Civil Rights Movement: Background - History

The impassioned abolitionist and eloquent orator provides graphic descriptions of his childhood and horrifying experiences as a slave as well as a harrowing record of his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom. Published in 1845 to quell doubts about his origins, the Narrative is admired today for its extraordinary passion, sensitive descriptions, and storytelling power.

Frederick Douglass, one of the most prominent figures in African-American and United States history, was born a slave, but escaped to the North and became a well-known anti-slavery activist, orator, and author. In The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass, Nicholas Buccola provides an important and original argument about the ideas that animated this reformer-statesman.

In his lifetime Washington was the most influential African American in the United States. The Papers reveal the private world of black Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and provide vivid personal perspectives on interracial relations during the "age of accommodation."

A fiery speaker, Sojourner Truth was among the foremost women evangelists. This reprint of her original 1878 publication sheds light into the life of this well-known ex-slave and ardent abolitionist.

In an in-depth account of this amazing activist, Margaret Washington unravels Sojourner Truth's world within the broader panorama of African American slavery and the nation's most significant reform era. (Note: You will have to enter your MultiPass credentials to access this off-campus.)

Careful study of the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831 reveals much about master, slaves, and the relationship between them in the antebellum South. The central document in this volume -- Nat Turner's confession follwing the rebellion in Virginia -- is supported by newspaper articles, trial transcripts, and excerpts from the diary of Virginia governor John Floyd.

In August 1831, in Southampton County, Virginia, Nat Turner led a bloody uprising that took the lives of some fifty-five white people-men, women, and children-shocking the South. Never before has anyone so patiently examined the extensive private and public sources relating to Southampton as does Allmendinger in this remarkable work. (Note: You will have to enter your MultiPass credentials to access this off-campus.)

Few historical figures are as intriguing as John Brown, the controversial Abolitionist who used terrorist tactics against slavery and single-handedly changed the course of American history.