A Valentine from Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife in 1415 AD The Roman Lupercalia The earliest holiday that might conceivably have something to do with Valentine's Day is [...]
Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth didn't know where her people came from, because she was born into slavery. But it was probably West Africa or the Congo. She may have been part Native American. Sojourner [...]
Inside a slave cabin When you got to the plantation (a big farm) after the slave auction, someone would tell you which cabin to sleep in. You shared that cabin with [...]
The Middle Passage: Slave fort in Ghana Millions of people enslaved Although other people, both white and Native American, have been held as slaves in North America, the experience of the African people [...]
Reconstruction: A 13-year-old boy sharecropping (1937) The end of slavery: Reconstruction During the Civil War, in 1863 AD, President Lincoln announced the end of slavery. When the North won the war, in 1865, Congress and [...]
Tom Sawyer (1876) The first time you read Tom Sawyer, you'll want to just read it fast all the way through, because it's an exciting story. The second time, slow down [...]
Harriet Beecher Stowe Arrival in the Land of Freedom (1853) LOOK on the travellers kneeling, In thankful gladness, here, As the boat that brought them o'er the lake, Goes steaming [...]
American revolution: English soldiers search a settler's house (1770s) Why did the Americans revolt? In 1763 AD England won the French and Indian War against France (which had been fought mainly in North America), [...]
What Europeans were claiming In 1803, the French emperor Napoleon needed money to rebuild France's army after the French Revolution. So he agreed to sell France's land in North America to the newly [...]
Men and women and kids working as slaves in Alabama (1861) Cotton and factories In the 1850s AD, cotton-growing was getting more and more important. And white people in the southern part of [...]
