The Newberry Library
Newberry Library: Slavery, Civil War, and the "New Birth of Freedom"
Newberry Library presents primary source materials from which students learn about the arguments made for abolition before the Civil War, how the appeals against slavery were framed, and what freedom would mean for the South and the...
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Emancipation
Although the British Parliament passed the Abolition of Slavery Act in August 1833, the trade continued, and for many years there were exceptions to abolition. Learn how the British government attempted to prevent the slave trade from...
British Library
British Library: Discovering Literature: Voices in the Campaign for Abolition
From the mid 18th century, Africans and people of African descent - many of them former slaves - began to write down their stories. This article describes these writings and assesses their role in the abolition of slavery.
Harp Week
The End of Slavery: The Creation of the 13th Amendment
What a wonderful resource for researching the attempts to solve the issue of slavery prior to the Civil War, and the eventual ratification of the 13th Amendment. Find a timeline of legislation limiting the spread of slavery from 1787...
Other
Dbq Theme: Slavery in the United States [Pdf]
A Grade 8 writing assignment on slavery. Students examine nine different primary source documents and answer questions about each. After completion, they would be asked to write an essay. This task uses the method called DBQ or...
US National Archives
Nara: Treasures of Congress: Struggles Over Slavery the "Gag" Rule
This National Archives and Records Administration site contains John Quincy Adams' response to the "gag" rule in the House of Representatives, May 25, 1836, which restricted discussion about slavery in Congress . Also included are images...
Lumen Learning
Lumen: American Literature: Resistance and Abolition
This article focuses on the resistance and abolition of slavery in the United States. It discusses the ways in which the slaves resisted slavery and the role abolitionists played.
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Constitution: Thirteenth Amendment
This source provides the Thirteenth Amendment as it is worded in the U.S. Constitution. At the bottom of the page are annotations with links to information about the abolition of slavery, origin and purpose of the amendment, peonage, and...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: America in Class: A Pro Slavery Argument, 1857
A lesson that explores the argumments made by pro-slavery proponents in the United States prior to abolition.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Emancipation: Abolition
Speeches, songs, letters, and pamphlets from the early- and mid-nineteenth century promoting the abolition of slavery and emancipation of enslaved peoples are provided within this resource.
Read Works
Read Works: Lincoln and the 13th Amendment to End Slavery
[Free Registration/Login Required] This ReadWorks passage provides a brief history of the official end to slavery in America, the 13th Amendment. A paired passage is part of this module, along with a lower level passage with related...
BBC
Bbc History: British History: Empire: British Anti Slavery
A five-part article describing the British antislave trade movement. All major figures in the abolition movement discussed. Archived.
Columbia University
Columbia University:columbia University & Slavery 6.columbians & the Manumission
This website was created by faculty, students, and staff to publicly present information about Columbia's historical connections to the institution of slavery. This article explains the role Columbian's played in the Manumission Society...
Library of Congress
Loc: Abolition
This site, which is provided for by the Library of Congress, is part of the African American Mosaic. It describes abolition and gives references to books about the topic.
Other
The Amistad Committee: Yale, Slavery & Abolition
This essay explores Yale University's relationship to slavery. It seeks to answer questions such as why did Yale name most of its colleges after slave owners and pro-slavery leaders? Included is a downloadable PDF, timeline, map of Yale,...
Cornell University
Cornell University: Library: Samuel May Anti Slavery Collection
An extensive online digital collection of the pamphlets and leaflets that document the anti-slavery struggle at the local, regional, and national levels.
Choices Program, Brown University
Choices: A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England
Unit explores, through a series of videos from notable scholars, the effects of the trade in slaves and of slavery itself on the new Americans of the time and helps students to understand how history, and the telling of history, affects...
Other
Abolitionists, Free Blacks, and Runaway Slaves: Surviving Slavery in Maryland
Read about the groups of people who lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the mid-1800s and fought against slavery: the Quakers, former slaves, and fugitive slaves. This article describes the efforts of both whites and blacks, who...
Other
19th C. u.s. Women's Writings: Lydia Maria Child's "Slavery's Pleasant Homes"
Text of several of Lydia Child's writings that supported her abolitionist sentiments.
US Senate
Historical Minutes: Gag Rule: March 16, 1836
A look at how the Senate in 1836 imposed a gag rule on petitions that advocated the abolition of slavery. Information is from "Arguing about Slavery" by William Lee Miller.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Sierra Leone, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
An eighteenth-century map, several illustrations by Europeans of Africans from Sierra Leone, and two eighteenth-century narratives depicting Sierra Leone natives through the eyes of two British physicians who describe the peoples they...
Other
Basd: Reconstruction [Pdf]
A very clear document outlining the various reconstruction plans, the problems for both whites and blacks during Reconstruction, and the amendments added concerning the abolition of slavery, civil rights, and suffrage. Requires Adobe...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Harriet Tubman: Abolition Activist
In this lesson, by examining two primary sources and watching a short video, students will become familiar with the remarkable bravery and extraordinary accomplishments of the "Moses of her people," Harriet Tubman.
British Library
British Library: Discovering Literature: Abolition of the Slave Trade and Slavery in Britain
Towards the end of the 18th century, a movement emerged calling for an end to the slave trade and, later, slavery itself. This article traces the road to abolition from the 1780s to the 1830s, highlighting the impacts of grass-root...