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Slavery

A slave fortress in Cape Coast, Ghana

A Digital Archive of Slave Voyages Details the Largest Forced Migration in History

An online database explores the nearly 36,000 slave voyages that occurred between 1514 and 1866

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What’s the Difference Between Horns and Antlers and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Billie Holiday sung 'Strange Fruit' throughout her career after first performing the song in 1939.

Billie Holiday’s Label Wouldn’t Touch ‘Strange Fruit’

The emotive song about lynching in the American South is both a classic and a warning

This illustration, depicting Uncle Tom's Cabin antagonist Simon Legree looming over, and perhaps preparing to beat, Tom, appeared in the 1853 edition of the book. Pro-slavery Southerners argued that the book misrepresented slavery by cherry-picking the worst examples.

White Southerners Said “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Was Fake News

So its author published a “key” to what’s true in the novel

No images of Casor survive to the present day. Tobacco fields like this one, however, would have been what he saw daily.

The Horrible Fate of John Casor, The First Black Man to be Declared Slave for Life in America

Black people in early America weren’t slaves. After this lawsuit, they could be

Over 400 men, women and children were sold on this day in 1859. It was the largest single sale of enslaved people in U.S. history but is barely talked about today.

The Horrors of the ‘Great Slave Auction’

The largest sale of enslaved people ever to take place in the U.S. tore families apart

An 1851 map of the United States shows Texas and the New Mexico, Utah and Indian Territories.

History of Now

For More Than 150 Years, Texas Has Had the Power to Secede…From Itself

A quirk of a 19th-century Congressional resolution could allow Texas to split up into five states

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Why Is Pennsylvania Ave D.C.’s Main Thoroughfare and More Questions From Our Readers

Your questions answered by our experts

Previously unrecorded portrait of Harriet Tubman

Cool Finds

Newly Discovered Photo May Depict a Younger Harriet Tubman

The late 1860s carte-de-visite comes from fellow abolitionist Emily Howland’s album

When Charles Sumner spoke out against slavery in 1856, he incurred the violent wrath of congressman Preston Brooks.

History of Now

In the Congressional Fight Over Slavery, Decorum Went Out the Door

Amid today’s dissent over proper Senate behavior, take a look back at when an assault in the Senate divided the nation

The gravestone of a former slave

Found in the Remains of a Former Gilded Age Mansion, an Ancient Roman Artifact Reveals Its Secrets

Bridging three periods of income inequality, the gravestone of a former slave finds a new home

Harriet Tubman in 1911. The later years of her life are being preserved at a new national historical park that bears her name.

Women Who Shaped History

Harriet Tubman Is Getting Her Own National Historical Park

The park will tell the story of Tubman’s later years

Mount McKinley

Visit These Ten Sites Celebrating Major Anniversaries in 2017

From Jane Austen’s 200th anniversary to the founding of Denali National Park, there are plenty of events to fill your calendar

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Why Were Electric Cars Once Advertised as ‘Ladies’ Cars’?

Your questions answered by our experts

The Tocsin of liberty: rung by the state house bell, (Independence Hall;) Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776

After Nearly 500 Years in Business, the Company that Cast the Liberty Bell Is Ceasing All Operations

London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry will fall silent soon, but will forever be tied to an icon of American history

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Where Did Harriet Tubman Escape to and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

A statue of the former slave Clara Brown, who was born into slavery in 1800. She married and had four children, but the family was broken up and sold at auction.

Breaking Ground

In “Defending Freedom,” the Vanguards Who Refused to Be Suppressed Are Reunited

At the African American History Museum, this exhibition graphically conveys the trials and triumphs in the battle for Civil Rights

Confederate Memorial Day exercises at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia.

Trending Today

A Controversial Museum Tries to Revive the Myth of the Confederacy’s “Lost Cause”

The ideology has been used to whitewash slavery’s role in the Civil War for generations

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

A Brief History of the Rumba

Born out of slavery in 19th-century Cuba, the lively music and dance form takes many shapes

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Cuba

Memories of a Runaway Cuban Slave

A former sugar plantation slave recalls fleeing to a cave in the woods and the new dangers that awaited him there

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