Slaves and Slave Owners Documents

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.

The Illustrated London News published an article, and this picture, in the September 17, 1845 issue.  From the article, we learn that these shack...

Page from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (also known as "Gustavus Vassa, The African"). What happened when captured Africans were sold to buyer...

Page from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (also known as "Gustavus Vassa, The African"). Captured Africans were placed below decks, Equiano tell...

In 1858, an enslaved woman named Ann Maria Jackson and her seven children (ranging in age from three or four to sixteen) were about to be sold at a pu...

Page from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (also known as "Gustavus Vassa, The African").  This page tells the story of what it was like to s...

A page from Olaudah Equiano's book, telling the story of how he and his sister were both kidnapped from their village. Click on the image for a bette...

Chapter page from The Experience of Uncle Tom - taken from  Experience and personal narrative of Uncle Tom Jones: (1854). Author: Jones, Thomas. ...

Continuing chapter page from The Experience of Uncle Tom - taken from  Experience and personal narrative of Uncle Tom Jones: (1854). Author: Jone...

The Table of Contents page from the book, Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative.

This table of illustrations, from The Child's Anti-Slavery Book, shows the types of images which were included in the book.  Its purpose was to h...

John Newton commanded a ship - The African - in the summer of 1752.  It was a slave ship, with 250 slaves aboard. This image, from the Cowper &a...

Image of the published poem The Branded Hand by John Greenleaf Whittier. Click on the image for a better view.

Show tooltips