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

A page from the typed New-York Weekly Journal newspaper.

Slave Revolt in the West Indies

1733

This newspaper article recalls a revolt of enslaved people on the Caribbean island of St. John.

Primary Source

Aged paper with text of different sizes and fonts, the top of which says, "178 Sugar and Cotton Plantation Slaves!"

Auction catalog of enslaved people from Louisiana

1855

Explore this primary source to learn about the process of buying and selling enslaved people in 1855.

Primary Source

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

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

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 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

Three young Black men wearing tracksuits and white gloves dancing as another young Black man inverts his body on a piece of cardboard. Behind them is a graffitied wall.

Breakdancers in New York

1984

View an example of b-boy culture from 1980s New York.

Primary Source

A dark abstract painting of a mask with horns

“Les Fétiches”

1938

View Loïs Mailou Jones’s painting, which brought Négritude from literature to art.

Work of Art

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