PBS
How The Autobiography Of A Muslim Slave Is Challenging An American Narrative
Omar Ibn Said was 37 years old when he was taken from his West African home and transported to Charleston, South Carolina, as a slave in the 1800s. Now, his one-of-a-kind autobiographical manuscript has been translated from its original...
PBS
"12 Years a Slave" restores historic firsthand account
In depicting American slavery, Hollywood has long left some of the most brutal realities largely unseen. But the filmmakers behind "12 Years a Slave" tried not to flinch in showing the full system of human subjugation. Jeffrey Brown...
Crash Course
Commerce, Agriculture, and Slavery: Crash Course European History
We've been talking a lot about kings, and queens, and wars, and religious upheaval for most of this series, but let's take a moment to zoom out, and look at the ways that individuals' lives were changing in the time span we've covered so...
TED Talks
Kevin Bales: How to combat modern slavery
In this moving yet pragmatic talk, Kevin Bales explains the business of modern slavery, a multibillion-dollar economy that underpins some of the worst industries on earth. He shares stats and personal stories from his on-the-ground...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Shakespeare's "The Tempest"? - Iseult Gillespie
Explore William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”, a story of shipwreck, magic and a fight for power. -- Claps of thunder and flashes of lightning illuminate a swelling sea, as a ship buckles beneath the waves. It is no ordinary storm,...
TED Talks
Steven Wise: Chimps have feelings and thoughts. They should also have rights
Chimpanzees are people too, you know. Ok, not exactly. But lawyer Steven Wise has spent the last 30 years working to change these animals' status from "things" to "persons." It's not a matter of legal semantics; as he describes in this...
TED Talks
Yeonmi Park: What I learned about freedom after escaping North Korea
"North Korea is unimaginable," says human rights activist Yeonmi Park, who escaped the country at the age of 13. Sharing the harrowing story of her childhood, she reflects on the fragility of freedom -- and shows how change can be...
Crash Course
Slavery - Crash Course US History
In which John Green teaches you about America's "peculiar institution," slavery. I wouldn't really call it peculiar. I'd lean more toward horrifying and depressing institution, but nobody asked me. John will talk about what life was like...
Crash Course
Haitian Revolutions: Crash Course World History
Ideas like liberty, freedom, and self-determination were hot stuff in the late 18th century, as evidenced by our recent revolutionary videos. Although freedom was breaking out all over, many of the societies that were touting these ideas...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: From slave to rebel gladiator: The life of Spartacus - Fiona Radford
Spartacus was a slave -- one of millions taken from territories conquered by Rome to work the mines, till the fields or fight for a crowd’s entertainment. Imprisoned for deserting the Roman Army, he and other slaves fought their way free...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How do executive orders work? - Christina Greer
On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln legally changed the status of over 3 million people from "slave" to "free." But his emancipation proclamation wasn't a law - it was an executive order. The framers of the American Constitution made...
Crash Course
The Election of 1860 & the Road to Disunion Crash Course US History
In which John Green teaches you about the election of 1860. As you may remember from last week, things were not great at this time in US history. The tensions between the North and South were rising, ultimately due to the single issue of...
Crash Course
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Part 1: Crash Course Literature
In which John Green teaches you about Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This week, we'll talk a little bit about Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who wrote under the name Mark Twain, and how he mined his early life for decades to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The fight for the right to vote in the United States - Nicki Beaman Griffin
In the United States today, if you are over eighteen, a citizen, and the resident of a state, you can vote (with some exceptions). So, how have voting rights changed since the first election in 1789? Nicki Beaman Griffin outlines the...
Crash Course
The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism Crash Course US History
In which John Green teaches you about the United States Constitution. During and after the American Revolutionary War, the government of the new country operated under the Articles of Confederation. While these Articles got the young...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What you might not know about the Declaration of Independence - Kenneth C. Davis
In June 1776, a little over a year after the start of the American Revolutionary War, the US Continental Congress huddled together in a hot room in Philadelphia to talk independence. Kenneth C. Davis dives into some of the lesser known...
Crash Course
Haitian Revolutions Crash Course World History
Ideas like liberty, freedom, and self-determination were hot stuff in the late 18th century, as evidenced by our recent revolutionary videos. Although freedom was breaking out all over, many of the societies that were touting these ideas...
Crash Course
The Atlantic Slave Trade Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you about one of the least funny subjects in history: slavery. John investigates when and where slavery originated, how it changed over the centuries, and how Europeans and colonists in the Americas arrived at...
Curated Video
The Atlantic Slave Trade: Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you about one of the least funny subjects in history: slavery. John investigates when and where slavery originated, how it changed over the centuries, and how Europeans and colonists in the Americas arrived at...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The history of chocolate - Deanna Pucciarelli
If you can't imagine life without chocolate, you're lucky you weren't born before the 16th century. Until then, chocolate only existed as a bitter, foamy drink in Mesoamerica. So how did we get from a bitter beverage to the chocolate...
Crash Course
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 Crash Course Black American History
One of the ways that the US Constitution baked the institution of slavery into the very core of the new United States was through the fugitive slave clause. The clause required that people who escaped slavery be returned to their...
Bedtime History
Missouri Compromise of 1820 for Kids
New ReviewIn 1820, the United States was growing—but deep divisions over slavery were threatening to tear it apart. The Missouri Compromise was an agreement meant to keep peace between free and slave states by drawing a line across the country....
The Daily Conversation
American Revolution: Greatest Revolutions, Part 2
New ReviewThe American and French Revolutions change the power dynamics of the world. Part 2 of our educational timeline of History's Greatest Revolutions.
Curated Video
Atlantic Slave Trade
New ReviewThis World Cultures instructional video discusses the evolution of the Atlantic slave trade.