Skip to main content

A Slow Emancipation

Anna Wood Africa Is A Country
What peanut trading in late 19th century Senegal tells us about the fine line between slavery and freedom.

The First Decoration Day

David W. Blight Zinn Education Project
A precursor to Memorial Day occurred in 1865 when thousands of freed slaves marched in Charleston, South Carolina to declare their sense of the meaning of the Civil War, that it was about their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic.

Abolition Newspaper Revived for Nation Grappling with Racism

Philip Marcelo Associated Press
The Emancipator was America's first newspaper dedicated to advocating for the end of slavery. Because racism is still so prevalent in this country, the publication will be resurrected over 200 years later.

The Hidden History of Juneteenth

Gregory P. Downs Talking Points Memo
A false story of Reconstruction spread by propagandists for Jim Crow segregation and disseminated in popular culture through Birth of a Nation continues to shape the national imagination.
Subscribe to Emancipation