AP African American Studies Resource Archive | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Hidden History: Celebrating That Freedom Day

with Michael Hurd

Take a deep dive into the first Juneteenth celebrations where it all began, in Galveston, Texas.

Video

A map of the world, with arrows indicating movement of enslaved people out of Africa, with varying thickness for the number of enslaved people arriving at that location.

“Overview of the Slave Trade Out of Africa, 1500–1900”

by David Eltis and David Richardson

View the varying points of departure and arrival of enslaved people.

Thematic Map

Woodblock of ironing boards that resemble slave ships.

Stowage

by Willie Cole

View this work of art responding to images of slave ships.

Primary Source

Cover page for Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart.

“Why Sit Ye Here and Die”

1832

Read a speech by Maria W. Stewart, the first Black woman to publish a political manifesto.

Primary Source

A diagram showing bodies packed into a ship's hold

“Stowage of the British slave ship ‘Brookes’”

1788

View this diagram, which served as a catalyst for the antislavery movement.

Primary Source

Front page of the newspaper Freedom's Journal, March 30, 1827

“Our Claims Are on America”

1828

Read this excerpt from an oration by Thomas Jennings on Black identity.

Primary Source

A map of the African continent with arrows referencing the migration of Bantu peoples and languages

“The Bantu Migration, 2000 BCE–1500 CE”

by Mark Cartwright

See the extensive migration of Bantu peoples on the African continent.

Thematic Map

Map of the African continent, with colored ovals recognizing approximate geographic locations and periods of kingdoms and empires.

“Ancient & Medieval Sub-Saharan African States”

by Mark Cartwright

Visualize the approximate locations of various kingdoms and empires, including Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

Thematic Map

A black and white photograph of Nannie Helen Burroughs, a young Black woman, shown seated from the waist up, wearing a dark hat with a white feather and a white blouse

“How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping”

1900

Read Nannie Helen Burroughs’s address casting light on the importance of women organizing in Black institutions.

Primary Source

Title page of My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

“Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation”

1855

Read Frederick Douglass’s recollection of plantation life in Maryland from his second autobiography.

Primary Source

An engraving showing two dozen armed Black men in the foreground hidden along a forested path and hillside watching a group of White men in military dress coming down the path in the distance

“The Maroons in Ambush . . . in Jamaica”

1801

View this depiction of a maroon revolt in Jamaica.

Work of Art

The Hunted Slaves

1862

View a depiction of self-emancipated people in the maroon communities of the Great Dismal Swamp.

Work of Art