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

Sepia photographic portraits of a man and a woman; the woman is wearing a white shirt with checked trim and an earring; the man is bare-chested, with well-defined musculature. Both have traditional scarification on their cheeks.

“Escrava Mina” and “Escravo Mina”

1864

View two photographs of enslaved people in Brazil.

Primary Source

Two African American men sitting in front of a tent, one with cigar and the other with a soup ladle.

African Americans and the Civil War

with Elizabeth R. Varon

Learn more about free and enslaved Africans’ contributions to the Union war effort.

Video

A black-and-white photograph of Robert Smalls, a goateed Black man, seated, wearing a dark jacket, bow tie, and vest (with pocket watch chain), and a white shirt.

Beyond the Battlefield: African American Contributions to the Civil War

with Elizabeth R. Varon

Learn more about the men, women, and children who contributed to the war effort through various means.

Video

A page from a book with the title "The Statues at Large" in large, gothic font.

Legislating Reproduction and Racial Difference

from Women and the American Story, The New York Historical

Take a deep dive into the legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem.

Essay

An engraving showing two dozen armed Black men in the foreground hidden along a forested path and hillside watching a group of White men in military dress coming down the path in the distance

“The Maroons in Ambush . . . in Jamaica”

1801

View this depiction of a maroon revolt in Jamaica.

Work of Art

The Hunted Slaves

1862

View a depiction of self-emancipated people in the maroon communities of the Great Dismal Swamp.

Work of Art

A jet of water in a tiled water fountain labeled 'Yemoja" [also known as Yemayá] in a body of water, topped with a white bust of a woman and, above the bust, a dark neon sign reading "The Surprise."

“Yemayá”

by Grupo Abbilona

View and listen to an Afro-Cuban example of syncretic religious practices.

Video

A group of five Black women wearing white and black headdresses, black cloaks, white blouses, brightly colored skirts, and high-heeled shoes, follows a small boy wearing colorful clothing adorned by feathers, holding a piece of wood and a small ax.

“Festival of Our Lady of the Rosary, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”

ca. 1770s

View this print of a festival led by enslaved people in Brazil.

Primary Source

Dark orange cover for a pamphlet edition of two speeches by Frederick Douglass

“West India Emancipation”

1857

Read Frederick Douglass’s first use of the phrase “If there is no struggle there is no progress.”

Primary Source

Masthead of The Liberator, featuring a depiction of an enslaved family next to an auctioneer, whose lectern reads "Slaves Horses & Other Cattle to be sold at 12 OO."

The Question of Naming in “The Liberator”

1831

Explore responses to questions of Black identity and nomenclature in the famed abolitionist newspaper.

Primary Source

Front page of The Colored American newspaper

“Why We Should Have a Paper”

1837

Read the founding manifesto of The Colored American newspaper.

Primary Source

A black-and-white engraving of Solomon Northup, a Black man wearing a white hat, shirt, and pants, sitting on a box, a broomstick leaning against his left arm. Below the image, the name Solomon Northup in handwriting and the words "In his plantation suit"

Solomon Northup Remembers the New Orleans Slave Market

1853

Read an excerpt from Northup’s autobiographical account, Twelve Years a Slave.

Primary Source