This attractive exhibit utilizes essays and more than 140 images to explore the 400-year history of slavery in the Americas. The site reminds us that together "the slave trade and slavery represented one of the longest, most sustained assaults on the dignity and self-worth of human beings in the history of humankind." The site's home page offers an introductory essay that presents the central themes of the exhibit. The site is centered around nine thematic presentations on the forging of common identities in slavery; the enslavement process in Africa; the transatlantic slave trade; slave labor and slave systems; the struggle against slavery and the abolition of slavery; family life and social development; religion; language, literacy, and education; and culture. Each image is accompanied by an explanatory caption. There is no search feature available on the site. An informative overview of slavery in the Americas, the site is also of interest to those studying African-American culture.

This site consists of nearly 300 images of Afro-Virginians dating from the 1880s to the early 20th century. Images are scanned from prints taken by father and son, George S. Cook and Huestes P. Cook, principally in the Richmond and Central Virginia area. Users can search the digital collection by keyword or browse images, including agriculture, education, recreation, religion, tobacco, and urban life. Documentation of labor is the most extensive, while the images of children ad education are fascinating. This site is valuable to those studying African-American life at the turn of the century or Virginia history.

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 is precisely what it says, a collection of 396 pamphlets written by African Americans or by non-African Americans writing about slavery, Reconstruction, the colonization of Africa, and other pertinent topics.

According to the website, "[. . . t]he materials range from personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches." Prominent authors include, but are certainly not limited to, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.

Material can be browsed by title, author, or subject; or you can run a key word search. If you need more material than what is available in the collection itself, there is a list of external resources with related content.

Unadorned and easy to navigate, this comprehensive website contains 46 first-person accounts of slavery and African life dating from 1682 to 1937. Each document is introduced with an illustrative sentence or short paragraph that describes the historical context.

There are both recognizable and unknown actors in this website. Former slaves such as Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman, as well as white abolitionists such as John Brown express forceful, if familiar, condemnations of slavery.

In addition, there are unheralded historical voices that not only speak poignantly, but also reflect different (African-centered) perspectives. For example, a ship doctor's searing report of the Middle Passage; a slave husband's anguished letter to his wife after she was sold; and black social reformers' protests against the cruel punishments of slave owners.

When taken together, the assembled testimonies, including those by women, present slavery as a deeply entrenched institution that provoked a wide range of compelling commentary.

Nearly 1,400 documents address aspects of life in the South from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The database features 10 major projects.

The First Century of the First State University presents materials on the beginnings of the University of North Carolina. Oral Histories of the American South offers 500 oral history interviews on the civil rights, environmental, industrial, and political history of the South. First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860–1920 offers 140 diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives. North American Slave Narratives furnishes about 250 texts.

The Library of Southern Literature makes available 51 titles in Southern literature. The Church in the Southern Black Community, Beginnings to 1920 traces the role of the church as a central institution in African American life in the South. The Southern Homefront, 1861–1865 documents non-military aspects of Southern life. The North Carolina Experience, Beginnings to 1940 provides close to 600 histories, descriptive accounts, institutional reports, works of fiction, images, oral histories, and songs.

North Carolinians and the Great War offers 170 documents on the effects of World War I and its legacy. Finally, True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students at the University of North Carolina analyzes 121 documents written by students. All projects are accompanied by essays from the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.

This well-designed website explores the fundamental role of the churches, businesses, and institutions of Atlanta's Auburn Avenue, as well as the colleges and universities of the Atlanta University Center, in developing black leadership in the civil rights movement. The main section, "Atlanta's Story," is a timeline of Atlanta's civil rights movement between 1940 and 1970 with four essays: "Gradualism and Negotiation" covers the years 1940-1949; "Retrenchment and Redirection" discuses the events of 1950-1959; "Direct Action and Desegregation" examines the years between 1960 and 1965; and "The Quest for Black Power" explores 1966-1970.

Additionally, an extensive bibliography offers a list of more than 120 books and 50 articles both on the Atlanta Civil Rights movement and the movement in general. "Web resources" has more than 50 links to related websites. The site also provides a searchable inventory of special collections materials. Finally, the site offers a small photo gallery of 25 images. A useful starting point for anyone researching the civil rights movement or Atlanta.

A collection of 20 maps of Liberia produced or acquired by the American Colonization Society (ACS) in their efforts to settle free black Americans in West Africa. These maps show natural features on the west coast of Africa and locations of native peoples, colonist towns, and mission stations. The collection includes two maps made in 1868-69 by African-American explorer Benjamin Anderson. Users can zoom in to view map details. A "Time Line: History of Liberia" includes a 2,500 word essay with three photographs of Liberian presidents Joseph Jenkins Roberts and James Skivring and Roberts' wife Jane; links to 13 related documents; and a nine-title bibliography.

Four guided investigations designed to teach students how to read primary sources and construct historical narratives lie at the heart of this website. Topics are: the Spanish-American War, the Scopes Trial, Social Security, and Rosa Parks. Each topic includes a short introductory video, a timeline of events, a central question, and extension activities. For example, the Rosa Parks investigation poses the question: "Why did the boycott of Montgomery's buses succeed?"

After completing a simple login, students read annotated documents—including letters written by the boycott organizers, a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. and an interview with a woman working in Montgomery—and answer guiding questions, and draw on their responses to answer the question. The website also includes a useful introduction to the idea of historical thinking.