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

A black-and-white photograph of a serious young Black man in a military uniform (dark coat, white gloves, light-colored pants with a dark racing stripe) holding a sheathed sword

Photograph of Charles Remond Douglass

ca. 1864

Frederick Douglass’s youngest son served in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.

Secondary Source

Color-coded map of Africa noting different vegetation zones

Vegetation of Africa

by Exploring Africa, Michigan State University

Visualize the varied vegetation zones of the African continent.

Thematic Map

A Black woman wearing a polka-dot dress and wearing an American flag pin on her right breast.

Ambrotype of African American Woman with Flag

1860s

This ambrotype features a woman believed to be a washerwoman for Union troops near Richmond, Virginia.

Primary Source

A watercolor showing enslaved people picking cotton with an overseer nearby

Painting of a Plantation

ca. 1860

Explore an artist’s depiction of enslavement.

Secondary Source

A Black man wearing a dark coat speaking into a bullhorn megaphone held in his left hand, while his right arm is outstretched with a clenched fist. A crowd looks on and raises their right fists in the air. There is a sign reading "Viva La Huelga" in the left midground.

Black Student Union Strike for Black Studies at San Francisco State College

1968

See the student protests that led to the first Black Studies department and gave rise to the field of African American studies.

Primary Source

A yellowed four-fold pamphlet featuring the photograph (at top left) of Stanley Dones, a Black man wearing a dark jacket, white shirt, and dark tie, placing his right hand upon his chin.

Black Land Ownership in the Jim Crow Era

with Alison Rose Jefferson and Sandra Trenholm

Explore the history of the Black-owned Eureka Villa housing development in 1920s California.

Video

A hand-colored lithograph showing enslaved Black men and women cut sugar cane and load the bundles or junks into a horse-drawn cart. A White man on a horse speaks to a Black overseer. Includes cutting bills or knives, coconut palms, and a windmill in the distance.

Sugar Cane Harvest, Antigua, West Indies

1823

View this depiction of enslavement in the Caribbean.

Primary Source

Map of the United States with arrows noting migration corridors from the South to the Northeast, Midwest, and West.

The Great Migration, 1900–1929

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Explore the first wave of the Great Migration through this map.

Thematic Map

Map of the United States with arrows noting migration corridors from the South to Northeast, Midwest, and West.

The Second Great Migration

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Visualize the second wave of the Great Migration on this map.

Thematic Map

Map of the East Coast of the United States with state boundaries from Maryland to Georgia and an inset map of Africa with bar charts associating enslaved people in four regions of North America with different regions of Africa.

Origins of Enslaved Africans in North America

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Explore and visualize the data connecting the populations of African descent in four regions of the East Coast of North America with regions of origin in Africa.

Thematic Map

Map of the southern United States from Texas to Maryland showing in red the main inland and seagoing routes of the internal movements of enslaved people, from New York and Philadelphia in the Northeast to Galveston, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Domestic Slave Trade, 1808–1865

by Michael Siegel and Rutgers Cartography

Explore data and geographical trends of the domestic slave trade in the nineteenth century.

Thematic Map

A handwritten document in cursive in Spanish

Juan Garrido’s Probanza

1538

Read the narrative of a Congolese man’s experience in Mexico with the Spanish conquistadors.

Primary Source