Frederick Douglass

One of the country’s greatest rhetorical traditions still has the power to remind us of our founding principles.

What 220 years of Haitian independence means for how we tell the story of abolition and the development of human rights around the world.

A discussion on the difficulty of keeping faith in a foundationally anti-Black republic.

John Brown and the Secret Six—the abolitionists who funded the raid on Harpers Ferry—confronted a question as old as America: When is violence justified?

On the trail of whales, Melville, and Douglass in New Bedford.

During the Jim Crow era, working-class Washingtonians' recreation options were far more limited—and dangerous.

This is the story of how a visit by Frederick Douglass to south-central Massachusetts, epitomizes the movement’s ability to spread in the region.

James Oakes’s deeply researched book argues that two very different readings of the 1787 charter put the United States on a course of all but inevitable conflict.

A new book offers the first full-length biography of newspaper editor, labor leader and minister Samuel Ringgold Ward.

The demand of antislavery activists for accused fugitives to be guaranteed a jury trial was an implicit recognition of Black citizenship.

In the first half of the 19th century, upstate New York was a hotbed of movements for reform. How visible is that history today?

Smith's influence on American politics, and the misunderstanding at the heart of our idea of the "champion of capitalism."

In the mid-19th century, a pro-slavery minority used violence to stifle a growing anti-slavery majority, spurring their opposition to respond in kind.

The bank’s history highlights flaws in using public-private partnerships to address racial inequality.

A new book explores Abraham Lincoln's interactions with African Americans during his presidency.

From MLK to Obama, advancers for civil rights were driven by their fatherhood and dreams of better life for their own children.

Richard Cándida Smith on Ian Tyrrell’s "American Exceptionalism: A New History of an Old Idea."

Lin­coln’s interactions with black Americans provides a valuable resource for understanding a more farseeing Lincoln than the voices of despair have described.

Will the Black body ever have the opportunity to rest in peace?

Time capsules unearthed at affordable housing sites offer alternative, lost, and otherwise obscured histories.