Slaves and Slave Owners Documents

Free blacks who worked as seamen (during the years of American slavery) needed to prove they were not slaves.  To avoid capture, such men were gi...

This image is page 20 of a book describing the kidnapping of Africans who were transported to the "new world" aboard a ship called La Amistad.   ...

Image of the Slave Roster from the records of the Molly slave ship.  Maintained by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, U.K. From the Unders...

This is a page from the 1840 work entitled A History of the Amistad Captives.  It depicts a map of the western part of Africa, including an area ...

This document, filed with the U.S. District Court for the State of Maryland, was permitted under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.  It was submitted a...

This image depicts the second page of a bill of sale by which a slave owner named Jacob Cook purchased four slaves "for life."   The slaves, of ...

Since it became America's capital city, circa 1800, Washington City had slaves. This compendium includes laws impacting slavery in the District.

Image of a drawing depicting a slave hanging by his wrists, awaiting the whip.  From The Underground Railroad, by William Still.

This map depicts the free and slave States, from Historical Geography, by John F. Smith, Chicago.  It was published in 1888. Click on the i...

Arriving in South Carolina in the 1780s, a group of 250 Africans were slated to be sold at Ashley Ferry (outside Charleston).  This advertisement...

During the 1930s, the federal government hired writers to obtain the oral histories of former slaves.  Tempie Cummins was one of those interviewe...

This illustration is entitled:  "Slaves Packed Below and on Deck."  When a slave ship named Zeldina was blown off course, near the Cuban coa...