Slavery Abolition

Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace. Beside presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow W…

A newly uncovered speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered in 1967 sounds curiously like the civil rights icon is speaking about current-day conditions as he preaches about underfunded schools, the wage gap, white backlash against black progress and the…

It’s been almost a year since Cynthia Erivo first stepped into Harriet Tubman’s shoes in Harriet—a biopic about the historical heroine who escaped slavery and freed hundreds of slaves via the Underground Railroad. And it’s almost a year, too, since Erivo firs…

Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters This year marks 400 years since enslaved Africans from Angola were forcibly brought to Jamestown, Virginia. This forced migration of black bodies on to what would become the United States of America represents the intertwine…

Turchin has some great stories about unity vs. polarization over time. For example in the 1940s, unity became such a “problem” that concerned citizens demanded more partisanship: Concerned about electoral torpor and meaningless political debate, the American…

Samuel "Sam" Houston (March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American politician and soldier, best known for his role in bringing Texas into the United States as a constituent state. His victory at the Battle of San Jacinto secured the independence of Texas fr…

France, Greece, Hungary, Paraguay, Poland, Russia, and the United Kingdom all have former US presidents memorialised as statues.Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan appear the most.But George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Benjamin F…

I only ever write novels about things that I dont know, she says via phone. When I first started The Testaments, things had changed: For a while, we were going away from The Handmaids Tale, but now were going towards it. In real life. And in real life, totali…

When Harper LeesGo Set a Watchman was published last summer, fans were disturbed at its depiction of Atticus Finch, which seemed to warp an iconic hero of American fiction beyond recognition. Go Set a Watchman shows Atticus as a hidebound defender of Southern…

“To ward off criticisms of Trumps bursts of racist rhetoric, Republican leaders reflexively play the Lincoln card,” wrote Blumenthal. “But the party of Trump is the antithesis of the party of Lincoln, the culmination of a long realignment. Beginning in the 19…