The History of Slavery in America

From the beginnings of slavery in British North America around 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 enslaved Africans to the Virginia colony at Jamestown, nearly 240 years passed until the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially ended slavery in 1865. This section of the site is devoted to an in-depth investigation of those years from many angles; from looking at the lives and cultures of the oppressed before they were enslaved, to understanding the ways in which those enslaved survived and ultimately triumphed over the institution of slavery. The first of the original essays and lesson plans based on the latest scholarship on slavery in America is offered below.

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History Essays: Scholars and historians contribute original essays on the latest scholarship regarding the issues and events in the history of slavery in America.

History Lesson Plans: Teachers contribute their best lessons on the events and issues that they think are the most important in the history of slavery in America.

In addition to offering the materials on the site through their academic disciplines, we also offer them thematically, below. The themes established in the Historical Overview essay drive the collation of these materials, and the variety of resources in each section offer students a multi-perspective look at that segment of slavery in America.

Creating Slavery

Surviving Slavery
Resisting Slavery
Escaping Slavery
Transcending Slavery
Transition to Jim Crow: Legacy of Slavery
For use with All Thematic Areas