National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Buying Freedom, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
Narratives from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries depicting the struggle by blacks to purchase their own freedom and the impediments they faced.
Digital History
Digital History: Photograph Album With Cyanotypes
Read a brief Digital History description of the Calhoun Industrial School in Alabama, a school in the 19th century that provided industrial education to freed slaves and others. Following the description is an impressive collection of...
Danuta Bois
Distinguished Women of Past and Present: Bridget "Biddy" Mason
Read the biography of Biddy Mason (1818-1891 CE), a tremendously hard worker who fought to gain her freedom from slavery and eventually became the first black woman to own land in Los Angeles.
Digital History
Digital History: The Problem of Reconstruction [Pdf]
How does a country put itself back together after a civil war? Read about the problems with the destruction of the Southern economy and land, the recognition of former slaves as freedmen, and the ways to bring the Southern states back...
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Medieval Sourcebook: Race and Slavery in the Middle East
This site from the Modern History Sourcebook of Fordham University provides a thorough discussion of the existence of slavery in early times giving the types of people who were taken as slaves and the work they performed. There were also...
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Reconstruction in Georgia
After the Civil War ended, Georgia was in a state of chaos. Learn all about the Reconstruction in Georgia from 1865-1871 and how it changed the state politically, socially, and economically.
Then Again
Then Again: Web Chron: Liberia Is Founded by Freed Slaves
Read how the nation of Liberia was founded by freed slaves as a result of the end of the transatlantic slave trade and the efforts of the American Colonization Society (ACS).
PBS
Africans in America: Lucy Terry Prince: Freed Slave and Poet
This website describes the life of Lucy Terry Prince, first female African American poet. She obtained her freedom by marrying a wealthy free black man who purchased her freedom.
PBS
Pbs Africans in America: Venture Smith
This website briefly describes the life of a captured slave, Venture Smith. He is a legend for his size and his feat of buying his and his family's freedom.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Slavery
See how the conflicting ideas of land ownership and person ownership flew in the face of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the ideals of the Revolutionary War.
US National Archives
Docsteach: How Effective Were the Efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau?
In this activity, students will analyze documents from the War Department's Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands - better known as the Freedmen's Bureau - that Congress established on March 3, 1865, as the Civil War was...
Other
Wither Liberia? Civil War Emancipation and Freedmen Resettlement in West Africa
An informative article on efforts during Abraham Lincoln's administration to resettle freedmen to West Africa. (Published: 11/11/2012)
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: Independence for Liberia
The story of how Joseph Jenkins Roberts, an African American from Virginia, developed Liberia into an independent country.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: 14th Amendment to the Constitution
After the Civil War, the 14th amendment granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States. This included former slaves. Learn about the protections this amendment offers to citizens, including those who were once...
University of Virginia
Electronic Text Center: Liberian Letters
A collection of letters from former Virginia slaves who emigrated to Liberia.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: Juneteenth Celebration
This resource is a brief article about Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, which celebrates the day when Union soldiers arrived in Texas and spread the word that slaves were free.
Other
History's Women: Sojourner Truth, Abolitionist Suffragist
This site provides a biography of African American Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in upstate New York.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: 300 Women Who Changed History: Sojourner Truth
Encyclopedia Britannica provides a biography of Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), a woman whose "Visions," led her on a crusade to preach of God's goodness, of the abolitionist movement, and of the women's rights movement.
Black Past
Black Past: Davis Bend, Mississippi
This is an encyclopedia article which tells about an attempt to form an all black cooperative town in Mississippi after the Civil War.
Georgetown University
Georgetown: Georgetown Slavery Archive Slavery in the Maryland Province
This is a collection of documents related to slavery in the Maryland Province.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: The Freedmen's Bureau
This collection of documents, images, and readings from the era give an overview of the work done by the Freedmen's Bureau and the racial and political struggles the agency faced during the Reconstruction Era. Includes a teaching guide.
This Nation
This nation.com: "Emancipation Proclamation" Abraham Lincoln
This Nation site provides the full text of President Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" which freed slaves.
Chicago History Museum
Encyclopedia of Chicago: Certificates of Freedom 1844
View authentic certificates of freedom for John and Mary Jones issued in 1844.
University of Iowa
University of Iowa: Arts and Life in Africa: Sierra Leone
A record of statistics concerning modern day Sierra Leone, up to 1998. Scroll down to history section to see a brief, but informative description of pre-colonial and post-colonial history for Sierra Leone.