Slavery’s history stretched back to antiquity. Prior to the American Revolution, nearly everyone in the world accepted it as a natural part of life.

The American Civil War, the bloodiest in the nation’s history, resulted in approximately 750,000 deaths.1 The war touched the life of nearly every American as military mobilization reached levels never seen before or sinc

The revolution reverberated across the country. More and more farmers grew crops for profit, not self-sufficiency.

That man over there says women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And arn’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed, and planted , and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And arn’t I woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And arn’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen them most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And aren’t I a woman?

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

After religious disestablishment, citizens of the United States faced a dilemma: how to cultivate a moral and virtuous public without aid from state-sponsored religion. Most Americans agreed that a good and moral citizenry was essential for the national project to succeed, but many shared the perception that society’s moral foundation was weakening.

hen the white people would not let us be baptized by the church, we went down into the water together, in the sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the Spirit.

A range of artifacts manufactured by enslaved craftsmen and women with local materials helped to transmit folklore through such objects as canoes, trays, combs, stools and ceramics shaped for daily use.

The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning,

We think of the ratification controversy as pitting Anti-Federalists against Federalists. Who were the Anti-Federalists? The traditional distinctions are largely unconvincing. Some scholars have emphasized wealth and poverty -- that is, rich people tended to support the Constitution and poor or working-class people tended to oppose it. That distinction breaks down, however, for there were many rich opponents of the Constitution (such as George Mason of Virginia) and the proposed document had many working-class supporters in cities such as Philadelphia and New York

he Indian is made discontented in his ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode?

  "As to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh.

Before the evening was over, much of Hutchinson’s home and belongings had been destroyed.16

With respect to the Land I was not Consulted in it, if I was to deliver my Sentiments evil disposed People might impute it to Motives very different from those which actuate me,

defending their Liberties, as they call them.

– It pleased God to bring on my Convictions more and more, and I was loaded with guilt of Sin, I saw I was undone for ever; I carried Such a weight of Sin in my breast or mind, that it seemed to me as I should sink into the ground every step; and I kept all to my self as much as I could;

But government, into whosesoever hands it is put, being as I have before shown, entrusted with this condition, and for this end, that men might have and secure their properties, the prince or senate, however it may have power to make laws for the regulating of property between the subjects one amongst another,

. One of the major differences between modern politics and colonial political culture was the lack of distinct, stable, political parties. The most common disagreemen

The most common disagreement in colonial politics was between the elected assemblies and the royal governor. Generally, the various colonial legislatures were divided int

us arm'd, they fell in crouds and parcels on our men, upon the deck unawares, and stabbed one of the stoutest of us all, who receiv'd fourteen or fifteen wounds of their knives, and so expir'd. Next they assaulted our boatswain, and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

in, and cut one of his legs so round the bone, that he could not move, the nerves being cut through; others cut our cooks throat to the pipe, and others wounded three of the sailors, and threw one of them overboard in that condition, from the forecastle into the sea.

Slave marriages were not recognized in colonial law. Some enslaved men and women married “abroad”; that is, they married individuals who were not owned by the same master and did not live on the same plantation. These husbands and wives had to travel miles at a time, typically only once a week on Sundays, to visit their spouses. Legal or religious authority did not protect these marriages, and masters could refuse to let their slaves visit a spouse, or even sell a slave to a new master hundreds of miles away from their spouse and children.

Bacon and his supporters rose up and plundered the elite’s estates and slaughtered nearby Indians.

God Almighty in His most holy and wise providence hath so disposed of the Condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection.

Our hands, which before were tied with gentleness and fair usage, are now set at liberty by the treacherous violence of the savages.

But without the rich gold and silver mines of Mexico, the plantation-friendly climate of the Caribbean, or the exploitive potential of large Indian empires, North America offered little incentive for Spanish officials.

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

“They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor the sins of murder or theft,