freedom suits — Bunk History

"Slave Market of America," a broadside published by the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Deep Zoom: 1836 Broadside “Slave Market of America”

Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society, this single 77 by 55 centimeter sheet tells multiple stories in both text and illustration.

by William G. Thomas III, Teresa A. Goddu, Dorothy Berry via JSTOR Daily on April 29, 2022

Finger pointing to a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of Sojourner Truth

State Archives Find Sojourner Truth’s Historic Court Case

A document thought lost to history shows how Sojourner Truth became the first Black woman to successfully sue white men to get her son released from slavery.

by Kenneth C. Crowe II via Times Union on February 1, 2022

In 1870, Henrietta Wood Sued for Reparations—and Won

The $2,500 verdict, the largest ever of its kind, offers evidence of the generational impact such awards can have

by W. Caleb McDaniel via Smithsonian on September 2, 2019

Indigenous people brought to Spain by Hernán Cortés play the game patolli.

The Indigenous Americans Who Visited Europe

A new book reverses the narrative of the Age of Discovery, which has long evoked the ambitions of Europeans looking to the Americas rather than vice versa.

by Karin Wulf via Smithsonian on January 26, 2023

Bernard Lynch's slave pen in St. Louis, with many potential buyers standing outside.

The Remarkable Story of Mattie J. Jackson

Her narrative documents the very real dangers enslaved runaways experienced while traveling through so-called "free states" of the North.

by Nick Sacco via Muster on March 29, 2022

Artistic photo of John Marshall

America’s ‘Great Chief Justice’ Was an Unrepentant Slaveholder

John Marshall not only owned people; he owned many of them, and aggressively bought them when he could.

by Paul Finkelman via The Atlantic on June 15, 2021

Anna Williams

A Slave Who Sued for Her Freedom

An enslaved woman who jumped from a building in 1815 is later revealed to be the plaintiff in a successful lawsuit for her freedom.

by Michael Burton, Kwakiutl Dreher, William G. Thomas III via The Atlantic on May 1, 2018

Elizabeth Freeman.

How Two Massachusetts Slaves Won Their Freedom — And Then Abolished Slavery

What today's activists can learn from their victories.

by Ben Railton via Made by History on July 3, 2017

The African-American Midwest

The Midwest's long history as an epicenter in the fight for racial justice is one of the nation's most amazing, important, yet overlooked stories.

via African American Midwest on January 29, 2021

Drawing of headshots of Dred Scott and Harriet Robinson

"Where Two Waters Come Together"

The confluence of Black and Indigenous history at Bdote.

by Katrina Phillips via National Museum of American History on August 26, 2020

A man walking by graffiti on a white wall that reads "Why do we have to keep telling you black lives matter?"

What the Protesters Tagging Historic Sites Get Right About the Past

Places of memory up and down the East Coast also witnessed acts of resistance and oppression.

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via Smithsonian on June 26, 2020

On Richard Blackett’s "The Captive Quest for Freedom"

Five historians weigh in on a new book about the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

by Martha S. Jones, Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, Elizabeth R. Varon, H. Robert Baker, Hannah-Rose Murray, Simon Newman via Historians Against Slavery on August 2, 2018

The Court’s Supreme Injustice

How John Marshall, Joseph Story, and Roger Taney strengthened the institution of slavery and embedded in the law a systemic hostility to fundamental freedom and basic justice.

by Allen Mendenhall via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 24, 2018

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