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

A handwritten legal document for the posting of a bond for the manumission of the slave Ann.

A bond for the manumission of an enslaved woman

1757

View and develop an understanding of this manumission bond.

Primary Source

Engraving showing a Black man in a coat, vest, white shirt, and bow tie and a Black woman wearing a patterned dress with a wide white collar, with earrings.

The Dred Scott Decision and Its Bitter Legacy

1800–1858

Dred Scott’s case before the US Supreme Court challenged the nation on slavery, citizenship, and state sovereignty.

Interactive

Scan of a warrant for eight pounds and five shillings owed to soldier, Sharp Liberty. Signed "X"' by Liberty and J. Lawrence, treasurer.

An African American soldier’s pay warrant

1780

Learn more about this pay warrant issued to soldier Sharp Liberty for his service in the Continental Army.

Primary Source

1808 Engraving of the deck and hold of a slave ship illustrating how little space enslaved people had on board

The Middle Passage

1749

Scrutinize an image and a letter that address the experience of kidnapped Africans on a slave ship.

Primary Source

Scan of a letter from Nelson Allyn to his brother Joseph in Connecticut, dated September 25, 1831.

Nelson Allyn to Joseph Allyn

1831

Read a firsthand account of the retaliation against African Americans in North Carolina after Nat Turner’s Rebellion.

Primary Source

Scan of Dunmore's Proclamation as printed on December 6, 1775.

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation

1775

Learn more about the proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who joined the British army.

Primary Source

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