Slave Trade
Slavery
Historical Evidence
Portfolio Assignments

 

Historian
Historical Evidence

Courtesy of Chicago Historical Society

Use the template Summarizing Internet Resources when visiting links. Print it and make copies as needed. Visit as many links as you can in the time you are given or as your teacher directs. There are 25 links to review for this role.

In this section, you'll examine more of the evidence that historians use - artifacts, images, statistics, and documents. Review these 12 links carefully and see what insights they provide.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT WHILE REVIEWING THESE LINKS

  1. What reactions do you have to the artifacts, images, and statistics?
  2. How do historians use these kinds of evidence?
  3. How does this evidence tie South Carolina to the history of slavery?

Research Links

These links will open in a new browser window. When you are finished researching a particular link, simply close the browser window that opened to return to this webpage.

  • Pictorial Images of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
    You've been to this site before. This time, view images of artifacts used in the Atlantic slave trade. On the home page, click on the following buttons and review the images listed here. Click on each image to enlarge it.

    Slave Ships and the Middle Passage
    #13-leg shackles used on slave ship
    #15-shackles on slave ship Henrietta Marie, 1699

    New World Slave Sales
    #8-three metal branding irons with owners' initials

  • Slave Labor
    Here are images of slavery artifacts used on plantations. Click "Continue" several times to see all the artifacts.

  • The Facts On: Slavery Artifacts
    Read about a man who collects slavery artifacts. If you click the link "Read the Conversation Archive" on the opening page, you can then click on and read his responses to student questions.

  • Images of African-American Slavery and Freedom
    Has several photographs of South Carolina plantations. Click on the images to enlarge them and on the underlined titles above the images to get additional information.

  • Selected Statistics on Slavery in the United States

  • United States Historical Census Data Browser
    You can create your own tables and graphs at this site.

    • One at a time, click on the button for each census from 1790 to 1860.
    • For each census, choose the variable for "total number of slaves."
    • A table listing all states comes up; click the "graph states" button for a bar graph of the same information.
    • When you get to the state tables for the 1850 and 1860 census, click the box in front of South Carolina, then click "view counties."
    • All South Carolina counties appear in table form; click "graph counties" button to see a bar graph of the statistics.

  • Gang of 25 Sea Island Cotton and Rice Negroes
    Click to view advertisement of slaves for sale.

  • A Resolution of Revolution
    Contains text of General William Tecumseh Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 and explains the term "40 acres and a mule." This document provides insights into why African Americans believe they have a claim to Sea Island lands.

  • Freedmen Furnished Certificates of Land
    Lists former slaves who received 40 acres of plantation land.

  • Unkept Promise Slowed Recovery
    Skim the first 15 paragraphs to learn the aftermath of Special Field Order No. 15.

  • Slaves in the Family
    A historian reveals his own family's legacy of slavery.