Historical Documents

Court Proceedings and Testimony Regarding the Denmark Vesey Rebellion
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Corwin Amendment
Joint Resolution Proposing a 13th Amendment to the Constitution
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lee Letter
Robert E. Lee’s Demand for the Surrender of John Brown and His Party
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Thoreau
A Plea for Captain John Brown- Excerpts
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
John Brown Entrance Into Hell Song
John Brown's Entrance Into Hell.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Hand written Emancipation Proclamation 1863
Emancipation Proclamation 1863
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)
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)
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)
A Plea for Captain John Brown
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)
Reconstruction Amendments 1865-1870
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)
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)
Lincoln as They Saw Him by Herbert Mitgang- Excerpt
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Amnesty Oath
Amnesty Oath of Robert E. Lee
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
This political cartoon illustrates James Buchanan beset by figures who employ quotes from the Ostend Manifesto to legitimize their criminal acts.
Ostend Manifesto
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Additional Article to the Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Charleston Mercury Article
The Insurrection
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Rail Splitter
“The Last Race of the Rail-Splitter,” Broadside, ca. 1861
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)
Poem
Nat Turner by T. Thomas Fortune
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
Title Page
The Confessions of Nat Turner- Excerpt
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)
Abolition/Slavery Timeline
ERA 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754–1820s), ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)

Historical Images

William Sherman
Gen. William T. Sherman
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Secession Movement Political Cartoon
The "Secession Movement"
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
The Freedmen's Bureau Cartoon
"The Freedman's Bureau"
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Jefferson Davis captured
[Jefferson Davis dressed in women's clothing being captured in a tent by two Union soldiers as two women and an African American man look on] / Francis Hacker.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Political Cartoon
A Family Quarrel, or the Reason Why.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Tragic Prelude
Tragic Prelude by John Steuart Curry
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Horrid Massacre in Virginia- Composite of scenes of Nat Turner’s rebellion
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
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)
Douglas Letter
Bust of Stephen Douglas over Northern Democratic Party's presidential campaign shield
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
John Brown Cartoon
John Brown exhibiting his hangman
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
Stonewall Jackson
General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson
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)
Lincoln Photo
Abraham Lincoln on the day of his speech at the Cooper Union
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Harvest of Death
Pennsylvania, Gettysburg. A Harvest of Death
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Lincoln print
The Union must and shall be preserved. For President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. For Vice President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine.
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Map of the Union 1864
Bacon and Company, Map of the United States, showing the territory in possession of the Federal Union, January, 1864
ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
James Buchanan surrounded by criminal quoting the Ostend Manifesto
The Ostend Doctrine
ERA 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861), 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)

Collections

Abraham Lincoln & Hannibal Hamlin
America’s Oddest Election, by Harold Holzer
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)