When the "New World" needed cheap labor for its plantations, slave traders kidnapped Africans from their home villages. A "triangle trade" system forever changed the lives of an entire people. Explore this collection to learn what those slaves endured, and discover stories of other types of slavery such as forced labor camps in the Soviet GULAG.
Page from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (also known as "Gustavus Vassa, The African"). As conditions grew worse on the ship, kidnapped African...
Page from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (also known as "Gustavus Vassa, The African"). Here Equiano learns the reason why he was captured:&nbs...
Frederick Douglass, a former slave, honored the memory of John Brown (an abolitionist) with a lecture about him. This image depicts a page from ...
What was it like for a fugitive slave who was trying to be free? We hear from one individual who lived in the hollow of a poplar tree for seven months...
During America's years of chattel slavery, people could be bought and sold. If an "owner" of slaves died, the slaves would be inventoried as "pr...
Image of a "Notice of Sale" for slaves from an arriving ship.
During the 1930s, the federal government hired writers to obtain the oral histories of former slaves. Charley Williams was one of those intervie...
Image depicting page 28 from the book, Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative.
Image depicting page 29 from the book, Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative.
Image depicting page 31 from the book, Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative.
Image depicting page 57 from the book, Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative.
Image of the preface page from The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, written by William Still. Click on the ima...
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