From the Kansas State Historical Society website:

"Gun collectors covet this rare and beautiful 18th century Pennsylvania-made rifle. How did it end up in Kansas? We'd like to know the answer to that question, too!"

Professor Marshall Poe interviews Peter Mancall on his book Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson, which describes the 1610-1611 voyage of explorer Henry Hudson. While looking for a Northwest Passage, Hudson's ship was captured in ice; when it eventually came free, Hudson's crew mutinied and put Hudson adrift before returning to England.

Boston College professor Kevin Kenny discusses his book Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn's Holy Experiment with University of Iowa professor Marshall Poe. The book looks at the downfall of Quaker William Penn's ideal of peaceful coexistence between Native Americans and colonists.

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's Laura Simo discusses a life portrait of George Washington by English artist Robert Edge Pine (1730-1788). Simo focuses on Pine's life, looking at his sympathy for Americans and their cause that brought him to the newborn U.S. in 1784 and the events that brought him to paint Washington's portrait.

National Portrait Galley curator Sid Hart discusses Thomas Jefferson and John Adam's relationship, Jefferson's time as vice president, and his campaign for the presidency and contentious election.

In 11 short video clips, Smithsonian curator Barbara Clark Smith analyzes John Smith's 1612 map of Virginia.

In 37 short video clips, ranging in length from 43 seconds to over three minutes, scholars James Campbell, Keith Stokes, Joanne Pope Melish, Gordon Wood, and Michael Vorenberg look at the triangle trade that brought Africans to the U.S. as slaves and at perceptions of slavery in colonial New England, particularly examining the views of abolitionists. Intended to accompany the Choices Program's curriculum A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England, these clips may still be used independently.

Registration is required, but free.

Linda B. Osborne discusses her book, Traveling the Freedom Road, which draws on interviews with former slaves in the Library of Congress collections to convey the aspirations, sorrows, courage, and hopes of ordinary people living through this period. More than 80 archival images complement the text. Major events covered include the rise of the domestic slave trade, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Republican Congress' Reconstruction policies.

Maurice Jackson discusses Anthony Benezet, the founder of the antislavery movement in America in the mid-1700s. Benezet believed the British ban on slavery should have been extended to the colonies, and worked to convince his Quaker brethren that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine.