Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

16,503 items

Video

American Scripture: The Making of the Declaration of Independence

Government and Civics

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

Pauline Maier, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), discusses several aspects of her book American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence . She reveals that...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Lincoln speech on slavery and the American Dream, 1858

Economics, Government and Civics

4

Through the 1830s and 1840s, Abraham Lincoln’s primary political focus was on economic issues. However, the escalating debate over slavery in the 1850s, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act in particular, compelled Lincoln to change his...

Collection Item

1941

[Photograph of World War II African American soldier on porch]

Photograph of a World War II African American soldier standing and saluting on a porch, possibly barracks.

GLC09570

Interactive

Excerpts from American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation

Art, Literature

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

Collection Item

Document signed

23 October 1824

Savage, Ezekiel, fl. 1824

[Certificate confirming the citizenship of John Harris, an African American]

Partially printed. Savage signs as notary public, confirming Harris's status as a citizen of the United States. Harris, born in Alexandria, Virginia, "is a free coloured man, now residing in said Salem and never has been under allegiance to any...

GLC04289