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Slavery

This year's top titles include One Mighty and Irresistible Tide, You Never Forget Your First, and Caste.

Holiday Gift Guide

The Ten Best History Books of 2020

Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and help explain how the country got to where it is today

Ruins of farms on Fuaigh Mòr, an island evicted during the Highland Clearances

How Profits From Slavery Changed the Landscape of the Scottish Highlands

Money earned through enslavement played a key role in the eviction of Highlanders in the 18th and 19th centuries, study finds

Jane Johnson emancipated herself and her children by walking away from her former "master", John Hill Wheeler, into the free city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Courageous Tale of Jane Johnson, Who Risked Her Freedom for Those Who Helped Her Escape Slavery

A dramatic court scene in Philadelphia put the abolitionist cause in headlines across the nation

Several line items in Alexander Hamilton's cashbook indicate that the Founding Father purchased enslaved labor for his own household.

New Research Suggests Alexander Hamilton Was a Slave Owner

Often portrayed as an abolitionist, Hamilton may have enslaved people in his own household

This month's book picks include A Demon-Haunted Land, South to Freedom and The Light Ages.

Books of the Month

The Heiress Who Stole a Vermeer, Witchcraft in Post-WWII Germany and Other New Books to Read

These five November releases may have been lost in the news cycle

Archaeologists found the remains of cabins, broken clay tobacco pipes, ceramic cups and other artifacts.

Maryland Archaeologists Unearth Jesuit Plantation’s 18th-Century Slave Quarters

Researchers are working with the descendants of enslaved people seeking to document their family histories

Archaeologists pose in front of the 180-year-old cabin in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Log Cabin Excavation Unearths Evidence of Forgotten Black Community

Artifacts recall a thriving Maryland neighborhood that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad

In the years before the Civil War, New York police officers sold free Black Americans into enslavement.

The So-Called ‘Kidnapping Club’ Featured Cops Selling Free Black New Yorkers Into Slavery

Outright racism met financial opportunity when men like Isiah Rynders accrued wealth through legal, but nefarious, means

President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes hands with Martin Luther King Jr. at the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

Race in America

The Outsized Role of the President in Race Relations

A new podcast series explores how the presidency has shaped the nation’s approach to pursuing racial justice

Sarah Forbes Bonetta, as seen in 1856 (left) and 1862 (right). Hannah Uzor's new portrait is based on the 1862 photograph.

The Little-Known Story of Queen Victoria’s Black Goddaughter

A newly commissioned portrait of Sarah Forbes Bonetta is now on view at the monarch’s seaside house, Osbourne

Singer Jenny Lind was widely known as the "Swedish Nightingale."

When Opera Star Jenny Lind Came to America, She Witnessed a Nation Torn Apart Over Slavery

Born 200 years ago, the Swedish soprano embarked on headline-grabbing tour that shared the spotlight with a political maelstrom

Ethan Hawke plays abolitionist John Brown in Showtime's "The Good Lord Bird."

‘The Good Lord Bird’ Paints a Different Portrait of Abolitionist John Brown

In a year of anti-racism protests, the new Showtime series focuses on the polarizing abolitionist who led a raid on Harper’s Ferry

Parliament's halls are lined with art.

How the U.K. Parliament’s Art Collection Is Linked to Slavery

An initial review identified 189 works depicting individuals associated with the slave trade

City officials removed the stone, which commemorates a site where enslavers sold African Americans into slavery, on June 5, 2020.

Fredericksburg’s Slave Auction Block Will Be Moved to a Museum

Curators plan on preserving graffiti added by Black Lives Matter protesters

A page from Pierce's 1932 Book of Wood, designed as an aid for preaching the Bible, features scenes titled Entry into Jerusalem, Zacchaeus Watches, Sun and Sower, Behold I Am the Door, and Christ Teaches Humility.

Wood Carvings Document Faith, Injustice and Hope in 20th-Century America

A new exhibition centered on self-taught black artist Elijah Pierce is now on view in Philadelphia

A diver off the coast of Sisal, Mexico, investigates the wreck of La Unión in 2017.

Researchers Identify Mexican Wreck as 19th-Century Maya Slave Ship

Spanish traders used the steamboat to transport enslaved Indigenous individuals to Cuba

A man in California found the logbook in his closet and reached out to a student at Georgetown University to facilitate the donation.

A Newly Digitized Logbook Documents Life and Death on a Slave Trading Ship

The “Mary” departed Africa in mid-June 1796 with 142 enslaved men, women and children on board

When Alexander von Humboldt (right) traveled to England in 1790, he met a young chemist named James Smithson, the founder of the Smithsonian. Humboldt's influence still resonates throughout the massive museum and research complex.

Alexander von Humboldt

How the Revolutionary Thinker Alexander von Humboldt Helped to Create the Smithsonian

The 19th-century polymath continues to influence the Institution’s research; a major Smithsonian exhibition explains how and why

The Golden Coach, as seen during Budget Day celebrations in 2011

Why Is the Dutch Royal Family’s Golden Carriage So Controversial?

Critics say the coach, which is set to go on view at a museum next June, features racist, colonialist imagery

Denzel Washington won an Oscar for his role as one of the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts.

Based on a True Story

Why ‘Glory’ Still Resonates More Than Three Decades Later

Newly added to Netflix, the Civil War movie reminds the nation that black Americans fought for their own emancipation

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