Black Lives in the Founding Era

Gilder Lehrman Publications

Black Writers of the Founding Era: A Library of America Anthology (2023) is an anthology that reveals the astonishing richness and diversity of Black experience in the turbulent decades of the American Revolution. It includes more than 200 poems, letters, sermons, court transcripts, journals, petitions, and other texts by more than 100 authors. Edited by James G. Basker, president and CEO of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, with Nicole Seary, senior editor at the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

Slavery and Abolition in the Founding Era: Black and White Voices (Gilder Lehrman Institute, 2021) brings together long forgotten anti-slavery writings from America’s founding era—twenty-five texts in various genres, spanning the 1770s to the conclusion of the War of 1812. Thirteen of the nineteen writers in the volume are Black, and some of their writings are anthologized here for the first time.

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The Gilder Lehrman Book Shop

To learn more about Black Lives in the Founding Era, please visit our recommended readings on our Bookshop.org page. This curated list explores various topics related to the African American experience during that time and includes many finalists and winners of our prestigious Frederick Douglass Book Prize. We earn an affiliate commission on every purchase made through the provided link. Thank you for supporting our programs.

History School

In spring 2021, the Gilder Lehrman History School featured the course Black Lives in the Founding Era, geared toward students in grades 3–8. During each class, we examined a different historical figure and their life, legacy, and accomplishments. A cast member from the musical Hamilton joined each class as a special guest. You can view the recordings from the course below.

Self-Paced Courses

Self-Paced Courses offer graduate-level online instruction in American history by eminent historians. Courses are available to watch or listen to on your own time and at your own pace. Teachers can also get certificates for CEU credits.

• African American History to Emancipation led by Professor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Harvard University
• America’s First Civil Rights Movement led by Professor Kate Masur, Northwestern University
• Black Lives in the Founding Era led by Professor James G. Basker, Barnard College 
• Black Women’s History led by Professor Kellie Carter Jackson, Wellesley College
• Black Writers in American History led by Professor John Stauffer, Harvard University
• Lives of the Enslaved led by Professor Daina Ramey Berry, University of Texas at Austin
• Race and Rights in America led by Professor Lucas Morel, Washington and Lee University
• The History of Anti-Slavery Writings led by Professor James G. Basker, Barnard College

History Now

History Now, the online journal of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, features essays by the nation’s leading historians.

Full Issues

• History Now 60 (Summer 2021), “Black Lives in the Founding Era”

Essays

• “When the Past Speaks to the Present: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings” by Annette Gordon-Reed (History Now 2, “Primary Sources on Slavery,” Winter 2004)
• “Two Revolutions in the Atlantic World: Connections between the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution” by Laurent Dubois (History Now 34, “The Revolutionary Age,” Winter 2012)
• “A Poem Links Unlikely Allies in 1775: Phillis Wheatley and George Washington” by James G. Basker (History Now 39, “American Poets, American History,” Spring 2014)
• “African Americans in the Revolutionary War” by Michael Lee Lanning (History Now 46, “African American Soldiers,” Fall 2016)
• “New York City’s African Burial Ground” by Michael L. Blakey (History Now 49, “Excavating American History,” Fall 2017)
• “The New York African Burial Ground” by Edna Greene Medford (History Now 62, “The Honored Dead: African American Cemeteries, Graveyards, and Burial Grounds,” Spring 2022)
• “‘What We Leave the Earth’: The African Burial Ground in New York City,” by David Mills (History Now 62, “The Honored Dead: African American Cemeteries, Graveyards, and Burial Grounds,” Spring 2022)
• “The Escape of Black Women during the American Revolution,” by Karen Cook Bell (History Now 63, “The Declaration of Independence and the Long Struggle for Equality in America,” Summer 2022)
• “Lemuel Haynes, Young African American Patriot of the 1770s” by John Saillant (History Now 69, “The Reception and Impact of the Declaration of Independence, 1776–1826,” Winter 2023)
• “James Forten, Sailmaker” by Julie Winch (History Now 72, “Black Entrepreneurship in America,” Fall 2024)

Hamilton Cast Read Alongs

Hamilton Cast Read Alongs feature Hamilton cast members reading award-winning children’s books followed by a discussion of the history behind the story led by Keisha Rembert, a Gilder Lehrman master teacher.

• Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence by Gretchen Woelfle (Author) and Alix Delinois (Illustrator); read by Meecah
• A Spy Called James: The True Story of James Lafayette, Revolutionary War Double Agent by Anne Rockwell (Author) and Floyd Cooper (Illustrator); read by Bryson Bruce
• Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons by Gwendolyn Hooks (Author) and Simone Agoussoye (Illustrator); read by Tiffany Mellard
• Ticktock Banneker’s Clock by Shana Keller (Author) and David C. Gardner (Illustrator); read by Ashley Brooks Monroe
• Brick by Brick by Charles R. Smith, Jr. (Author) and Floyd Cooper (Illustrator); read by Vincent Hooper

Hamilton Education Program 

The Hamilton Education Program helps students see the relevance of the founding era by using primary sources to create a performance piece, following the model used by Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the musical Hamilton. Below, watch a selection of student performers from across the country share their pieces on Black lives and topics of the founding era.

