19th Century Archives

May 10, 1886: Lee Yick Wins Equal Protection Under the Law Case

Lee Yick won a Supreme Court case that said that all people — citizens and non-citizens alike — had equal protection under the law.

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law Convention, Cazenovia, New York. The Edmonson sisters are standing wearing bonnets and shawls in the row behind the seated speakers. Frederick Douglass is seated, with Gerritt Smith standing behind him, and with Abby Kelley Foster the likely person seated on Douglass's left.

April 15, 1848: The Escape on the Pearl Schooner

Seventy-seven enslaved people attempted to flee Washington, D.C. by sailing away on a schooner called the Pearl.

April 17, 1863: Charlotte Brown Forced Off Streetcar

Charlotte Brown was forcibly removed from a horse-drawn streetcar in San Francisco.

The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition

Book — Non-fiction. By Manisha Sinha. 2017. 784 pages.
A groundbreaking history of abolition that recovers the largely forgotten role of African Americans in the long march toward emancipation from the American Revolution through the Civil War.

Harriet Hanson Robinson: “Characteristics of the Early Factory Girls.”

Film clip. Voices of a People's History.
Harriet Hanson Robinson's "Characteristics of the Early Factory Girls" (1898) read by Lili Taylor.

Charles Sumner

Profile. Charles Sumner, Civil War and Reconstruction era politician in the United States.

Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City

Book — Non-fiction. By Barbara Miner. 2013. 305 pages.
The history of public education in Milwaukee in the context of the broader story of racism in the rust belt.

Reconstruction: The Second Civil War

Film. By Elizabeth Deane and Dion Graham. 2004. 174 minutes.
Through the voices of several historians and dramatic re-enactments by actors, PBS’s Reconstruction: The Second Civil War uses the stories of ordinary citizens to paint a picture of the Reconstruction era.

May 1: International Workers Day

International Workers’ Day began as a commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket massacre in Chicago.

Lucas Square St. Louis Rail Strike | Zinn Education Project

July 22, 1877: St. Louis Rail Strike

Rail workers and residents of St. Louis, Missouri briefly took over the city as part of the wider Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

In Their Own Voice: Activists Tell the History of the Civil Rights Movement

Digital collection. The Library of Congress has launched an online collection of oral history interviews with Civil Rights Movement veterans.

Frances Harper, William Sylvis, Isaac Myers, and John Roy Lynch pictured. They were leaders of the Reconstruction Era in US history

When the Impossible Suddenly Became Possible: A Reconstruction Mixer

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Nqobile Mthethwa. 25 pages.
A mixer role play explores the connections between different social movements during Reconstruction.

Teaching Activity by Adam Sanchez

Jan. 30, 1884: Couple Reunited During Reconstruction

During the Reconstruction Era, people emancipated from slavery searched for their loved ones throughout the United States and Canada. They often used "last seen" ads. This is one case of successful reunification.

Ellen’s Broom

Picture book. By Kelly Starling Lyons. 2012. 32 pages.
Story about a young girl during Reconstruction whose parents are finally able to have a legal marriage while honoring a family wedding tradition.

Dark Sky Rising (Book) | Zinn Education Project

Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow

Book — Non-fiction. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. with Tonya Bolden. 2019. 240 pages.
Readers trace the rise and fall of racial equity during Reconstruction as increasingly violent white supremacy and new forms of oppression take hold at the turn of the 20th century.

Thomas Jefferson Advertisement Runaway Slave | Zinn Education Project

Freedom on the Move: Rediscovering the Stories of Self-Liberating People

Digital collection. Crowdsourcing project that provides access to information, through thousands of print advertisements, about freedom-seekers and their would-be enslavers in the 18th and 19th centuries.

People's Grocery Marker (Photo) | Zinn Education Project

March 9, 1892: The People’s Grocery Lynchings

A white mob seized three African American business men in Memphis, Tennessee and lynched them without trial.

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

Book — Non-fiction. By Carol Anderson. 2016.
An era-by-era account of how the policies and practices of white supremacy have morphed over time while maintaining the singular goal of undermining Black advancement.

The Untold History of the United States: Young Readers Editions, Vols 1 (1898-1945) & 2 (1945-1962)

Book — Non-fiction. By Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick. Adapted by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Eric S. Singer. Vol 1. 2014. 400 pages. Vol 2. 2019. 320 pages.
These are two volumes of illustrated histories, adapted for students from a documentary book and film of the same name.

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.

All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life

Book — Non-fiction. By Winona LaDuke. 1999.
Native American activists provide testimonies to indigenous efforts to resist oppression and fight both cultural and environmental degradation in the face of U.S. colonialism.

A Queer History of the United States for Young People

Book — Non-fiction. By Michael Bronski, adapted for by Richie Chevat. 2019. 336 pages.
A young adult readers edition of the original text explores the history of LGBTQ+ experiences in the U.S. since 1500.

Carter Reads the Newspaper

Picture book. By Deborah Hopkinson. Illustrated by Don Tate. 2019. 36 pages.
This picture book chronicles the young life of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, an Appalachian-born Harvard scholar and advocate for African American history. He founded Negro History Week in 1926 (which grew into Black History Month), the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and the Journal of Negro History.

One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps

Book — Non-fiction. By Andrea Pitzer. 2017. 480 pages.
Starting with 1890s Cuba, this book is a chronological and geopolitical history of concentration camps that is filled with prisoner perspectives.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Book — Non-fiction. By Ibram X. Kendi. 2016. 608 pages.
This book chronicles the origins and growth of anti-Black racist ideas, and their power, over the course of U.S. history.

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