Civil Rights Documents

Are people born free? Do governments give rights to citizens or do citizens give-up some rights in exchange for good government? These are stories about people seeking and achieving their civil rights.

In 1704, Britain imposed “Penal Laws” which governed the conduct of Irish Catholics. Over the decades, those restrictive laws substantiall...

Britain imposed "Penal Laws" on Irish Catholics in 1704.  This image highlights some of the more onerous laws which adversely impacted Irish-Cath...

Account book from the snow Molly, a slave ship. 

Account of Slaves Sold in Barbados, on the 26th of February, 1685.  Click the image to expand its view. The UK National Archives provides a key ...

In 1916, congess passed a law forbidding the sale of goods made by children outside the state.  Though the law was overturned it marked an import...

On the 9th of November, 1789, Benjamin Franklin published an "Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slave...

This image is a facsimilie of the petition from Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to the United States Senate in 1874.

This image is a facsimilie of the petition from Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to the United States Senate in 1874.

Image of a Harper's Weekly article published on February 9, 1861 called Now ready - American slavery Justified, by Reverend Samuel Seabury, ...

Image of a copy of Thomas Jefferson's Declartion of Rights, approved by the Continental Congress and published in Colonial newspapers on October 14, 1...

This is a page from the Affidavit of Kimbo, one of the Amistad Africans who had been kidnapped in Sierra Leone.  The original document is maintai...

This image depicts the original document freeing the Amistad captives.  The opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court was written by Justice Story.

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