The Terrible Transformation: Freedom Denied

A chapter from a history text that looks at the plantation economy of the Southern colonies, which relied on slave labor. It discusses the role of women as second class citizens, the cash crops that were grown, indentured servitude, the...

How do nineteenth-century texts by African American and Native American writers contribute to the country's ideals of freedom and individuality? Learners explore the topic by watching and discussing a video, reading biographies, writing...

Daniel C. Littlefield, Professor of History at University of South Carolina, explores how plantation or slave labor differed according to location and period.

A collection of narratives taken from autobiographies, letters and diaries of slaves. Read the text or listen to the haunting stories.

The most difficult task confronting many Southerners during Reconstruction was devising a new system of labor to replace the shattered world of slavery. Learn how plantation owners and freed slaves adapted to this massive shift in the...

Discusses the economics of slavery in South Carolina and its importance to the profitable growing of rice. It continues with ways the slaves were controlled and punished in South Carolina and Georgia. Click on Teacher's Guide for teacher...

The free labor ideology of the nineteenth century was grounded in the beliefs that Northern free labor was superior to Southern slave labor. It was this free labor ideology and not the republicanism of the Revolutionary War era that...

Learn about issues related to slave gender roles at this PBS series site that features illustrations and documents dating back to the Colonial, Antebellum, and Reconstruction periods in American history.

An engaging lesson delves into the effects of slavery on society. Young historians read text excerpts, complete handouts, and participate in group discussion to understand how slavery was a means to control society and establish a racial...

Primary source materials that focus on how the railroad companies supported the slavery system through slave labor, slave ownership, and as a transportation system for the slave market in the South. Content includes contracts, company...