Portside

Maine's petition for statehood was stopped dead by southerners who refused to permit a free state—one that did not permit human enslavement—to enter the Union without a corresponding “slave state” resulting in the infamous "Missouri Compromise."

Interview with Dr. Maurice Jackson about his new book on the use of sport and music. Traditionally not fields touched on extensively in intellectual history, the book builds on both of these to create a rich tapestry of life in Washington, D.C.

In The Unseen Truth, Sarah Lewis examines how an erroneous 18th-century story about the “Caucasian race” led to a centuries of prejudice and misapprehension.

Harvard University has laid off the staff of its Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program, the unit of its $100 million Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative tasked with identifying the direct descendants of those enslaved by Harvard affiliates.

The president’s latest salvo against the Constitution shouldn’t survive the judiciary’s scrutiny. But these days, you never know.

Slave owners tried to keep enslaved people under control with better meals and more downtime during the holiday season. Many enslaved people were onto their owners and used this brief period of respite to plan escapes and start revolts,

In a new study, we found that legislators who are descendants of slaveholders are significantly wealthier than members of Congress without slaveholder ancestry.

In October of 1845, having been silenced by government censors—and on the run from possible extradition—Karl Marx once thought about moving to Texas.