Slaves and Slave Owners Story Briefs

When the "New World" needed cheap labor for its plantations, slave traders kidnapped Africans from their home villages. A "triangle trade" system forever changed the lives of an entire people. Explore this collection to learn what those slaves endured, and discover stories of other types of slavery such as forced labor camps in the Soviet GULAG.

Slave owners would pay rewards to anyone who helped recover fugitive slaves.

Compilation of images, from 1764, illustrating what Africans endured after being kidnapped by slavers.

Aship was brought to Port Royal where onboard conditions were discovered and reported (by a letter to the editor) in the 20 June 1857 issue of theIllu...

Slave families are routinely split-apart as America's system of chattel slavery disregards how slave family members feel about each other.

When Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, in 1492, he began an exchange of crops, animals and diseases which still impact the world. It is known as "The C...

On the 21st of August, 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Virginia.

Learn about American slavery, slave auctions and the Underground Railroad (when people helped others to escape the horrors of chattel slavery).

A man of contrasts who owned slaves, Thomas Jefferson declared that all men were born equal.

Africa had its own system of slavery, before the European slave trade, but it involved a system of justice.

Escaping slaves, during the years of the "Underground Railroad," arrive at League Island (near Philadelphia).

Escaping slaves needed to understand a bit of science in order to find their way to freedom. The words of songs helped them to achieve that objective...

Even when he was very young, William personally helped escaping slaves and is known as the "Father of the Underground Railroad."

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