generational factors shaped the development of slavery in the antebellum United States.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of a Black man wearing a dark hat, jacket, pants, and boots, behind a plow pulled by a horse through a field.

From Slavery to Sharecropping

with Jo Von McCalester

Examine the shift in Black labor after emancipation.

Video

Scan of a book page with the text of a law passed in Virginia in 1662.

Study Aid: Slavery and the Law in Seventeenth-Century Virginia

1662–1691

Explore a timeline of laws pertaining to slavery in Virginia from 1662 to 1691.

Teacher Resources

Map of West and North Africa along the Mediterranean coast, with trade routes and kingdoms noted through illustrations.

The Catalan Atlas

1375

View a Euro-centric impression of Africa, including the ruler Mansa Musa, through this map and essay.

Work of Art

A simple, printed broadside on aged paper, with a statement at the top and columns of New York locations and population numbers below.

Slavery in the New York State Census

ca. 1800

Examine this broadside, which included a count of enslaved people in New York State.

Primary Source