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

A multicolor (blue, red, tan) map showing the coast of Sierra Leone (blue) and Liberia (red).

African Americans and the Making of Liberia

by Claude A. Clegg III

Explore the founding of Liberia and the impact of the colonization movement.

Essay

A painting depicting a lighter-skinned woman (at left), wearing a white headscarf, blouse, and red skirt, holding a basket of a golden or yellow produce in her left hand and a platter of a red produce in her right hand. A darker-skinned woman (at right) wearing a white headscarf, blouse, and blue jacket stands behind her, her left hand on the other woman's left arm.

Recovering Voices of the Enslaved in Colonial America

by Sophie White

Explore the broader, less explored history of slave narratives in French Louisiana.

Essay

A drawing of an older Black man with gray hair, a black coat and vest, and white collared shirt.

Mutual Assistance: Building Black Community Life in Freedom

by Lois E. Horton

Take a closer look at the history of mutual aid society and their activity in Free Black communities.

Essay

Etching of Rev. Richard Allen, wearing a jacket and white shirt and looking directly ahead.

Richard Allen, Jarena Lee, and the Second Great Awakening

by Margaret Washington

Read about the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Essay

The title page from volume 1 of Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography, The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano, published in New York in 1791

Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, a Self-Made Man

by Vincent Carretta

Explore Equiano’s life story and the influence of his autobiography on the abolitionist movement.

Essay

Phillis Wheatley, a “Genius in Bondage”

by Vincent Carretta

Explore the life, career, and legacy of the poet who was the first person of sub-Saharan African descent to publish a book.

Essay

A map of the continent of Africa from 1770 shows regions, towns, rivers, and lakes.

The Development of Slavery in the Early Modern Atlantic World

by Michael Guasco

Learn about global systems of slavery in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.

Essay

A wedding near a fireplace. The groom is a Black man wearing a dark coat, white pants, and a white shirt. The bride is a Black woman wearing a white dress. Groomsmen and bridesmaids are behind the couple, and the officiant (wearing a dark coat and pants and holding a book) is faced in the couple's direction. Behind the officiant are more witnesses, a bassist, and a clarinetist (the latter musicians sitting).

Dressing Freedom: The Wedding Clothing of Freed People

by Brenda E. Stevenson

Explore the importance of wedding clothing for freed people during Reconstruction.

Essay

Black and white portrait of Booker T. Washington, three-quarter length, seated, facing front

Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington: A Little-known Encounter

by Adele Alexander

Learn the critical differences in attitude and approach taken by Douglass and Washington, and their 1892 encounter at the Tuskegee Institute.

Essay

Three Black men sit along a wall. One holds a sign that reads "We march together/ Catholic, Jews, Protestant/ for dignity an brotherhood of all men under God now!"

“A Vote-less People Is a Hopeless People”: Lessons from Selma

by Robert A. Pratt

Learn about the history and legacy of the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Essay

Scan of the US Constitution, printed in September 1787.

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle Toward National Ideals

by James Oliver Horton

Read how both pro-slavery and anti-slavery movements used the Constitution to promote their beliefs.

Essay

An engraving shows four people doing various tasks with harvested tobacco in an open shed, including pulling pieces of the leaves apart, and winding rope.

The Origins of Slavery

by Ira Berlin

Gain a greater understanding of the slave trade and the forced migration and diaspora of Africans.

Essay