National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Freedom, Making of African American Identity: V. 1, 1500 1865
Twenty nine primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the qualities and conditions of African lives on the west coast before and during the European slave trade.
Henry J. Sage
Sage American History: Colonial Life: Faith, Family, Work
Article illustrating colonial life in North America. The author discusses religion and religious movements, women and the colonial family, and work, including slavery, during the 17th and 18th Century. Photographs and links to primary...
Brown University
Brown University Library: Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally: 1764 65
Providence, Rhode Island's Nicholas Brown and Company owned a slave ship, Sally. Sally is documented for many trips to Africa to pick up slaves. The slaves would be delivered to Caribbean Islands in exchange for sugar and molasses to...
Other
Historical Scene Investigation: Hsi: Antonio a Slave
Activity in which students play the role of detective and follow the life story of a slave to investigate changing slave laws and conditions in the 1600s. Through their investigation, students read and analyze the evidence in the form of...
Other
Historical Scene Investigation: Finding Aaron
An interactive website for students to locate a particular slave. Documents and questions enable the students to determine a conclusion.
Virginia Tech
Digital History Reader: Unthinking Decision: Slavery in Virginia
Why did slavery evolve in Virginia? Examine this module to understand the context of the times, review resources identifying racial attitudes, economy, and public safety, consider thought-provoking questions, and follow up with further...
New York Times
New York Times: Insurance Policies on Slaves
[Free Registration/Login Required] Read this intriguing article about the newly unearthed insurance policies that were sold to plantation owners to insure their slaves. This is a superb example of how the U.S. viewed slaves as a...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial African Americans
This site examines the lives of African-Americans during colonial times in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Content provides background information, journal articles, diary entries, biography fact sheets, and more.
Other
Slave Images: Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas
This site has thousand of photos, drawings, and prints dealing with slavery, most of them dating from the period of Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas.
PBS
Pbs: Africans in America
PBS offers a four-part series on the plight of African Americans from slave days to the end of the Civil War. Resources such as interactive maps, a Resource Bank, and Teacher's Guide are available.
Brown University
John Carter Brown Library: Slavery and Justice
Brown University boasts ownership of one of the greatest collections of early Americana in the world. In 2007 the university's John Carter Brown Library introduced a thorough exhibit after the publication of "Report of the Brown...
The Newberry Library
Newberry: Olaudah Equiano: Eighteenth Century Debate Over Africa Slave Trade
Learning module uses 18th Century literature as primary source material to examine the debate over slavery and the role Olaudah Equiano played in the conversation.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Themepark: Liberty: Slavery in America
Find a large collection of internet resources organized around slavery in America. Links to places to go, people to see, things to do, teacher resources, and bibliographies.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Slave Trade, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A West African map and three accounts of the development of slave acquisition display the process and the brutality of the Atlantic slave trade.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Africans I, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Four accounts of the complex power relationships between slaves and slave holders within English colonies in Barbados, Virginia and Pennsylvania, as well as documents about slave revolts and anti-slavery agitation.
Digital History
Digital History: The Origins of New World Slavery
Read about the initial slow introduction of slave labor into the colonies, which accelerated because of the slaves' knowledge of growing crops, and the decline in the institution of indentured servitude.
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery in Colonial America
A very interesting look at slaves and free blacks in colonial America, especially in the South, up to about 1660. See how the concept of slavery and the use of slaves was fluid until that time.
Digital History
Digital History: The Diversity of Colonial Slavery
Read about the three distinct systems of slavery that developed in the colonies based primarily on the crops that were grown in each region. See how the system affected the way the culture of slaves grew out of the region.
Digital History
Digital History: Slave Revolts
Read about the arson conspiracy trials in New York in which slaves were accused of conspiring to burn down the city. Information is included about other slave revolts over the decades.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Slavery and the American Founding
In this lesson plan, students will consider "Slavery and the American Founding: The "Inconsistency not to be excused"." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.
PBS
Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: Teacher's Guide
Go directly to the teacher's guide developed to supplement the PBS documentary "Africans in America," which chronicles the history of slavery in the United States. Find lessons, many of which provide links to related primary sources,...
PBS
Africans in America: Africans in Court (In Colonial Virginia)
In this section of the PBS series, Africans in America, you can find four case summaries decided by colonial Virginia's courts concerning slaves petitioning for freedom.
PBS
Africans in America: Equiano's Autobiography
From a larger site from PBS' Africans in America, blurb about Olaudah Equiano and his autobiography with a link to text of this historical document.
PBS
Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion and its impact is described in this informative essay. Hyperlinks to more discussion of this event. Teacher's Guide offers teacher resources.