slavery

On Juneteenth, she celebrates the role quilts may have played in Underground Railroad

11:51am June 19, 2025

Edith Edmunds, who is 99 years old, the art of quilt making is inextricably linked to the Black struggle for freedom. That's why she plans to be sewing Thursday on Juneteenth.

'Last Seen': After slavery, family members placed ads looking for loved ones

2:37pm February 26, 2025

Formerly enslaved people would placed ads in newspapers hoping to find lost children, parents, spouses and siblings. Historian Judith Giesberg tells the stories of some of those families in a new book.

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A new book explains what the color blue can teach us about Black history

1:44pm January 28, 2025

Imani Perry traces the history and symbolism of the color blue, from the indigo of the slave trade, to Coretta Scott King's wedding dress, to present day cobalt mining. Her new book is Black in Blues.

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A newspaper clipping of an 1898 News and Observer article

America's only successful coup d’état took place in Wilmington, 1898. 'Scene on Radio' tells the story

4:47am February 19, 2024

by David Ford

The Wilmington massacre and coup of 1898 destroyed a once thriving multiracial democracy, killed dozens if not hundreds of innocent Black people, and left in its wake a community forever scarred.

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In this file photo, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks during a town hall on Dec. 18 in Nevada, Iowa.

Nikki Haley didn't say slavery caused the Civil War. Now she's facing major backlash

5:28pm December 28, 2023

by Ashley Lopez

At a campaign event in New Hampshire Wednesday, the former S.C. governor didn't mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War, sparking controversy. Now she's walking back those comments.

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The artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is one of this year's MacArthur fellows. Her sculptures, paintings, installations and photography are displayed in over 30 museums around the globe. When she got news of the s0-called "genius grant," she says, " I was running room to room in the house, feeling a sense of terror and elation."

MacArthur 'genius' makes magical art that conjures up her Afro-Cuban roots

12:03pm October 04, 2023

by Malaka Gharib

One of this year's MacArthur fellows — the so-called 'genius grant' — the artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is inspired by her family's African roots, her Cuban childhood and modern American life.

The remains of Catoctin Furnace in Maryland as seen in 2020. Researchers have now analyzed the DNA of enslaved and free Black workers there, connecting them to nearly 42,000 living relatives.

A landmark study opens a new possible way for Black Americans to trace their ancestry

11:28am August 04, 2023

by Scott Maucione

Researchers have compared the DNA of 27 Black people who lived at the Catoctin furnace between 1774 and 1850, finding a link between these enslaved Americans and nearly 42,000 living relatives.

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Dutch King Willem-Alexander lays a wreath at the slavery monument Saturday after apologizing for the royal house's role in slavery in a speech greeted by cheers and whoop.

World News

Dutch king apologizes for the monarchy's role in global slave trade

1:44pm July 01, 2023

by Willem Marx

"I make this apology myself. And I feel the weight of the words in my heart and my soul," King Willem-Alexander said at a ceremony marking 160 years since the end of slavery in the Netherlands.

State courts in every state highlighted on this map have cited cases involving enslaved people in the 1980s or later.

National

Slave cases are still cited as good law across the U.S. This team aims to change that

6:36am June 14, 2023

by Rachel Treisman

Michigan State law professor Justin Simard says 18% of all published American cases are within two steps of a slave case. His team has spent years documenting them, hoping to force a legal reckoning.

The Catholic Church profited from slavery — 'The 272' explains how

1:27pm June 13, 2023

by Terry Gross

"You don't hear about enslaved people at Mass or in Sunday school," says Rachel Swarns. Her new book tells the story of 272 enslaved people sold in 1838 to help save what is now Georgetown University.

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