Historical Documents

Lee Letter
Robert E. Lee’s Demand for the Surrender of John Brown and His Party
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Liberator
The Liberator Comments on Nat Turner’s Insurrection
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
John Brown Constitution Cover Page
Pamphlet, John Brown’s "Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States"
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
A Plea for Captain John Brown
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Rep. Joe Courtney
Ahead of Oscars, Courtney asks Spielberg, DreamWorks to correct Lincoln inaccuracy that places Connecticut on wrong side of slavery debate
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
Molefi Kete Asante
The Real Nat Turner by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
Joint Resolution Submitting 13th Amendment to the States; signed by Abraham Lincoln and Congress Congress, Wednesday, February 01, 1865
Joint Resolution Submitting 13th Amendment to the States; signed by Abraham Lincoln and Congress Congress, Wednesday, February 01, 1865
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
S.123 — 38th Congress (1863-1865)
S.123 - A Bill To abolish slavery throughout all the States and Territories of the United States.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Court Proceedings and Testimony Regarding the Denmark Vesey Rebellion
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Reconstruction Amendments 1865-1870
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lincoln Address
Cooper Union Address
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis' Farewell Address
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Grant Inauguration
First Inaugural Address of Ulysses S. Grant
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Democratic National Convention 1860
Democratic Party Platform, June 18, 1860.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Cover Page
Fear of Insurrection: Chapter 12 of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Lincoln as They Saw Him by Herbert Mitgang- Excerpt
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Black Code
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
New York Daily Tribune, “Freedom Triumphant”
New York Daily Tribune, “Freedom Triumphant”
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Fugitive Slave Bill Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown Song
Glory hally, hallelujah! or The John Brown song. H. De Marsan, 54 Chatham Street, N.Y.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lincoln, Hollywood, and an Opportunity for Historians- Excerpt
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
Argument of Roger S. Baldwin Before the Supreme Court in the Case of U.S. Appellants vs. Cinque, and Other, Africans of the Amistad
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Amendments Proposed in Congress by Senator John J. Crittenden
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Broadside of John Brown's Last Speech
John Brown's Speech to the Court at his Trial
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Sam Waterson
Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address, as read by Sam Waterston May 23, 2004
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
Amendments Proposed by the Peace Conference, February 8-27, 1861
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Pamphlet
Democratic ticket. Our principals the Constitution. For President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky For Vice President Joseph Lane of Oregon
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Frederick Douglass Address Cover Page
John Brown: An Address
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lincoln and Hamlin Image
Book Review by Chandra Miller Manning
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
No Annexation of Texas
Texas Annexation Treaty
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Corwin Amendment
Joint Resolution Proposing a 13th Amendment to the Constitution
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
H.R. 14
H.R.14 — 38th Congress (1863-1865)
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

Collections

Lee surrenders
Why The Civil War Still Matters, by James McPherson
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown
The Father of American Terrorism, by Ken Chowder
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind
Hollywood History, by Mark C. Carnes
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877), ERA 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
The Statue of the Freed Slave
The Slaves Freed, by Stephen Oates
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown, the Abolitionist
The Father of American Terrorism, by Ken Chowder
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Lincoln at the Time of the Cooper Union Speech
Lincoln, the Orator by Harold Holzer
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

Historical Images

William Sherman
Gen. William T. Sherman
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Emancipation by Thomas Nast
Emancipation by Thomas Nast
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Scene in the House on the passage of the proposition to amend the Constitution, January 31, 1865
Scene in the House on the passage of the proposition to amend the Constitution, January 31, 1865
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Infantry regiment
Infantry regiment in camp. [Probably 96th Pennsylvania Infantry at Camp Northumberland near Washington, DC, ca. 1861] Mathew Brady Collection. (Army) ca. 1861
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown Cartoon
John Brown. Meeting the slave-mother and her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Horrid Massacre in Virginia- Composite of scenes of Nat Turner’s rebellion
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
The Freedmen's Bureau Cartoon
"The Freedman's Bureau"
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Stonewall Jackson
General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Secession Movement Political Cartoon
The "Secession Movement"
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Tragic Prelude
Tragic Prelude by John Steuart Curry
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Sheet Music
“The Battle-Cry of Freedom” with Confederate Lyrics
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)