Topic: Slavery

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15th Amendment

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed by Congress in 1869 and ratified by the states in 1870. It guaranteed that the right to vote would be granted to...
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A Map of the Parish of St. Stephen in Craven Country (Detail)

This detail from a map of South Carolina shows an indigo plant. Enslaved people cultivated the indigo plants which produced a valuable blue dye used in making paper, paints, and...
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Address to the Public

Benjamin Franklin gave this speech to a Philadelphia anti-slavery society in 1789. As president of the society, Franklin argued for the abolition, or end, of slavery and also for the...
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An Overseer Doing His Duty

This image depicts a white overseer casually supervising the work of enslaved African women cultivating the tobacco crop in Virginia. Although some female slaves were assigned to do traditional women’s...
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Arator

In this essay, Virginia planter John Taylor considered the topic of agricultural labor. Pointing to the recent Haitian revolution, he warned that slavery could result in a bloody race war...
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Bannaker’s Almanac

This 1795 almanac was the fourth in a six-year series published by Benjamin Banneker, a free African American scientist, surveyor, and mathematician from Baltimore. Banneker helped survey the land for...
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Beer Cellar at Monticello

Jefferson kept beer, often made by slave Peter Hemings, in rooms like this in Monticello’s basement....
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Breakfast with the Madisons

Artist G.B. McIntosh imagines breakfast at Monticello with James and Dolley Madison as guests. Seen in the picture are: enslaved child Israel Gillette, age 12 carrying in food; Thomas Jefferson;...
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Building Monticello

Artist G. B. McIntosh imagines what it might have looked like to build Monticello....
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Burwell Colbert, an enslaved butler

Burwell Colbert was born a slave in 1783. At ten years old, he began working in the nail-making shop at Monticello. He trained to be a painter and a glazier, a person who sets glass in window panes. In 1805, Jefferson wrote that Burwell “paints and takes care of the house.” In later years, Burwell…