Dec. 26, 1862: Mass Execution of Dakota Indians
The mass execution of 38 Dakota Indians was ordered by President Abraham Lincoln.
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Period: 1850
Civil War Era: 1850 – 1864
Dec. 1850: Harriet Tubman Engineered First Rescue Mission
Abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Tubman, perhaps the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, engineered her first rescue mission in December 1850.
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Dec 31, 1862: Watch Meetings for Emancipation Proclamation
African Americans across the United States, free and enslaved, in the North and South, held watch meetings for the abolition of slavery.
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Jan. 26, 1863: Black Troops Recruited for the Union Army
The U.S. War Department authorized the governor of Massachusetts to recruit Black troops to the Union Army in the Civil War.
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Jan. 30, 1884: Couple Reunited During Reconstruction
During the Reconstruction Era, people emancipated from slavery searched for their loved ones throughout the United States and Canada. They often used "last seen" ads. This is one case of successful reunification.
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Midnight Teacher: Lilly Ann Granderson and Her Secret School
Picture book. By Janet Halfmann. Illustrated by London Ladd. 2018. 40 pages.
Tells the story of Lilly Ann Granderson, an enslaved woman who taught hundreds of people in Kentucky and Mississippi to read.
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Tells the story of Lilly Ann Granderson, an enslaved woman who taught hundreds of people in Kentucky and Mississippi to read.
Freedom on the Move: Rediscovering the Stories of Self-Liberating People
Digital collection. Crowdsourcing project that provides access to information, through thousands of print advertisements, about freedom-seekers and their would-be enslavers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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April 12, 1864: Union Soldiers Massacred at Fort Pillow
Confederate troops massacred over 500 surrendering Union soldiers, majority African American, at the Civil War Battle of Fort Pillow.
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April 16, 1862: Compensated Emancipation Act
The federal government compensated the “owners” of enslaved people for their “loss of property.” The people whose labor and families were stolen for generations were not compensated nor given any assistance for the transition to freedom.
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April 27, 1860: Harriet Tubman Helped Rescue Charles Nalle
Harriet Tubman helped rescue Charles Nalle, a fugitive from slavery in Virginia, in Troy, New York.
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Glory
Film. Directed by Edward Zwick. 1989. 122 minutes.
The all-Black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment is brought to the screen in this star-studded Civil War film.
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The all-Black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment is brought to the screen in this star-studded Civil War film.
Biddy Mason Speaks Up
Book — Non-fiction. By Arisa White and Laura Atkins. 2019. 112 pages.
An illustrated children's book tells the story of real-life champion for civil rights Bridget "Biddy" Mason.
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An illustrated children's book tells the story of real-life champion for civil rights Bridget "Biddy" Mason.
She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman
Book — Non-fiction. By Erica Armstrong Dunbar. 2019. 176 pages.
This book blends traditional biography with illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Harriet Tubman.
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This book blends traditional biography with illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Harriet Tubman.
Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American Slave Trade Database
Digital collection.
Through this website, over 130,000 voyages made in the Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trade can be searched, filtered, and sorted by variables including the port of origin, the number of enslaved Africans on board, and the ship's name.
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July 18, 1863: Sgt. William Carney Earns Medal of Honor on Civil War Battlefield
A volunteer infantryman performed an act of courage that was the earliest event to earn an African American soldier the Medal of Honor.
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Echoes of Enslavement
Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
Students discover “echoes of enslavement” in their own state — discrete sites of remembering, forgetting, honoring, lying, or distorting — in this lesson based on the book How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith.
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Students discover “echoes of enslavement” in their own state — discrete sites of remembering, forgetting, honoring, lying, or distorting — in this lesson based on the book How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith.
Reconstructing Race: A Teacher Introduces His Students to the Slippery Concept of Race
Teaching Activity. By Nathanial W. Smith. Rethinking Schools. 6 pages.
A teacher describes a series of lessons he teaches to help his students understand race as a social construct.
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A teacher describes a series of lessons he teaches to help his students understand race as a social construct.
Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History
Teaching Guide. By James W. Loewen. 2010. 264 pages.
A wealth of ideas on how to rethink the teaching of U.S. history.
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A wealth of ideas on how to rethink the teaching of U.S. history.
The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The “Great Truth” about the “Lost Cause”
Book — Non-fiction. Edited by James W. Loewen and Edward H. Sebesta. 2010. 484 pages.
Primary documents on the causes of the Civil War.
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Primary documents on the causes of the Civil War.
