Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 31–60 of 465 results. Go to first page

The "Quaker Comet" Was the Greatest Abolitionist You've Never Heard Of

Overlooked by historians, Benjamin Lay was one of the nation's first radicals to argue for an end to slavery.

The Making of an Antislavery President

Fred Kaplan's new book asks why it took Abraham Lincoln so long to embrace emancipation.

Who Freed the Slaves?

For some time now, the answer has not been the abolitionists.

What Gun Control Advocates Can Learn From Abolitionists

Slave ownership was once as entrenched in American life as gun ownership.

The Truth About Abolition

The movement finally gets the big, bold history it deserves.
Frederick Douglass.
partner

"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech is widely known as one of the greatest abolitionist speeches ever.
Illustration of a proslavery mob raiding a post office in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1835.
partner

How Much Is Too Much?

The dramatic story of the abolitionist mail crisis of 1835.
John Brown

Three Interviews With Old John Brown

Atlantic writer William Phillips conducted three interviews with Brown before Brown's fateful raid on Harper's Ferry.
A mural depicting John Brown amid Bleeding Kansas.

John Brown, Christian Nationalist

To understand discourse around “Christian nationalism,” look no further than the abolitionist hailed by many on the left.
Church with graveyard.

Divided Providence

Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War.

The Second Abolition

Robin Blackburn’s sweeping history of slavery and freedom in the 19th century.
John Quincy Adams posing for a photograph.

Now Is Not the Time for Moral Flexibility: The Example of John Quincy Adams

We must stand by the principles of the open society, pluralism, freedom, and mutual toleration.
"The Underground Railroad" (1893) by Charles T. Webber depicts a fugitive slave reaching the North.

The Abolitionist Titan You’ve Never Heard Of

John Rankin, minister and fierce abolitionist, is a man worth remembering in our moment.
A World History Encloypedia graphic image/illustration of The Feudal Society in Medieval Europe.

American Feudalism

A liberalism that divides humanity into a master class and a slave class deserves an asterisk as “white liberalism.”
Illustration imagining Karl Marx sitting on a ranch in Texas.

Marx Goes to Texas

Drawn to communities of German socialist expatriates in the area, Marx once considered making his way to Texas.
Sheet music depicting a fugitive slave.

Against the Slave Power: the Fugitive Liberalism of Frederick Douglass

Douglass elaborated a political theory attuned to the differential character of law as it applied to slaves and other outlaws.
In this drawing from ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ a Black child is taken from his mother by a white man.

The Black Fugitive Who Inspired ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and the End of US Slavery

Born enslaved, John Andrew Jackson spent his life fighting for freedom as a fugitive, abolitionist, lecturer and writer.
Book cover of "The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920."

Expanding the Boundaries of Reconstruction: Abolitionist Democracy from 1865-1919

Sinha enlarges the temporal boundaries students are accustomed to by covering the end of the 19th century into the Progressive era with the 19th Amendment.
Portrait of Harriet Tubman, in a field.

There Is Room for Our Black Heroes To Be Human

“Night Flyer” expands Harriet Tubman’s legacy to include her family, community and “eco-spiritual worldview.”
Harriet Tubman.

The Radical Faith of Harriet Tubman

A new book conveys in dramatic detail what America’s Moses did to help abolish slavery. Another addresses the love of God and country that helped her do so.
Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1857.

The Essential Emerson

The latest biography of the great transcendentalist captures the paradoxes of his Yankee mind.
Frederick Douglas.

What Frederick Douglass Learned from an Irish Antislavery Activist

Frederick Douglass was introduced to the idea of universal human rights after traveling to Ireland and meeting with Irish nationalist leaders.
An 1863 illustration from “Le Monde illustré” of formerly enslaved people celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation.

What If Reconstruction Didn’t End Till 1920?

Historian Manisha Sinha argues that the Second Republic lasted decades longer than most histories state and achieved wider gains.
Frozen truck on icy road

The Frozen Trucker and the Fugitive Slave

On the TransAm Trucking case, legal reasoning, and the Fugitive Slave Act.
A Ride for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves by Eastman Johnson.

Unapologetically Free: A Personal Declaration of Independence From the Formerly Enslaved

Abolitionist and writer John Swanson Jacobs on reclaiming liberty in a land of unfreedom.
A print titled "Heroes of the Colored Race," centered on portraits of Blanche Bruce, Frederick Douglas, and Hiram Revels.

Slavery, Capitalism, and the Politics of Abolition

"The Reckoning," Robin Blackburn’s monumental history, offers a dizzying account of the politics behind slavery's rise and fall.
A drawing of a Wide Awake march.

These Torchlit Young Marchers Helped to Save American Democracy

They called themselves the Wide Awakes. They are a lesson in building a political movement.
Boiling House at the Sugar Plantation Asunción, Cuba, 1857.

Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism

Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World.
Abraham Lincoln campaigning with the Wide Awakes.

The Club of Cape-Wearing Activists Who Helped Elect Lincoln—and Spark the Civil War

The untold story of the Wide Awakes, the young Americans who took up the torch for their antislavery cause and stirred the nation.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Glad to the Brink of Fear

A new biography reveals how Ralph Waldo Emerson gave Americans a vocabulary to understand themselves in an era even more tempestuous than our own.

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person