Curated OER
National Park Service: The Amistad Story
This highly informative site presents the story of the Amistad and the Mende Africans' legal battle and quest for freedom in Connecticut. Highlights the key players and the places they stayed at and attended.
University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina: Slavery and the Making of the University
This online exhibit from the University of North Carolina chronicles the impact slaves had on campus during the antebellum period. View primary sources showing contributions of slaves, college servants and free persons of color to their...
Cornell University
Cornell University: Library: I Will Be Heard: A Slave's Life
A brief look at how slavery in America was tied to the crops grown in the South. See how the need for skilled workers was decreased and the use of unskilled slaves increased with the introduction of the cotton gin.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Sale, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
Two nineteenth century depictions of the emotional brutality of slave auctions-by an enslaved (formerly free) black man and by former slaves-and several recollections of being sold by former slaves recorded during Depression era...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Runaways, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
Several accounts by slaves of running away from bondage, written in the nineteenth century and also recorded in the 1930s, as well as newspaper advertisements seeking information about fugitive slaves in the eighteenth century.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Poets, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
The writings of four African Americans poets from the late-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries that examine slavery, abolition, and emancipation. These authors include Phillis Wheatley, George Moses Horton, James Whitfield, and...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Charles C. Jones, Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
Plantation owner, Charles Colcock Jones, argues in two chapters from his book on promoting religious education for blacks that plantation owners have an obligation to offer religious instruction to slaves.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Reading Guide: George Fitzhugh: Chap. 5, "Negro Slavery"
A chapter in George Fitzhugh's apology for slavery in which he argues that slavery brings clear benefits to those who were enslaved.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Cotton Promotes Slavery
A brief history of how the economic growth of the South became dependent on the work of slaves and how this solidified the unity of the southern states. Links throughout the text will take to you sites containing relevant information.
Digital History
Digital History: The Life Cycle of a Slave [Pdf]
Read excerpts from these slave and ex-slave narratives to find out what the life of a slave was like through all stages of life--childhood, marriage, and old age. See the heartbreak of mothers being separated from their children, and...
Digital History
Digital History: Methods of Controlling Slaves [Pdf]
Slave masters felt that controlling slaves was a necessity. Read about three ways slaves were controlled in the slavery system, and read an account by Frederick Douglass about how his master, in particular, kept his slaves in line. [pdf]
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Odyssey: Free Blacks in the Antebellum Period
Online exhibit from the Library of Congress features primary source material about free blacks from the Antebellum Period and teaches about individual accomplishments, emergence of the black church, and documenting freedom.
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery's Evolution
From the 1740s until 1860 there were great changes in the slavery system, slave culture, and where slaves lived. Read about these changes and the beginnings of anti-slavery ideas.
Digital History
Digital History: What Was Life Like Under Slavery?
A sobering look at the life of the plantation slave in the decades before the Civil War. Read about the malnutrition, severe treatment, and inadequate living conditions.
Digital History
Digital History: Slave Culture
Find out about the contributions African slaves and African American slaves made to not only their culture, but American culture in general. See what words have African roots, how African culture influenced food and music, and how there...
Digital History
Digital History: American Slavery in Comparative Perspective
A very interesting look at the similarities and differences between the treatment of slaves in Latin America and the Caribbean and the slaves in the American South. Read about why a crucial difference was the concept of race between the...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Slave Life and the Underground Railroad
A brief summary of the history of African American slavery and the Underground Railroad. Activities and books pertaining to slave life, plantations, and the Underground Railroad are suggested.
University of Virginia
Virginia Center for Digital History: United States Expansion, 1800 1860
An essay that looks at issues affecting Americans leading up to the Civil War. These included economic changes that led to new ideological, social, cultural, and political issues that further divided the nation along moral and regional...
Have Fun With History
Have Fun With History: Slavery in America
Learning module includes multi-media reasources and links for students and teachers learning about slavery in America. Includes several videos on various historical topics on slavery.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Us History: The Middle Passage
A detailed look at the trans-Atlantic slave trade that lasted from the 1500s to the 1800s.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Legacies
Learn how the legacies left by the transatlantic slave trade made a huge impact on the development of Africa and on global notions of race and cultural identity.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Atlantic Crossing
Discover the period some refer to as "Middle Passage," when enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean or America. Read first-hand accounts of the torture and deprivation experienced by thousands of...
Other
University of Arkansas: Arkansas Historical Association: Slavery in Arkansas
A series of lesson plans and teaching activities on slavery in Arkansas are provided for educators.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Adah: Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: Slavery Unit
A website with lesson plans for various grade levels on slavery, using primary sources.