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

Black soldiers in dark Union Army uniforms, jackets with sashes and epaulets, and caps with a horn embroidered on the bill, looking at the camera while holding their rifles.

The Men of Company E

with Matthew Pinsker

Explore different points of view of Black soldiers in a postwar photograph.

Video

The front cover of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, featuring a small photorealistic illustration of Eliza and Lizzie Scott in dresses holding hands above two larger illustrations of Dred and Harriet Scott, pictured separately

Dred and Harriet Scott: A Family Story of Slavery and Freedom

with Matthew Pinsker

Learn about the family that brought the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) case to the Supreme Court.

Video

Scan of the US Constitution, printed in September 1787.

Race and the American Constitution: A Struggle Toward National Ideals

by James Oliver Horton

Read how both pro-slavery and anti-slavery movements used the Constitution to promote their beliefs.

Essay

An engraving shows four people doing various tasks with harvested tobacco in an open shed, including pulling pieces of the leaves apart, and winding rope.

The Origins of Slavery

by Ira Berlin

Gain a greater understanding of the slave trade and the forced migration and diaspora of Africans.

Essay

A smiling white-haired Black woman in a dark dress sitting with her hands clasped in her lap in an elaborately carved high-backed wooden chair

The Slave Narratives: A Genre and a Source

by David W. Blight

Examine narratives such as Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in this essay.

Essay

A photograph of a Black Civil War Union soldier in uniform in a rounded rectangular frame.

African Americans and Emancipation

by Manisha Sinha

Explore the role of military service during the Civil War on emancipation and abolition.

Essay

A black and white etching of Haitian revolutionaries fighting French soldiers.

Connections Between the American and Haitian Revolutions

by Laurent Dubois

Understand the relationship between the Haitian Revolution and American Revolution.

Essay

An engraving of a white-haired Frederick Douglass standing at a desk, wearing a dark jacket and waistcoat, dark bow tie, and white shirt and pants, shaking the hand of another Black man wearing a white shirt, as others wait to greet him at left

Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to Freedom

by Steven Mintz

Read about Frederick Douglass from his childhood and youth as an enslaved person and his legacy as a leading abolitionist and equal rights advocate.

Essay

The image is a black-and-white portrait of Langston Hughes, the renowned African American poet, playwright, and leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He is shown from the chest up, wearing a suit with a tie and a sweater vest underneath. He has a warm smile and is looking slightly downward, with soft lighting casting gentle shadows on his face. The background is plain, and the photograph has a classic, vintage feel, likely taken in the mid-20th century.

“I Too”: Langston Hughes’s Afro-Whitmanian Affirmation

by Steven Tracy

Explore Hughes' "I, Too" poem, its connection to Walt Whitman, and its role in affirming Black identity in America.

Essay

Handwritten fragment of Abraham Lincoln's last Annual Message supporting the Thirteenth Amendment

Abraham Lincoln and the Passage of the Thirteenth Amendment

by Allen C. Guelzo

Explore Lincoln’s role in the abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment.

Essay

The sign for The Crossroads, featuring a ring of three blue guitars (each facing a different direction) on the bottom and the highways 61 and 49 signs above.

Clarksdale: Myth, Music, and Mercy in the Mississippi Delta

by Shelley Ritter

Read about musician Muddy Waters, the blues, and the historical exhibits at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Essay

Photograph of a mural of Robert Johnson (a Black man holding a guitar while wearing a dark suit, white shirt, dark tie, and dark hat), painted in black and white and framed by wisps of smoke, on a purple wall.

Robert Johnson and the Rise of the Blues

by Elijah Wald

Read about Robert Johnson and the rise and evolution of blues music.

Essay