• “Prominent African American Leaders” A powerful spoken word piece from the perspectives of Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, and Paul Cuffe
• “Richard Allen” A rap/poem about Richard Allen, one of the country's most prominent Black leaders 
• “Wrote My Way Out” A poem about the challenges of the Revolutionary War 
• “Phillis Wheatley” A song about African American poet Phillis Wheatley
• “The Voice of the Discharged Musket” A spoken word piece from the perspective of the musket used to kill Crispus Atticus at the Boston Massacre 
• “Paul Cuffe” A song/rap about African American businessman and abolitionist Paul Cuffe
• “Bill of Rights Slave Monologue” A dramatic piece from the perspective of an enslaved person responding to the Bill of Rights 
• “Longin' for Home” A song/spoken word piece about abolitionist and writer Olaudah Equiano
• “Slavery” A spoken word piece about slavery  
• “Benjamin Banneker” A song about Black American Benjamin Banneker, who is known for his work in science, mathematics, and astronomy 

Spotlights on Primary Sources

Each Spotlight on a document from the Gilder Lehrman Collection provides explanatory text, a transcript, and an image of the featured document.

• The New York Conspiracy of 1741
• The Middle Passage, 1749
• A bond for the manumission of a slave, 1757
• Romeo Smith: Slave, Soldier, Freeman, 1784
• Olaudah Equiano, 1789
• Phillis Wheatley’s poem on tyranny and slavery, 1772
• Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, 1775
• An African American soldier’s pay warrant, 1780
• Black volunteers in the nation’s first epidemic, 1793
• Slavery in the New York State census, 1800
• John Adams on the abolition of slavery, 1801
• The horrors of slavery, 1805

Audio Clips 

Guest speakers added their voices to the writings of various African Americans.

• Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833) “Liberty Further Extended: Or Free Thoughts on the Illegality of Slave Keeping” (1776)
• James Armistead Lafayette (ca. 1748–1830) Petition to the Virginia General Assembly (November 30, 1786)
• Jupiter Hammon (1711–ca. 1800) “An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley” (1778)
• William Hamilton (1773–1836) Letter to John Jay (March 8, 1796)
• Richard Allen (1760–1831) Eulogy for George Washington delivered to the congregation of Philadelphia’s African Methodist Episcopal Church (December 29, 1799)
• Venture Smith [Broteer Furro] (ca. 1729–1805) A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa; But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America (New London, 1798)
• Patty Gibson (fl. 1797) Letter to her husband (November 10, 1797)
• Nero Brewster (1711–1786) and “Others, Natives of Africa,” Petition to the New Hampshire State Legislature (November 12, 1779)
• “Vox Africanorum” (fl. 1783) Letter to the Maryland Gazette (May 15, 1783)
• Jupiter Nicholson, Jacob Nicholson, Job Albert, and Thomas Pritchet (fl. 1797) “The Petition & Representation of [Four] Free Men” (January 23, 1797)
• Belinda (ca. 1712–post 1795) “The Petition of Belinda, an African” (February 14, 1795)

Hamilton Cast Members Reading Historical Documents

Short Takes

These videos and resources provide overviews of key questions regarding Black Lives in the Founding Era.

• “American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation,” a presentation by James G. Basker
• Annette Gordon-Reed’s Remarks at Douglass Prize Dinner, 2010
• Black Lives in the Founding Era with Professor James G. Basker
• Black Women’s History (Lecture 2) with Professor Kellie Carter Jackson
• Black Women’s History (Lecture 3) with Professor Kellie Carter Jackson
• The History of American Protest with Professor John Stauffer
• “How Did Slavery Begin in North America?” a presentation by Christopher Brown
• Lives of the Enslaved with Professor Daina Ramey Berry
• Revolutionary America with Professor Denver Brunsman
• “Slavery and the American Revolution,” a presentation by James Oliver Horton
• “Slavery and the Constitution,” a presentation by James Oliver Horton

Full Lectures

Explore this seminal period in American History with talks by eminent scholars of Black Lives in the Founding Era.

• “Black Writers of the Founding Era”: A conversation with James G. Basker
• “Re-Imagining the Founding Era: Washington, Wheatley and American Patriotism,” a presentation by James G. Basker

Gilder Lehrman Posters

These posters feature images from the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

• Paul Revere’s engraving of British troops in Boston Harbor, 1768
• Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770
• Phillis Wheatley, 1773

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Book Breaks

Book Breaks is a free weekly public program where hosts interview scholars about their new books.

• At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. by Tamika Nunley
• The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
• City of Refuge: Slavery and Petit Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp, 1763–1856 by Marcus P. Nevius
• The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War by Van Gosse
• Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence by Kellie Carter Jackson
• The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
• Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison
• Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism by Christopher Leslie Brown
• On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon Reed
• Sexuality and Slavery: Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the Americas by Daina Ramey Berry and Leslie Harris
• The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition by Manisha Sinha
• Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Louisiana by Sophie White
• What Is Slavery? by Brenda E. Stevenson

Inside the Vault

Inside the Vault highlights unique primary sources from the Gilder Lehrman Collection each month.

• Benjamin Banneker
• Black Patriots of the American Revolution
• Boston Massacre/Founding Era Propaganda
• Fighting for the Rights of Black Americans in the Founding Era
• George Washington and Slavery
• The Lives and Works of Phillis Wheatley and Elizabeth Keckley