These court cases reveal how enslaved Black people in Virginia sought freedom in the courts after the colonial government made manumitting enslaved people the responsibility of the government.
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The story of an enslaved black woman caught up in the hysteria of the 1741 slave uprising.
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This advertisement about a runaway enslaved woman contains fascinating clues about her life.
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The indenture contract of nine-year-old Elizabeth Fortune reveals the opportunities available to young free black women in colonial New York.
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These pages from the log book of the Sloop Rhode Island starkly demonstrate the treatment of enslaved people during the Middle Passage.
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Margueritte Wiltz’s petition to marry a Spanish soldier captures the early expressions of white supremacy in Spanish Louisiana.
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This portrait shows how free Black women in Spanish Louisiana turned an oppressive law into a celebration of individuality and culture.
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The story of a woman for sale in colonial New York.
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The story of a Black woman who rose from plantation slave to plantation mistress in colonial Florida.
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This poem by Phillis Wheatley demonstrates how enslaved and free Black people saw the American Revolution as an opportunity to end the systematic oppression of Black people in the colonies.
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