1850–1864 Archives

Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD

Podcast. Hosted by Chenjerai Kumanyika. 2024.
Uncovers the hidden history of the largest police force in the world — from its roots in slavery, to rival police gangs battling across the city, to everyday people who resisted every step of the way.

Dec. 2, 1859: John Brown Executed

Abolitionist John Brown was executed by the state of Virginia for leading the infamous Harpers Ferry Raid.

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.

A Peoples History of the United States Book | Zinn Education Project

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 2005, with a new introduction by Anthony Arnove in 2015. 784 pages.
Howard Zinn's groundbreaking work on U.S. history. This book details lives and facts rarely included in textbooks—an indispensable teacher and student resource.

Depiction of rioters and police during the New York City draft riots of 1863.

The Draft Riot Mystery

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 9 pages.
Students are invited to solve a mystery, using historical clues, about the real story of the Draft Riots.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Indian Removal

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 18 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 7 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the American policy of "Manifest Destiny" and Native American resistance to their own displacement.

The Expansion of Empire

Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 15 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 12 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on internal dissent over American expansionist policies.

Fort Pillow Massacre, by Katz & Allison. Source: Library of Congress via Equal Justice Initiative

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.

April 16, 1862: Compensated Emancipation Act

The federal government compensated the “owners” of enslaved people for their “loss of property.” The people whose labor, skills, knowledge, and families were stolen for generations were not compensated nor given any assistance for the transition to freedom.

The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution

Book — Non-fiction. By Eric Foner. 2020. 304 pages.
Traces the arc of the three foundational Reconstruction amendments from their origins in antebellum activism to their virtual nullification by narrow Supreme Court decisions and Jim Crow state laws.

Sept. 18, 1850: Fugitive Slave Act Passed

The U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement

Book — Non-fiction. By Teri Kanefield. 2014. 56 pages.
Illustrated book of a teenager who led a student walk out to protest substandard conditions at a Virginia high school in 1951.

June 2, 1863: Harriet Tubman Frees Nearly 800 People

Harriet Tubman planned and guided a significant armed raid (becoming the first woman to do so in the Civil War) against Confederate forces, supply depots, and plantations along the Combahee River in coastal South Carolina.

March 6, 1857: Dred (and Harriet) Scott Decision

The Supreme Court declared in horrific Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling that “Any person descended from Africans, whether slave or free, is not a citizen of U.S.”

Feb. 15, 1851: Shadrach Minkins Arrested by U.S. Marshals Under Fugitive Slave Act

U.S. Marshals arrested Shadrach Minkins, who had escaped from slavery in Norfolk, Virginia.

Poetry of Defiance: How the Enslaved Resisted

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez.
Through a mixer activity, students encounter how enslaved people resisted the brutal exploitation of slavery. The lesson culminates in a collective class poem highlighting the defiance of the enslaved.