Slavery and Resistance Archives

April 21, 1784: Enslaved Continental Army Veteran Sues for Freedom

Enslaved Continental Army veteran Ned Griffin successfully sued for his freedom in North Carolina.

Oct. 6, 1787: Abolitionist Denounces New U.S. Constitution

Connecticut abolitionist Samuel Hopkins wrote an essay denouncing the new U.S. Constitution for its hypocrisy in not renouncing slavery.

Aug. 19, 1791: Benjamin Banneker Tells Thomas Jefferson to End His “Narrow Prejudices”

A land surveyor, almanac writer, and correspondent of Thomas Jefferson’s, Benjamin Banneker told Thomas Jefferson to end his “narrow prejudices.”

Sept. 18, 1850: Fugitive Slave Act Passed

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

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.

Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea

Book — Non-fiction. By Marcus Rediker. 2025. 416 pages.
A sweeping account of the Underground Railroad’s long-overlooked maritime origins.

Feb. 12, 1793: First Fugitive Slave Act

Signed into law by President George Washington, the first Fugitive Slave Act in the United States gave owners of the enslaved the right to reclaim those who escaped.

What the Koch Brothers Want Students to Learn About Slavery

By Adam Sanchez

Given that the billionaire Charles Koch has poured millions of dollars into eliminating the minimum wage and paid sick leave for workers, and that in 2015 he had the gall to compare his ultra-conservative mission to the anti-slavery movement, he’s probably the last person you’d want educating young people about slavery. Yet the history-teaching wing of the Koch brothers empire is seeking to promote an alternate narrative to slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

Dec. 6, 1865: 13th Amendment Ratified

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially ended the institution of slavery.

Black Abolitionists

Profiles. Zinn Education Project. 2014. Brief biographies of 25 Black abolitionists.

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.”

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.

protester holding up signs reading "Economic Justice" and "Reparations Now!"

Repair: Students Design a Reparations Bill

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
In this activity, students take on the role of activist-experts to improve upon a Congressional bill for reparations for Black people. They talk back to Congress’ flimsy legislation and design a more robust alternative.

Teaching Activity by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

Teaching With Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 25 pages.
Students engage in an interactive activity with short excerpts from Martha Jones’ book to learn about the leading role of Black women in the fight for voting rights throughout U.S. history.

Jan. 1, 1862: Parkersburg Colored School Founded

The first free school south of the Mason-Dixon Line was established in Parkersburg, West Virginia, during the Civil War.

Race, Class, and the Constitutional Convention

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 2025. 36 pages.
This is a unit with three lessons. The first invites students to think critically about key issues that confronted the framers of the Constitution — examining the perspectives not only of the elites attending the actual Constitutional Convention, but also of enslaved African Americans, poor white farmers, and white workers. The other two lessons are: The Constitutional Convention: Who Really Won? — with students exploring whose interests the Constitution advanced — and Federalist Paper #10: Suppressing “Wicked Projects,” a critical reading activity on James Madison's seminal defense of the Constitution.

Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea

Historian Marcus Rediker discussed his books Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea and The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, and talked about the many enslaved people who fled successfully from the horrors of bondage in the antebellum South not by land but by sea. This class was part of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online people’s history series.

Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth

Picture book. By Michelle Duster, with illustrations by Laura Freeman. 2022. 40 pages.
An inspiring picture book biography of the groundbreaking journalist and civil rights activist as told by her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster.

Cane Warriors

Book — Historical fiction. By Alex Wheatle. 2020. 192 pages.
Cane Warriors follows the true story of Tacky's War in Jamaica in 1760.

The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad, A Graphic Novel

Book — Non-fiction. By David Lester and Marcus Rediker, and edited by Paul Buhle. 2026. 136 pages.
graphic history of how enslaved Africans on board the Amistad rebelled and captured the slave ship in 1839, challenging a whitewashed version of history and putting the Africans back at the center of their own freedom story.

White Power: Policing American Slavery

Book — Non-fiction. By Gautham Rao. 2026. 320 pages.
Uncovers how slaveholders created their own white supremacist police and government to deny Black people rights, power, and humanity.

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