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These sections illustrate the ways in which the U.S. Constitution provided direct protection of slavery.

These are two different advertisements describing people who had escaped from slavery. They demonstrate the different treatment and valuation of enslaved people.

This act shows the ways in which Virginia regulated manumitting (freeing) of enslaved people and the subsequent race-based laws for freedpeople.

Lincoln’s first inaugural address illustrates the centrality of slavery in southern states decision to secede after the 1860 election.

Recounting a selective portion of an enslaved woman’s life, this brief biography also serves as a reflection of what mainstream society deemed “worthy” during the early to mid-19th century. Precisely because Alice supposedly embodied characteristics that were both exceptional and ordinary, her story offers a useful lens to consider how slavery was understood in its time.

In this excerpt, Robinson describes "the four classes of men" who played pivotal roles in the system of chattel slavery.