Slavery

Why do chickens have wings if they can’t use them to fly?

Why Are Chickens So Bad at Flying? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

One of the mysterious boats painted in an Australian cave several hundred years ago

New Study Identifies Mysterious Boats Painted in Australian Cave

Researchers say the rock art may be a record of "fighting craft" from present-day Indonesia

Adopting the last name of his former enslaver, Harry spent the rest of his life pursuing the ideal for which the name Washington has long been revered in American history: fighting for freedom.

Enslaved by George Washington, This Man Escaped to Freedom—and Joined the British Army

Harry Washington fought for his enslaver's enemy during the American Revolution. Later, he migrated to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone

“From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya With Ayana V. Jackson” is currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art through April 2024 (above: When the Spirit of Kalunda Comes So Does Kianda, Ayana V. Jackson, 2018-2022).

Meet the Inhabitants of the Mythic World of Drexciya

Artist Ayana V. Jackson creates an undersea realm honoring those who jumped or were thrown overboard during the trans-Atlantic slave trade

Participants in a YWCA camp for girls in Highland Beach, Maryland, in 1930

When Private Beaches Served as a Refuge for the Chesapeake Bay's Black Elite

During the Jim Crow era, working-class Washingtonians' recreation options were far more limited—and dangerous

Costin may have been the child of Martha Washington’s son from her first marriage, John “Jacky” Parke Custis, and an enslaved woman.

Did Martha Washington Have a Black Grandson?

Likely the child of Martha's son from her first marriage, William Costin used his position to advocate for D.C.'s free Black community

When 72-year-old Boucher gave his age as 48 to an army doctor, the man smiled and said, “And then some, like myself.”

The 72-Year-Old Who Lied About His Age to Fight in World War I

A Civil War veteran, John William Boucher was one of the oldest men on the ground during the Great War

A view of Philadelphia's historic Chinatown

These Are America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual list spotlights cultural sites facing a range of threats

Descendants of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and descendants of slaves owned by Lee face Washington, DC, as they pose for a photo during a reunion at Lee's former plantation home, the Arlington House, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on April 22, 2023.

The Descendants of Robert E. Lee and the Workers He Enslaved Join Hands in Racial Reconciliation

The Confederate general's Virginia home hosted families from all across the United States.

Archaeologists unearthed the foundation of the original 1818 church.

DNA Evidence Sheds Light on One of America's Oldest Black Churches

New research links human remains in Williamsburg, Virginia, to the first permanent building of the First Baptist Church

A hand-colored 1892 print of the Battle of Fort Pillow

At Fort Pillow, Confederates Massacred Black Soldiers After They Surrendered

Targeted even when unarmed, around 70 percent of the Black Union troops who fought in the 1864 battle died as a result of the clash

Workers removed a statue of enslaver Robert Milligan in 2020. Eventually, the new monument will be located nearby.

New Monument in London Will Honor Victims of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

After removing a statue of an enslaver in 2020, the city aims to tell a new story

Frederick Douglass once said, “Samuel R. Ward has left no successor among the colored men amongst us, and it was a sad day for our cause when he was laid low in the soil of a foreign country.”

Frederick Douglass Thought This Abolitionist Was a 'Vastly Superior' Orator and Thinker

A new book offers the first full-length biography of newspaper editor, labor leader and minister Samuel Ringgold Ward

The unveiling of the new Harriet Tubman memorial on March 9 in downtown Newark, New Jersey

Monument to Harriet Tubman Unveiled in New Jersey

The 25-foot-tall memorial celebrates Newark’s connection to the Underground Railroad

A 1903 photograph of Paul Laurence Dunbar

The Brief but Shining Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Poet Who Gave Dignity to the Black Experience

A prolific writer, he inspired such luminaries as Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes

A brown-green vessel bearing the inscription, "A noble Jar for pork or beef / then carry it a round to the indian chief" made by the enslaved craftsman David "Dave" Drake, is now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

For the Enslaved Potter David Drake, His Literary Practice Was His Resistance

This 19th-century vessel, made to store meat, carries a powerful backstory of Drake's defiance of the laws of enslavement

Ella Hawkins’ stunning biscuit art emulates book covers, scalloped-edged Tiffany lamps, pottery shards, mosaic tiles, medieval manuscripts, Elizabethan fabrics and more.

The Timeless Draw of Decorating Cookies

Intricate designs painted by biscuit artist Ella Hawkins are part of a lengthy baking tradition

Stories of the enslaved people who helped kick-start paleontology and the Native American guides who led naturalists to fossils around the continent have long been suppressed.

The First Fossil Finders in North America Were Enslaved and Indigenous People

Decades before paleontology’s formal establishment, Black and Native Americans discovered—and correctly identified—millennia-old fossils

John H. Smith (left), mayor of Prichard, Alabama, unsuccessfully campaigned for the creation of an Africatown national park.

The Forgotten 1980s Battle to Preserve Africatown

A new book tells the definitive history of an Alabama community founded by survivors of the slave trade

Crews carefully relocated the building to Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum roughly half a mile away.

Oldest Schoolhouse for Black Children Moves to Colonial Williamsburg

The school educated free and enslaved Black children between 1760 and 1774

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