The US Army as a Slaveholding Institution
Until the Civil War, US Army officers relied on enslaved servants even while serving in “free states.”
Hoe History: Complex and Knotted
The plantation hoe, a simple, ubiquitous, and historically ignored farming tool, was specific to the Atlantic colonial project, shows historian Chris Evans.
Working on the (Underground) Railroad
Born a free Black man, William Still kept the books and managed the money for the Philadelphia branch of the Underground Railroad.
Chains of Credit: The Entrepreneurial Advantage of Slavery
As the financial history of Maryland shows, slavery represented extraordinarily liquid wealth and outsized political power.
Building a New Virginia in Liberia
Black American voluntary migrants to Liberia were eager to embrace their African roots, but their vision for the country was very much an American one.
Reading for Juneteenth
The JSTOR Daily editors have rounded up a collection of stories that discuss the origins, meaning, and legacy of Juneteenth.
The Great Dissenter’s Complications
Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan I argued the US Constitution was color-blind. He also believed it stood in defense of white supremacy.
Humans for Voyage Iron: The Remaking of West Africa
Europeans used standardized bars of iron mined in northern Europe to purchase humans during the slave era, transforming the coastal landscape of West Africa.
The British Empire’s Bid to Stamp Out “Chinese Slavery”
The mui tsai custom, which the British saw as a Chinese practice, relied on connections made across the multiracial landscape of colonial Malaya.
Taking Slavery West in the 1850s
Before the Civil War, pro-slavery forces in the South—particularly the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis—tried to extend their power westward.