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Robert Kennedy on civil rights, 1963

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

At the end of 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to compile a report on the Civil Rights enforcement activities of the Justice Department over the previous year. In this report,...

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Civil rights posters, 1968

Government and Civics

Memphis sanitation workers, the majority of them African American, went out on strike on February 12, 1968, demanding recognition for their union, better wages, and safer working conditions after two trash handlers were killed by a...

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Proclamation pardoning Richard Nixon, 1974

Government and Civics

"My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." Speaking half an hour after Richard Nixon submitted his resignation letter to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on August 9, 1974, and minutes after taking the oath of...

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Washington on a proposed third term and political parties, 1799

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

By 1798, George Washington had led America to victory in the Revolution, helped create the American government, and served two terms as the nation’s first president (1789–1797). He was called back to service, though, by President John...

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Runaway slave ad, 1852

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Broadsides and notices posted by slave owners or their agents offer dramatic and concrete evidence of the inhumanity of slavery. Defined as both property and responsible persons by law, slaves were sold with cows, sheep, and furniture...

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John Adams on the abolition of slavery, 1801

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On January 24, 1801, President John Adams responded to two abolitionists who had sent him an anti-slavery pamphlet by Quaker reformer Warner Mifflin (1745–1798). In the letter, Adams expresses his views on slavery, the dangers posed...

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The death of enslaved Africans on a voyage, 1725

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Slavery in English America underwent profound changes during the first two centuries of settlement. During the early seventeenth century, some Black laborers were enslaved; others, however, were treated like White indentured servants...

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"I love you but hate slavery": Frederick Douglass to his former owner, Hugh Auld, ca. 1860

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Following his escape from slavery in Maryland to freedom in New York City in 1838, Frederick Douglass became a leader of the abolition movement and its best-known orator. His book Autobiography of an American Slave became a best...

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Columbus reports on his first voyage, 1493

Geography, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain to find an all-water route to Asia. On October 12, more than two months later, Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas that he called San Salvador; the natives called it Guanahani....

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Proclamation of 1763, 1763

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

At the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, France surrendered Canada and much of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys—two-thirds of eastern North America—to England. The Proclamation of 1763 “preserved to the said Indians” the lands west...

Site Search

90,945 items

Robert Kennedy on civil rights, 1963

Civil rights posters, 1968

Proclamation pardoning Richard Nixon, 1974

Washington on a proposed third term and political parties, 1799

Runaway slave ad, 1852

John Adams on the abolition of slavery, 1801

The death of enslaved Africans on a voyage, 1725

"I love you but hate slavery": Frederick Douglass to his former owner, Hugh Auld, ca. 1860

Columbus reports on his first voyage, 1493

Proclamation of 1763, 1763

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