Adams was a vocal opponent of slavery during the Revolutionary era

Adams' famous 1776 letter urged the Founders to 'remember the ladies'

In a March 1776 letter to John, Adams urged the Founders not to grant husbands unchecked power over their wives. Historians note it was not a demand for suffrage but a challenge to coverture—the legal doctrine that denied a married woman an independent identity.

Hamilton opposed slavery in principle but participated in the institution

Alexander Hamilton spoke against slavery, helped found the New York Manumission Society, and supported gradual emancipation while also participating in transactions involving enslaved people through his in-laws—and possibly within his own household, though historians debate this.

Adams had a deep contempt for Alexander Hamilton

Adams regarded him as dangerously ambitious and untrustworthy. Her letters are among the most vivid contemporary assessments of Hamilton, providing a portrait of one of the founding era's most contentious figures.

Abolitionists shaped American history from the Revolution to the Civil War

Abolitionists of all backgrounds organized against slavery from the founding era onward. Historian Manisha Sinha argues that their decades of activism fundamentally shaped American democracy and made emancipation possible.

Whitman's antislavery writing often focused on white Americans

The poet was openly opposed to slavery, though some of his writing focuses on abolition’s benefits for white people rather than for the lives of the enslaved.

Both Abigail and John Adams had complicated relationships with Thomas Jefferson

This podcast examines the complex history between the Adams family and Thomas Jefferson—a relationship that fluctuated between close friendship and fierce rivalry, influenced by political conflicts and personal loyalties.

Madison condemned slavery in theory while owning slaves

James Madison argued that slavery violated Revolutionary ideals. Yet, he inherited and managed more than 100 enslaved people to operate the family's 3,000-acre plantation, brought enslaved laborers to the White House, and later sold them for personal profit.

Later in life, Washington privately grew critical of slavery—while continuing to uphold it publicly

His private letters increasingly described slavery as unjust and incompatible with Republican ideals, and his final will ordered the eventual emancipation of those he legally owned. At the same time, he enforced slave labor, signed pro-slavery laws, and took no public action to dismantle the system.

The abolitionist movement long predated the Civil War

Beginning in the late 18th century, abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Sojourner Truth campaigned through newspapers, lectures, and political action to end slavery.

Adams was so involved as first lady that some nicknamed her 'Mrs. President'

As first lady, Adams took an active role in her husband's presidency—advising on appointments, critiquing his speeches, and corresponding extensively with politicians. She supported the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts and pressed for war with France during the XYZ Affair.

A section condemning slavery was cut from the Declaration

Thomas Jefferson included a passage in his original draft denouncing slavery. This explainer from the Henry Ford Museum explores why Congress removed it to preserve colonial unity and how that decision shaped the nation's earliest political compromises.

Abigail Adams received no formal schooling, but educated herself through reading

Despite receiving no formal education—standard for women of her era—Adams became well-read, largely through self-directed reading and extensive correspondence with leading political thinkers of her time, such as Thomas Jefferson and Mercy Otis Warren.

Francis Scott Key was a slaveholder and anti-abolitionist

As a Christian, Key was opposed to slavery in principle, though he owned slaves and was opposed to abolition. His anti-slavery work was limited to the American Colonization Society, which believed slaves should be freed and then returned to Africa, despite Black Americans opposing the idea. Later, he turned into an anti-slavery activist.

Opposition to British taxes, regulation of trade was key to American independence

The economic situation in the colonies formed the backbone of the central events of the Revolution. British war debts caused it to lay the first direct taxes on colonists, cease their westward expansion claims, and adhere to stringent trade regulations, leading to backlash and eventual separation.

The intellectual architect of the Monroe Doctrine was Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, not Monroe

Adams, the main foreign relations authority in the Cabinet, shaped the key parts of the Monroe Doctrine speech. He advocated for a unilateral American declaration to warn European powers, rejecting a potential joint statement with Britain favored by some Cabinet members.

Support for slavery helped drive Texas to revolt against Mexico

Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, but many Anglo-American settlers in Texas brought enslaved people and refused to comply. Their desire to preserve slavery was a major factor in Texas’s 1836 rebellion and independence from Mexico.

Read Truth's account of escaping slavery in 1826

After her enslaver broke his promise to free her, Truth left before dawn, carrying her infant daughter and a bundle of clothes. She later found refuge with the Van Wagener family, who paid her master $20 for her freedom and $5 for her infant daughter.

Read Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience'

The essay—originally delivered as a lecture and inspired by a night in jail for failing to pay a poll tax—argued that citizens should nonviolently resist unjust government policies, including slavery. Read the entirety of the essay for free.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates sharpened the national divide over slavery

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas debated while competing for an Illinois Senate seat. Their seven debates, reprinted nationwide, brought the question of slavery to the forefront—further polarizing the country and propelling Lincoln to national prominence.

Who said 'rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God'?

As a brief, punchy statement rejecting unjust authority, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God" became widely adopted during the American Revolution. The phrase is often misattributed to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, the latter of whom used it on his personal seal. This fact-checked article dives into the history of the phrase, claiming it was first used in 1770 in an epitaph for an English judge. Read more here.

Madison once lost an election because he refused to give voters free alcohol

After serving in Virginia's 1776 convention, James Madison lost a 1777 house of delegates race after refusing to bribe voters with liquor, which he believed violated republican principles.

Peggy Shippen, Benedict Arnold's wife, was the highest-paid spy of the Revolution

Few names conjure up the idea of betrayal more than Benedict Arnold, the notorious American military officer who was caught attempting to hand over West Point to the British during the Revolutionary War. This podcast episode dives into the key role his wife, wealthy spy Peggy Shippen, played in the plot.

250 years of world trade history

Adam Smith’s revolutionary ideas about free trade were often ignored throughout American history to protect domestic industry—until World War II caused a shift in sentiment about global trade.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Cassatt participated in a fundraiser for women's suffrage against her family's wishes

The painter took part in a 1915 charity exhibition in support of women's right to vote. That offended some of her family members, especially her sister-in-law, who were opposed to the cause. In response, Cassatt sold works that had originally been designated for them.

Trans-Atlantic and intra-American slavery: a visual database

This interactive database provides insight into the trading of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. This database offers maps, articles, timelapses, videos of 3D slave ship models, and searchable databases on enslavers and the enslaved. According...

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.