Black History Month
Black History was first celebrated in the United States as "Negro History Week," on February 12, 1926. Carter G. Woodson, a pre-eminent historian and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History created the week out of concern that the contributions and history of African Americans were being overlooked in the study of American history. February was selected because it included the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglas (February 14), both of whom had significant impacts on the lives of Black men and women in the United States. In 1976, the week became a month long celebration.
1853 Richmond and its Slave Market (Digital Scholarship Lab, University of Richmond, VA)
In the mid-nineteenth century, tens of thousands of men, women, and children were bought and sold in Richmond's slave market. This video provides a visual overview of the city in 1853, highlighting the auction houses and slave jails that were at that moment the nucleus of human trafficking in one of the most prominent hubs of the domestic slave trade.
Black Abolitionist Archive (University of Detroit Mercy)
The Black Abolitionist Digital Archive is a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement; scans of these documents are provided as images and PDF files.
Black Liberation 1969 Archive
The Black Liberation 1969 Archive chronicles the history of the black student protest movement at Swarthmore College by finally bringing forward the experiences of the students who organized and executed a series of nonviolent direct actions and negotiations at Swarthmore College.
Digital Harlem: Everyday Life 1915-1930
The Digital Harlem website presents information, drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City's Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915-1930. Most of the material relates to the years 1920, 1925, and 1930.
Equiano's World : Gustavus Vassa and the Abolition of the British Slave Trade
This project on Gustavus Vassa (Olaudah Equiano) focuses on the movement to abolish the trans-Atlantic slave trade and ultimately to emancipate the Africans and their descendants who had been enslaved. The subject of the project is the life story of Olaudah Equiano, the enslaved Igbo boy who was later known by the name given to him as a slave, Gustavus Vassa.
The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
Presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher. The online collection, containing approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images), spans the years 1841-1964, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1865.
Legacy of Slavery in Maryland (The Maryland State Archives)
This site "seeks to preserve and promote the vast universe of experiences that have shaped the lives of Maryland's African American population." It provides access to "numerous source documents, exhibits and interactive online presentations"