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

A page from a book focused on a title of legislation, "An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes and Slaves."

South Carolina Slave Code

1740

Read excerpts from this slave code enacted in a British colony.

Primary Source

A stereoscope card of a field of sisal fibers with a house in the background leading to a Mexican pyramid.

Diverse Roles of Africans in Early American Colonization

by Matthew Restall

Explore the ways free and enslaved Africans influenced Latin America in the sixteenth century.

Essay

A portrait of a Black man with long black hair wearing a white turban, white robe, and necklace.

Ayuba bin Suleiman Diallo to His Father

ca. 1733

Read a translation of the letter that helped to secure Diallo’s freedom from enslavement.

Primary Source

Five portraits of men (abolitionists in Brazil), below a portrait of Princess Isabel (wearing a blue dress with a white frill) and four shirtless Black men dancing next to a pole as a Black woman wearing a pink dress looks on.

Slavery and Freedom in Brazil

by Keila Grinberg

Explore the pervasive impact of slavery in Brazil, and the long fight to abolish the system of enslavement.

Essay

Handwritten document in French headlined "Edit du Roi" [Edict from the King].

Louisiana Code Noir

1685

Read this excerpt from France’s original colonial slave code.

Primary Source

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

A smiling white-haired Black woman in a dark dress sitting with her hands clasped in her lap in an elaborately carved high-backed wooden chair

The Slave Narratives: A Genre and a Source

by David W. Blight

Examine narratives such as Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in this essay.

Essay

A map of the coast of Liberia, with the Atlantic Ocean appearing diagonally in the middle of the map.

The First Age of Reform

by Ronald G. Walters

Learn more about the debates related to colonization in the context of other antebellum reform movements.

Essay

A photograph of a Black Civil War Union soldier in uniform in a rounded rectangular frame.

African Americans and Emancipation

by Manisha Sinha

Explore the role of military service during the Civil War on emancipation and abolition.

Essay