National Archives (UK)
The National Archives: Black Loyalists
Both free and enslaved black soldiers fought on both sides fo the Revolutionary War. Learn about the Black Loyalists of Canada, and how some slaves earned their freedom through military service. Includes primary source documents.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Identity, Making of African American Identity: V. 1, 1500 1865
Forty seven primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the issues facing African Americans as they struggled to carve out identity, work, artistic expression, and citizenship rights.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Making of African American Identity: Vol I: 1500 1865: Emancipation
Primary source material on the how enslaved Africans envisioned and pursued freedom and how these ideas affected them after the Civil War.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: America Revolution: The First Rhode Island Regiment
Information not only about the First Rhode Island Regiment, a group made up almost entirely of freed slaves, but also a look at the change in the attitude of enlisting African Americans into the Continental Army as the Revolutionary War...
PBS
Africans in America: Venture Smith's Narrative on Buying His Freedom
Here is the original text from Venture Smith's narrative on how he purchased his own freedom and his families, and his life afterwards.
![Al Dept of Archives & History: African Americans: Reconstruction Lesson [Pdf] Lesson Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Al Dept of Archives & History: African Americans: Reconstruction Lesson [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Al Dept of Archives & History: African Americans: Reconstruction Lesson [Pdf]
With this lesson plan, students learn about the lives of African Americans during Reconstruction. PDF (requires Adobe Reader).
University of Pennsylvania
Celebration of Women Writers: Narrative of Sojourner Truth
The complete text of "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" depicts the life of Sojourner Truth as dictated to Olive Gilbert in 1850.
Travel Document Systems
Tds: Liberia: History
A thorough look at the history of Liberia with an emphasis on the civil war and the recent recovery from that unstable time. Information is from the U.S. State Dept. Background Notes.
Travel Document Systems
Tds: Sierra Leone: History
Read about history of Sierra Leone, which has been wracked with civil war, but is now in the process of healing the wounds. Information is from the U.S. State Dept. Background Notes.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Freedmen's Bureau
This collection uses primary sources to explore the history, successes, and failures of the Freedmen's Bureau during Reconstruction.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Buying Freedom, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
Narratives from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries depicting the struggle by blacks to purchase their own freedom and the impediments they faced.
Digital History
Digital History: Photograph Album With Cyanotypes
Read a brief Digital History description of the Calhoun Industrial School in Alabama, a school in the 19th century that provided industrial education to freed slaves and others. Following the description is an impressive collection of...
Digital History
Digital History: The Problem of Reconstruction [Pdf]
How does a country put itself back together after a civil war? Read about the problems with the destruction of the Southern economy and land, the recognition of former slaves as freedmen, and the ways to bring the Southern states back...
Then Again
Then Again: Web Chron: Liberia Is Founded by Freed Slaves
Read how the nation of Liberia was founded by freed slaves as a result of the end of the transatlantic slave trade and the efforts of the American Colonization Society (ACS).
PBS
Africans in America: Lucy Terry Prince: Freed Slave and Poet
This website describes the life of Lucy Terry Prince, first female African American poet. She obtained her freedom by marrying a wealthy free black man who purchased her freedom.
PBS
Pbs Africans in America: Venture Smith
This website briefly describes the life of a captured slave, Venture Smith. He is a legend for his size and his feat of buying his and his family's freedom.
US National Archives
Docsteach: How Effective Were the Efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau?
In this activity, young scholars will analyze documents from the War Department's Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands - better known as the Freedmen's Bureau - that Congress established on March 3, 1865, as the Civil War...
Other
Wither Liberia? Civil War Emancipation and Freedmen Resettlement in West Africa
An informative article on efforts during Abraham Lincoln's administration to resettle freedmen to West Africa. (Published: 11/11/2012)
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: 14th Amendment to the Constitution
After the Civil War, the 14th amendment granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States. This included former slaves. Learn about the protections this amendment offers to citizens, including those who were once...
University of Virginia
Electronic Text Center: Liberian Letters
A collection of letters from former Virginia slaves who emigrated to Liberia.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: Juneteenth Celebration
This resource is a brief article about Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, which celebrates the day when Union soldiers arrived in Texas and spread the word that slaves were free.
Other
History's Women: Sojourner Truth, Abolitionist Suffragist
This site provides a biography of African American Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in upstate New York.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: 300 Women Who Changed History: Sojourner Truth
Encyclopedia Britannica provides a biography of Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), a woman whose "Visions," led her on a crusade to preach of God's goodness, of the abolitionist movement, and of the women's rights movement.
Black Past
Black Past: Davis Bend, Mississippi
This is an encyclopedia article which tells about an attempt to form an all black cooperative town in Mississippi after the Civil War.