Civil Rights Documents

Are people born free? Do governments give rights to citizens or do citizens give-up some rights in exchange for good government? These are stories about people seeking and achieving their civil rights.

Flyer - Woman Suffrage not Good for Womanhood

People opposed to American women getting the vote created flyers like this one. It quotes a leading suffragist - then tries to destroy her argum...

Free Speech - The Abrams Case

This text is an excerpt from the first chapter ("Anarchism and War") of Richard Polenberg's book Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court a...

Fugitive Slave Law - A Synopsis of the Law

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 permitted slave-hunters to seize an alleged fugitive slave without the slightest due process of law. It also proh...

Fugitive Slave Law of 1793

Long before Americans fought a Civil War - beginning in 1861 - slaves were running away. This document, from the U.S. National Archives, depicts...

Fugitive Slaves Escape in a Small Skiff

In his book, The Underground Railroad, William Still includes a story about four slaves who wanted to escape from Delaware (a slave state which remain...

Gassing Cellar - Definition

Were crematoria, at Nazi camps, used to dispose of bodies of people who were gassed at these camps? The issue is still debated, particularly by indivi...

George W. Bush - Address to a Joint Session of the 107th Congress

Nine days after the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush addresses a joint session of the 107th Congress. He pledges to defend America's fre...