Following the publication of David Walker’s Appeal in 1829, this Virginia law prohibited the education of enslaved and free Black people, seeking to suppress potential uprisings. Several other states enacted similar bans at this time.
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One of many anti-literacy laws at the time, this law prohibited the establishment of schools for Black students who were not residents of Connecticut.
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Article. By Jefferson Morley. 2012.
"Star-Spangled Banner" songwriter Francis Scott Key opposed abolitionists and free speech in his role as district attorney of the city of Washington.
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Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rose up against their captors, seizing control of the ship, which had been transporting them to chattel slavery.
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Late night raid on the Charleston post office by a mob of white supremacists and the burning of abolitionist mail.
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Article. By Mariame Kaba, design by Cindy Lau, artwork by Erik Ruin, and research support by Noah Berlatsky. 2025. 12 pages.
Walks readers through the history of assaults on librarians and examples of library workers pushing back.
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Nearly 500 white men destroyed the integrated Noyes Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire.
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Teaching Activity. Lesson by Bill Bigelow and student reading by Howard Zinn. Rethinking Schools. 21 pages.
Interactive activity introduces students to the history and often untold story of the U.S.-Mexico War. Roles available in Spanish.
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Poem. By Nigel Gray.
Poem about the causes and impact of the Irish Potato Famine.
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Haiti became a free republic after a revolution, declaring independence for ALL people.
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The forcible removal of Native American tribes, known as the Trail of Tears, began.
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This was the largest uprising of the enslaved against their British overseers in Guyana. The uprising was ended after a few days, though it served as a catalyst for the abolition of slavery in British colonies soon thereafter.
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The first Colored Convention in Maine was an opportunity for northern Black abolitionists to organize and strategize for racial justice and the freedom of those still enslaved throughout the South.
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In protest of Jim Crow discrimination on public transportation, Frederick Douglass and his friend, white politician James N. Buffum, boarded a Eastern Railroad Company train, in a first class car and were promptly ejected from the train.
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Ann Williams experienced unimaginable pain due to her enslavement, but eventually she successfully sued for freedom for herself and her children.
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Minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy was murdered by a pro-slavery mob.
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Madison Washington and eighteen other enslaved people rebelled onboard the Creole, a ship involved in the U.S. slave trade.
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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.
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“An Act to Prevent the Importation of Certain Persons into Certain States” was passed into law in 1803.
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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 10 pages.
What led up to the Trail of Tears? In this lesson, students learn about the decision to remove the Cherokee and Seminole people from their lands.
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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.
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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 13 pages.
A trial role play helps students reflect on responsibility for the deaths of Irish peasants during the so-called potato famine.
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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 17 pages.
A role play allows students to examine issues of race and class when exploring both the accomplishments and limitations of the Seneca Falls Convention.
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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.
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