Nov. 29, 1864: Sand Creek Massacre
A Colorado Cavalry unit, on orders from Colorado’s governor and ignoring a surrender flag, brutally attacked Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. White abolitionist Silas Soule was assassinated for reporting on the event.
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Black Reconstruction in America
Book — Non-fiction. By W. E. B. Du Bois. Edited by Eric Foner and Henry Louis Gates. 2021. 1097 pages.
Originally published in 1935, Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction was the first book to challenge the prevailing racist historical narrative of the era and in sharp, incisive prose, tell the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction from the perspective of African Americans.
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Originally published in 1935, Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction was the first book to challenge the prevailing racist historical narrative of the era and in sharp, incisive prose, tell the story of the Civil War and Reconstruction from the perspective of African Americans.
Missing from Presidents’ Day: The People They Enslaved
By Clarence Lusane
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Schools across the country are adorned with posters of the U.S. presidents and the years they served in office. U.S. history textbooks describe the accomplishments and challenges of the major presidential administrations — George Washington had the Revolutionary War, Abraham Lincoln the Civil War, Teddy Roosevelt the Spanish-American War, and so on. Children’s books put students on a first-name basis with the presidents, engaging readers with stories of their dogs in the Rose Garden or childhood escapades. Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Institution welcomes visitors to an exhibit of the first ladies’ gowns and White House furnishings.
Nowhere in all this information is there any mention of the fact that more than one in four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery.
Nowhere in all this information is there any mention of the fact that more than one in four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery.
An Earth Day Message: Take Heart from the Abolition Movement
By Bill Bigelow
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Imagine for a moment that it is 1858 and you are an abolitionist. Talk about discouragement: The previous year, in its Dred Scott decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no Black person — whether enslaved or free — was entitled to become a U.S. citizen. A few years before, Congress had passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which vastly expanded the U.S. government’s authority to seize and return to slavery individuals who had fled to freedom — or even those Blacks born free in the North. Many Northern Blacks crossed into Canada rather than live in constant fear.
And abolitionists were waging not just a moral struggle against the enslavement of human beings. Slavery was the largest industry in the United States, worth more than all the factories, banks, and railroads combined. In effect, the abolition movement aimed to expropriate without compensation the wealth of the most powerful social class in the country.
And abolitionists were waging not just a moral struggle against the enslavement of human beings. Slavery was the largest industry in the United States, worth more than all the factories, banks, and railroads combined. In effect, the abolition movement aimed to expropriate without compensation the wealth of the most powerful social class in the country.
Rethinkin’ Lincoln on the 150th Birthday of the Emancipation Proclamation
By Bill Bigelow
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Here’s a history quiz to use with people you run into today: Ask them who ended slavery.
I taught high school U.S. history for almost 30 years, and as we began our study, students knew the obvious answer: Abraham Lincoln. But by the time our study ended, several weeks later, their “Who ended slavery?” essays were more diverse, more complex — and more accurate. In coming months and years, teachers’ jobs will be made harder by Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln, in which Daniel Day-Lewis gives a brilliant performance as, well, Lincoln-the-abolitionist. The only problem is that Lincoln was not an abolitionist.
I taught high school U.S. history for almost 30 years, and as we began our study, students knew the obvious answer: Abraham Lincoln. But by the time our study ended, several weeks later, their “Who ended slavery?” essays were more diverse, more complex — and more accurate. In coming months and years, teachers’ jobs will be made harder by Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln, in which Daniel Day-Lewis gives a brilliant performance as, well, Lincoln-the-abolitionist. The only problem is that Lincoln was not an abolitionist.
‘Repeat After Me: The United States Is Not an Imperialist Country — Oh, and Don’t Get Emotional About War’
By Bill Bigelow
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You may have seen that an administrative law judge in Arizona, Lewis Kowal, just upheld the decree by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction that Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program violates state law. Judge Kowal found that the Tucson program was teaching Latino history and culture “in a biased, political, and emotionally charged manner.” According to CNN, one lesson that the judge objected to taught that the historic treatment of Mexican Americans was “marked by the use of force, fraud and exploitation.”
Try this “history detective” experiment. Ask the next person you encounter to tell you what they know about the U.S. war with Mexico. More than likely, this will be a short conversation, because that war (1846-48) merits barely a footnote in U.S. history textbooks.
Try this “history detective” experiment. Ask the next person you encounter to tell you what they know about the U.S. war with Mexico. More than likely, this will be a short conversation, because that war (1846-48) merits barely a footnote in U.S. history textbooks.