Nineteenth Century Life Documents

The U.S. government allowed slave owners to seek-and-find runaways.  This text image depicts an example of advertisements, which owners published...

Map depicting the location of Saint-Remy-de-Provence, where Vincent spent nearly a year in an asylum.  

Sam Houston, former President of the Republic of Texas, wanted to travel outside his country.  To do so, he obtained this passport in 1839. It p...

This is an excerpt from the oral history of Sarah Graves, also known as "Aunt Sally." Note that to maintain authenticity, writers transcribed the ora...

This text image depicts another excerpt from the oral history of Sarah Graves (also known as "Aunt Sally").  Interviewed in the 1930s, as part o...

During the 1930s, the federal government hired writers to interview former slaves and to obtain their oral histories. This is page 1 of the oral hist...

This is page 3 of the oral history of Sarah Grudger who claimed to be 121 years old at the time of the interview.  Click on the image for a bett...

This is page 4 of the oral history of Sarah Grudger who claimed to be 121 years old at the time of the interview.  Click on the image for a bett...

This is page 5 of the oral history of Sarah Grudger who claimed to be 121 years old at the time of the interview.  Click on the image for a bett...

In February of 1820, the U.S. Senate passed an amendment which would prohibit slavery in the newly purchased Louisiana territory.  An exception, ...

To resolve the issue of admitting Missouri as a "slave state," thereby ending the senatorial "balance of power" between "free and slave states," the S...

This image depicts the second page of a bill of sale by which a slave owner named Jacob Cook purchased four slaves "for life."   The slaves, of ...