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

Map of the East Coast of the United States with modern state boundaries from New Hampshire to Georgia and red dots for key cities; callout boxes provide the year slavery was legalized along with African American population numbers for 1680 and 1740 for each state.

African Americans in the 13 Colonies, 17th–18th Centuries

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Explore the change in the African American population over time in the colonial era.

Thematic Map

Hidden History: John Rufus Gibson

with Samuel Collins III and Joan Marshall

Explore the life and legacy of a key figure in Texas Black history.

Video

Hidden History: Jessie McGuire Dent

with Tommie Boudreaux, Samuel Collins III, Diane Henderson, and Faye Williams

Explore McGuire Dent’s role in fighting racial discrimination and organizing the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

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 page from a book reading "Laws of Virginia, Act XII."

Laws of Virginia, Act XII

1662

Read the act that established the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem.

Primary Source

An engraving of White man with a gaunt face and long white hair, wearing a dark overcoat, jacket, and pants, his right hand holding a scroll and his left hand resting on a stack of books. "Chief Justice Roger Taney" printed below the image.

Dred Scott v. Sandford Majority Opinion

1857

Read Roger Taney’s majority opinion, overturned by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Primary Source

Hidden History: Celebrating That Freedom Day

with Michael Hurd

Take a deep dive into the first Juneteenth celebrations where it all began, in Galveston, Texas.

Video

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

A handwritten document with a beige ribbon on top

“Plea to the Jurisdiction of Cinque and Others”

1839

Read the statement to the court on behalf of the Africans taken on the Amistad.

Primary Source

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 stipple portrait of William Whipper, a Black man, wearing a dark bowtie, vest, and jacket, and a white shirt

A Resolution on Naming

1835

Read William Whipper’s proposal on Black nomenclature at a convention in 1835.

Primary Source

Cover page for Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart.

“Why Sit Ye Here and Die”

1832

Read a speech by Maria W. Stewart, the first Black woman to publish a political manifesto.

Primary Source