Slavery and Resistance Archives

How We Remember: The Struggle Over Slavery in Public Spaces

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow, Jesse Hagopian, Cierra Kaler-Jones, Ana Rosado, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
Students read about sites of memory in How the Word Is Passed and imagine how to commemorate what occurred there. They then compare that to how the respective site is currently commemorated and described by docents.

Lives in Our Lineage: A Lesson on Oral Histories

Teaching Activity. By Cierra Kaler-Jones.
In this lesson, students use key excerpts from How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith as inspiration for a project where they tell their and their loved ones’ stories.

How the Word Is Passed (Adapted for Young Readers)

Book — Non-fiction. By Clint Smith and adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul. 2025. 272 pages.
Takes readers to historical sites across America, exploring the legacy of slavery to help readers make sense of our nation's past and present, and be better stewards of their own future.

book cover showing freedom riders protesting near a bus

A Young People’s History of the United States: Revised and Updated

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with additions by Ed Morales. 2022. 544 pages.
A young adult version of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States, ideal for 6th through 9th grade students.

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 Coup of 1898: A Blueprint for Suppressing Democracy

By Jesse Hagopian

The Wilmington Coup reveals that white supremacist attacks on democracy are deeply embedded in U.S. history. Erasing this history allows the myth of American exceptionalism to persist, leaving us ill-equipped to recognize — and confront — the recurrence of such violence.

Presidents and Slaves: Helping Students Find the Truth (Teaching Activity) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Presidents and the Enslaved: Helping Students Find the Truth

Teaching Activity. By Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 7 pages.
How a 5th grade teacher and his students conducted research to answer the question: “Which presidents owned people?” Available in Spanish.

May 8, 1858: John Brown and Constitutional Convention

John Brown, Martin Delany, and others gathered for a Constitutional Convention in Chatham, Canada.

March 3, 1807: Thomas Jefferson Signs Insurrection Act Into Law

President Thomas Jefferson put his signature on the law known as the Insurrection Act.

Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America

Book — Non-fiction. By Martha S. Jones. 2018. 266 pages.
The story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses.

Kin: Rooted in Hope

Book — Historical Fiction. By Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jeffery Boston Weatherford. 2024. 208 pages.
A portrait of a Black family tree shaped by enslavement and freedom, rendered in poems and artwork.

Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People

Book — Non-fiction. By Imani Perry. 2025. 256 pages.
A meditation on the color blue and its fascinating role in Black history and culture.

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.

collage of six Black abolitionists in the United States.

‘If There Is No Struggle…’: Teaching a People’s History of the Abolition Movement

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 16 pages.
In this lesson, students explore many of the real challenges faced by abolitionists with a focus on the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Oct. 1526: First Rebellion of Enslaved Africans in What Became the United States

Enslaved Africans carried out the first recorded rebellion against slavery in what would become the United States, rising up at the short-lived Spanish colony of San Miguel de Gualdape, located in what is now Georgia or South Carolina.

Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Kathy Roberts Forde and Sid Bedingfield. 2021. 360 pages.
A look at roles of the white press and Black press in the Jim Crow South.

An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World manuscript cover.

Sept. 28, 1829: An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World

David Walker published An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, one of the most important documents of the 19th century.

The Stono Rebellion Marker (photo) | Zinn Education Project

Sept. 9, 1739: The Stono Rebellion

Uprising by enslaved people in South Carolina.

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance

Book — Non-fiction. By Kellie Carter Jackson. 2024. 304 pages.
A reframing of the past and present of Black resistance — both nonviolent and violent — to white supremacy.

May 10, 1740: The South Carolina Negro Act is Passed

Passed in response to the Stono Rebellion, this law made it illegal to teach enslaved people to read or write, aiming to prevent further insurrections.

Dec. 24, 1829: Georgia Bans Insurrectionary Literature

Enacted in response to David Walker’s Appeal, this law criminalized the distribution of materials that could incite rebellion to slavery, reflecting fears of literacy empowering resistance.

April 7, 1831: Virginia Literacy Ban Enacted

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.

May 24, 1833: The Connecticut “Black Law” Enacted

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.

We Refuse Discussion Questions

Questions to accompany chapter one of We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson.

Freewater

Book — Historical fiction. By Amina Luqman-Dawson. 2023. 416 pages.
A lyrical, accessible historical middle-grade novel about two enslaved children‘s escape from a plantation and the many ways they find freedom.

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