Alabama Department of Archives and History
Adah: Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: Slavery Unit
A website with lesson plans for various grade levels on slavery, using primary sources.
The Henry Ford
Living Under Enslavement: African Americans on Hermitage Plantation
This virtual tour of the slave quarters of the Hermitage Plantation tells of the family life of slaves, their skills, and their resistance to the institution of slavery.
PBS
Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Growth of Slavery in North America
Discusses the economics of slavery in South Carolina and its importance to the profitable growing of rice. It continues with ways the slaves were controlled and punished in South Carolina and Georgia. Click on Teacher's Guide for teacher...
University of Virginia
American Historical Review: The Differences Slavery Made
An in-depth scholarly investigation on the differences slavery made in the shaping of societies in the North and South by using two similar communities, one north and one south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Other
Antebellum Slavery: Non Plantation Slavery
Resource provides information on slave life outside of the traditional plantation life, and discusses slave labor and their occupations.
Have Fun With History
Have Fun With History: Slavery in America
Learning module includes multi-media reasources and links for students and teachers learning about slavery in America. Includes several videos on various historical topics on slavery.
Library of Congress
Loc: Learning Page: Pre Civil War African American Slavery
Get an overview of slavery in the South, but also see physical evidence in photographs and historical narratives from slaves of the time.
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Life of a Slave on a Southern Plantation" by Bird Brain History
A learning module that begins with "Life of a Slave on A Southern Plantation" by BirdBrain History, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned...
PBS
Pbs: Africans in America: Part 1: The Growth of Slavery in North America
Focuses on slavery in North America, the worry about uprisings, and slavery's economic impact. Links to related information.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: Life of Plantation Field Hands, 1857
Fordham University provides this account of U.S. slavery that was written by a British writer who toured the American South in 1857. It makes interesting comparisons of house servants, field hands, and small farmers' slaves.
Open Library of the Internet Archive
Open Library: Plantation Stories of Old Louisiana
This ebook version of Andrews Wilkinson's children's book entitled Plantation Stories Of Old Louisiana has been made available in multiple formats by the Open Library. Editions of the full novel, organized by year of publication, may be...
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery's Evolution
From the 1740s until 1860 there were great changes in the slavery system, slave culture, and where slaves lived. Read about these changes and the beginnings of anti-slavery ideas.
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 History
Digital History: Responses to Slavery: Spirituals and Stories [Pdf]
Find the lyrics to spirituals slaves sang that gave a glimpse into their lives and gave them hope for freedom. In addition, read some of the stories slaves told that showed how they offered passive resistance to their plight of slavery....
Henry J. Sage
Sage American History: Life on the Plantation in the Ante Bellum South
Article provides an in-depth look at the cruel institution of slavery. The author confronts the mythology of slave life and attempts to find some truth while offering readers a glimpse of slave plantation life in the Ante-Bellum South.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & the Making of America
Using primary documents, oral histories, and other historical resources, discover how the arts of Africa, Europe, and pre-Civil War America influenced the culture of enslaved African Americans.
Other
Mo Ad: Slavery Narratives
A collection of narratives taken from autobiographies, letters and diaries of slaves. Read the text or listen to the haunting stories.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Slavery in America
Discusses the growth of the slave trade to America, the experiences of slaves, the difference between indentured service and slavery, and how slaves were bought and sold at auction. Describes the lives of slaves, their homes, the...
Duke University
Plantation America: The Work of Slaves
On this webpage, the primary text contains selected entries from letters and journals. It also describes slaves delivering rice to Savannah, slave numbers, their condition on a plantation, how slaves were used, and a map and a drawing of...
Scholastic
Scholastic: The Underground Railroad: Escape From Slavery
In this interactive unit students travel back to 1860 to follow a young slave as he flees a Kentucky plantation for Canada along the Underground Railroad. The interactive slideshow lets students read a short article at each stop. They...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & Making of America: The Slave Experience: Men, Women & Gender
Learn about issues related to slave gender roles at this PBS series site that features illustrations and documents dating back to the Colonial, Antebellum, and Reconstruction periods in American history.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Plantation, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
Numerous photographs of a Virginia plantation (taken in 1960), an autobiographical account of life on a Mississippi plantation from the nineteenth century, and an interview with a former slave about a Louisiana plantation recorded in 1937.
Digital History
Digital History: What Was Life Like Under Slavery?
A sobering look at the life of the plantation slave in the decades before the Civil War. Read about the malnutrition, severe treatment, and inadequate living conditions.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Plantation Community, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
Various retrospective oral accounts from the early-twentieth century and two narratives from the mid-nineteenth century that examine the work, interrelationships, dangers, and lives of slaves on southern plantations.