Videos

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-legislation-that-birthed-the-republican-party-ben-labaree-jr You may think that things are heated in Washington today, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had members of Congress so angry...

In this video, we'll learn about the US Supreme Court decision in Scott vs Sanford, handed down in 1857. The case ultimately rejected the idea that Black people could be citizens of the United States, and this helped entrench the institution...

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was a law that required citizens to assist in the capture and return of runaway slaves. It was highly controversial and contributed to tensions between the North and South leading up to the Civil War. The...

One of the ways that the US Constitution baked the institution of slavery into the very core of the new United States was through the fugitive slave clause. The clause required that people who escaped slavery be returned to their enslavers...

Discover the real Harriet Tubman in this compelling documentary narrated by Alfrelynn Roberts and featuring expert interviews with leading scholars, including Dr. Eric Lewis Williams of the Smithsonian Institute and Carl Westmoreland of the...

How did Harriet Tubman go from being a slave to the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, personally rescuing hundreds from slavery? This video explores her life, her daring rescues, her part in the American Civil War, and how...

References Samuels, E. (2006). “A complication of complaints”: untangling disability, race, and gender in William and Ellen Craft’s Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom. MELUS, 31(3), 15. McCaskill, B. (1994). “Yours very truly”: Ellen...

The movement to abolish slavery took root in Pennsylvania, from the Quaker principles of its early settlers to the Free African Society and the fiery activism of John Brown. Amidst heated debates and societal unrest, many Pennsylvanians opposed...

Liberty depends on courageous people willing to sacrifice. Today, you’ll learn the story of a hero, Passmore Williamson - along with William Still, Jane Johnson and others - who had the courage to resist unjust "laws"

How did the First World War begin? By the summer of 1914, Europe was in a crisis. Just a few weeks before, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, had been assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian-backed terrorist...