“Twice Punched in the Gut“ By Dr. Robert E. Wright Whenever I hear anyone earnestly claim that slavery is/was good for the economy, I feel like I have been punched in the stomach, twice. That is because I’m...
“Ravine to Freedom is Journey to Self” By Rev. Dr. Christopher P. Momany What we learn about ourselves along life’s path is as important as what we learn about history. In fact, the two belong together. Historians and activists...
The Lost Cause? Teaching the U.S. Civil War in 2016 By Dr. Thomas Balcerski Browse the ever-burgeoning corridors of the internet this time of year, and you will be sure to encounter a popular meme. Two images form...
The Scholarship of HAS Board Members Historians Against Slavery is composed of scholar-activists. As dedicated as we may be to combating human trafficking and battling unfree labor in all its forms, we are first and foremost historians. Our approach...
The Election and Historians Against Slavery. A special message from HAS founder James Brewer Stewart Dear Friends of HAS, “We are re-living Germany in 1936….It feels as if someone l love dearly has suddenly died . . . ....
“Black Freedom Fighters on the Silver Screen” by Dr. Peter H. Wood, Emeritus Professor of History, Duke University A quarter century ago, teaching a Native American History class at Duke, I noted that enrollment spiked after the release of...
“Learning from the Legal Culture of Gradual Emancipation, or, Misled by the Thirteenth Amendment” by Dr. Hendrik Hartog Post originally appeared on Progress: A Blog for American History. Re-posted with permission of the author and editor. For some historians, the...
“Mapping Memories of Enslavement”: The French Confront Their Own History By Dr. Mattie Fitch Like all European countries, France has a long history of participating in slavery, from slave labor in France’s colony of Saint Domingue that ultimately produced...
Art for Abolitionists: How I Joined the Fight Against Human Trafficking By Callen Buchanan [Ms. Buchanan is a high school student in Vinton, VA who organized a charitable event to raise money to combat human trafficking. Her event received...
Abolitionists are American Democracy’s Unsung Heroes By Dr. Manisha Sinha Most...
HAS-UK Kick-Off! Beginning in the era of the American Revolution, and even with the Quakers before that, the abolition movement was a transatlantic phenomenon. Whether in the era of Anthony Benezet and Granville Sharp or of William Lloyd Garrison...
Lincoln, the 13th Amendment, and the “Cure for All the Evils” By Dr. Christian Samito In his first public address after Congress passed a resolution proposing to the states a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery nationwide, President Abraham Lincoln...
The Dangers of a Fake Tubman Quote By Dr. W. Caleb McDaniel In 2008, at the height of the presidential primary contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the feminist...
The Policy Pundit’s Hippocratic Oath: Do No Harm By Dr. Robert E. Wright At their best, abolitionists and antislavery activists are essentially policy pundits because they want governments to change various policies that impact the costs and benefits associated...
“Right and Rationalization,” by Rev. Dr. Christopher P. Momany Recent years have witnessed much understandable examination of the slavery-laced legacies at several American colleges and universities. There are many reasons for this attention, and a number of these institutions...
“African American History at Risk in Richmond” By James Brewer Stewart, Macalester College Throughout the antebellum decades slaveholders delivered tens of thousands of “their” enslaved people to Lumpkin’s Slave Jail (aka. the Devil’s Half-Acre) located in Richmond, Virginia. Lumpkin’s was...