Slavery Abolition

An author who grew up in the shadow of the Civil War, and has been fascinated by its history, noticed some odd similarities between arguments in defense of slavery and the arguments current-day conservatives make to defend white supremacy. Conservatives freq…

For this project on how students learn about slavery in American schools, The Washington Post asked noted historians to write an essay on aspects of slavery that are misunderstood, poorly taught or not covered at all in the nations classrooms. From the cruel …

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Abraham Lincoln. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle.  Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president, and is credited for keeping the un…

Was Abraham Lincoln a hero? How do we memorialize Confederate soldiers, or should we? Where do we draw the line between remembering the problematic parts of our past and celebrating them? Almost two dozen teachers from across the country spent a week this su…

A member of Congress holds a copy of the Constitution in Washington, D.C., June 20, 2017. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Sean Wilentzs No Property in Man makes a stronger, subtler argument than its detractors claim.Princeton historian Sean Wilentzs 2018 book No Pr…

Princeton historian Sean Wilentzs 2018 book No Property in Man is a sober account of the relationship between the United States Constitution and slavery. The book readily acknowledges that it was a relationship marred by hypocrisy and half-measures; the Const…

Students read during class in Montgomery, Alabama, April 1939. | Marion Post Wolcott via Library of Congress Textbooks have been slow to incorporate black humanity in their slavery narratives. And they still have a long way to go. Four hundred years ago, a gr…

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VirginiaThe Camp Ten Four restaurant, on the ninth and top floor of the Graduate Charlottesville hotel, offers a good view of much of this city associated with Thomas Jefferson. Sitting at a table in the rustic venue, Charlottesville residen…

The president most known for his moral vision was also a master political operator.  All the Powers of Earth is the third installment of Sidney Blumenthal’s ongoing multivolume chronicle of “the political life of Abraham Lincoln.” It is sharply focused on th…

Six thousand years of humans writing down history reveal the most common form of government has been a monarchy. The most powerful monarchy the world had ever seen was the British monarchy. The British Empire at it zenith controlled 13 million square miles a…