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

Hidden History: African American Women During Reconstruction

with Rebecca Czuchry

Explore responses by Black Texan women to racial violence in the wake of the Civil War.

Video

A broadside announcing "Valuable Slaves at Auction" in large type, with a list of enslaved people, their ages, and primary forms of enslaved labor below

Broadside Advertising “Valuable Slaves at Auction” in New Orleans

1859

Explore how the labor of enslaved people was advertised.

Primary Source

A map of the world, with arrows indicating movement of enslaved people out of Africa, with varying thickness for the number of enslaved people arriving at that location.

“Overview of the Slave Trade Out of Africa, 1500–1900”

by David Eltis and David Richardson

View the varying points of departure and arrival of enslaved people.

Thematic Map

Woodblock of ironing boards that resemble slave ships.

Stowage

by Willie Cole

View this work of art responding to images of slave ships.

Primary Source

A large shallow, round tray shaped basket made of reeds, rush and palmetto coiled and woven together. A faded purple string is woven through the basket on one side and knotted inside the basket.

Rice Fanner Basket

pre-1863

View this artifact of rice cultivation by enslaved people on the South Carolina coast.

Primary Source

A diagram showing bodies packed into a ship's hold

“Stowage of the British slave ship ‘Brookes’”

1788

View this diagram, which served as a catalyst for the antislavery movement.

Primary Source

Front page of the newspaper Freedom's Journal, March 30, 1827

“Our Claims Are on America”

1828

Read this excerpt from an oration by Thomas Jennings on Black identity.

Primary Source

A map of the African continent with arrows referencing the migration of Bantu peoples and languages

“The Bantu Migration, 2000 BCE–1500 CE”

by Mark Cartwright

See the extensive migration of Bantu peoples on the African continent.

Thematic Map

Map of the African continent, with colored ovals recognizing approximate geographic locations and periods of kingdoms and empires.

“Ancient & Medieval Sub-Saharan African States”

by Mark Cartwright

Visualize the approximate locations of various kingdoms and empires, including Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

Thematic Map

A black and white photograph of Nannie Helen Burroughs, a young Black woman, shown seated from the waist up, wearing a dark hat with a white feather and a white blouse

“How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping”

1900

Read Nannie Helen Burroughs’s address casting light on the importance of women organizing in Black institutions.

Primary Source

A bespectacled Shirley Chisholm looking to her right while wearing a dark turtleneck and necklaces.

Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics

with Anastasia C. Curwood

Learn more about Chisholm’s life and career.

Video