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With this text, the colony of Rhode Island outlawed the importation of enslaved Africans and established the immediate emancipation of enslaved people in the colony in 1774. However, the law stipulated some important exceptions that made this change particularly ineffective.

In this text, Venture Smith recounted his experiences as an enslaved person in New England, including his work to pay his enslaver for his freedom in the mid-18th century.

In this text, we learn about James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, who obtained his freedom only for a creditor to threaten him with enslavement. The text describes his experience working off his debt by privateering in the Caribbean while he expressed his dream to relocate to London, England.

In this newspaper article, the author made an argument against the importation of enslaved Africans and in favor of the importation of European servants, using race to distinguish the differences between labor.

In this text, Judge Samuel Sewall of Massachusetts Bay refuted four arguments supporting slavery, utilizing the Bible in his religious argument against enslavement of Africans.

These are two different advertisements describing people who had escaped from slavery. They demonstrate the different treatment and valuation of enslaved people.

This is an image of an advertisement for a slaver's auction. It describes the enslaved people available for purchase.

This is an antislavery poem by John Greenleaf Whittier on a broadside with an accompanying woodcut image.

This is an excerpt from a speech by Frederick Douglass.

This is a Democratic campaign document discussing the South’s monetary stakes.