Slavery & Freedom: Featured Resources
Learn more about our Teaching and Learning Unit and Early Childhood Education Initiative
Understanding and Celebrating Juneteenth
Use this guide to discuss the important concept of freedom, the history of slavery and Juneteenth with young children
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the daily lives of enslaved African Americans?
Slavery & Freedom: Guides
Slavery and Freedom
Book selections for 3rd–12th grade students and educators
Educator’s Guide
Use this guide to open conversation about the economic and emotional toll of the U.S. Slave Trade
Learn more about our Teaching and Learning Unit and Early Childhood Education Initiative
Understanding and Celebrating Juneteenth
Use this guide to discuss the important concept of freedom, the history of slavery and Juneteenth with young children
Slavery & Freedom: Smithsonian Learning Lab
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the history and culture of medieval West Africa (600 to 1400 AD)?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the experiences of those involved in creating and profiting from the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and those who were kidnapped and sold?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the creation, development, and characteristics of slavery in Colonial America?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the cultural understanding, use, and destruction of slavery throughout the Atlantic World by revolution?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the paradox of liberty in the new United States?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and their relationships to the paradox of slavery and freedom in the new United States?
Free African Americans and Their Communities
What can objects tell us about the experiences of free African Americans and their communities throughout the United States?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the experiences of enslaved and free African Americans and their communities during the War of 1812?
Colonization, Emigration, and Maroonage
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the experiences of African Americans in relation to the Colonization Movement, emigration, and maroonage?
The Documents of the Early Republic
What can objects tell us about the experiences of African Americans as understood through foundational documents that defined the political, economic, and social realms of the Early Republic?
Westward Expansion and the Domestic Slave Trade
What can objects tell us about the experiences of African Americans in relation to Westward Expansion and the Domestic Slave Trade?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the experiences of enslaved and free African Americans who engaged in daily acts of resistance?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the daily lives of enslaved African Americans?
Abolition and the Coming of War
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the abolitionists, the Abolitionist Movement, and the events highlighting the coming of the Civil War?
The Business of Slavery and the North
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the connections between the Northern states, industrialization, business, and the institution of slavery?
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the experiences of enslaved and free African Americans and their experiences and participation in the American Civil War (1861–1865)?
Documents of the Antebellum Era
Learning History Through Objects
What can objects tell us about the experience of African Americans during the Antebellum Era (1815–1860)?
Juneteenth
Explore objects related to Juneteenth and create your own playlist to interpret the meaning of the holiday
Thinking Through Complex Systems
Rice Cultivation
Explore this collection to learn about the role of rice cultivation during slavery and the transmission of African traditions and knowledge
Making a Way Out of No Way: Guides and Activities
Making a Way Out of No Way
Book selections for 3rd–12th grade students and educators
Joyful ABC Activity Booklet Series
Early Childhood Education
These downloadable activity booklets invite caregivers and educators to support children’s positive identity development while also growing their language and literacy skills with activities, museum objects, and new words
Making a Way Out of No Way: Smithsonian Learning Lab
James Baldwin: Transatlantic Commuter
Learning History Through Objects
This Learning Lab Collection asks students to analyze documents, images, and objects that give insight into James Baldwin’s life as a transatlantic commuter and use objects to understand how they impacted his work and writings
Early Childhood Education
Explore a colorful collection of hats made by the amazing milliner Mae Reeve
Early Childhood Education
Learn more about nurses’ work as community helpers with this collection of objects and photographs from the NMAAHC collection
Early Childhood Education
This collection is designed to spark conversations with children about activism and what children and adults can do to help make their communities, schools and the world better, more fair places for all people
Early Childhood Education
What’s something you love learning about? Have you learned to do something new recently? How have you taught someone else? Use school-related objects from the National Museum of African American History and Culture to start a conversation!