Frederick Douglass

King offered Americans the choice between acting in accordance with the Constitution and resistance to change.  In many ways, we face the same choice today.

On the complex relationship between Black Americans and the Black church.

The real history of Juneteenth is much messier—and more inspiring.

David Hackett Fischer's book "African Founders" should be the starting point for any reflection on the enduring African ­influence on American national ideals.

Archival records of Black southerners' military desertion tribunals can be read as a distinct form of political action.

Instead of using the Underground Railroad as a route north, thousands of enslaved Black people fled to communities in the South.

A new book argues that the American right emerged out of a backlash to multiracial democracy following the Civil War.

The bonfire was a public spectacle for Black people, as well as any white dissenters. It was a calculated warning.

The author of a book about William Still unearths new details about the leading Black abolitionist—and reflects on his lost legacy.

Enslaved women’s experiences with war must be extended to include the everyday warfare of slavery.

The senator from Massachusetts and the birth of the Republican Party.

The famous historian makes the claim that the demigods of American historical mythology can help us carve paths through our forbidding 21st-century wilderness.

Tying the fight for equal rights to the founders and the Constitution has worked before.

Ken Burns’ account of prohibition tells a popular story of booze in America. The historical record is far more sobering.

Clashes between sovereignty rights and civil rights reveal an uncomfortable and complicated story about race and belonging in America.

The leader of a would-be South Carolina slave rebellion was hanged 200 years ago. A new account is a must-read.

Freedom and prosperity are the most effective cure for the scars of slavery and racism.

The pro-life movement needs to know that such culture wars result not in outright victory for one side but in reaction and compromise.

Looking back at the short but deep friendship of John Brown and Harriet Tubman, who gave their lives to the abolitionist cause.

A haunting exploration of “My Old Kentucky Home” reveals how a minstrel song rooted in slavery became a nostalgic American icon embedded in consumer culture.