Legacies: Rita Lurie and Leslie Gilbert-Lurie
Leslie Gilbert-Lurie and Rita Lurie reflect on Rita’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor.
Life After the War: Rita Lurie
Rita Lurie, Holocaust survivor, explains what her life after the end of World War II.
Life During the War: Rita Lurie
Rita Lurie describes her experiences as a child hiding from the Nazis and Polish farmers.
Life in the Forest
Former Jewish partisan Frank Blaichman discusses how partisans persevered in the face of challenging weather, hunger, and suffering.
The Role of Carpetbaggers
Alexander White, a white congressman from Alabama, describes the role that “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” played in Reconstruction politics.
Savannah Freedpeople Express Their Aspirations for Freedom
Read an excerpt from the transcript of the Savannah Colloquy, a meeting between Union officials and Savannah’s Black community in January 1865. This reading is available in Spanish.
Savannah Freedpeople Express Their Aspirations for Freedom (en español)
In Spanish, read an excerpt from the transcript of the Savannah Colloquy, a meeting between Union officials and Savannah’s Black community in January 1865.
Sharecropping Contract
In this sharecropping contract, farmer Thomas J. Ross agrees to employ Freedmen to plant and raise a crop on his Rosstown Plantation in Shelby County, Tennessee.
South Carolina Freedpeople Demand Education
Read an excerpt of the resolution passed at an 1865 convention of freedmen in South Carolina that demanded, among other rights, education.
South Carolina Freedpeople Demand Education (en español)
In Spanish, read an excerpt of the resolution passed at an 1865 convention of freedmen in South Carolina that demanded, among other rights, education.
Speech by Senator Charles Hays Reaffirming the Rights of African Americans (1874)
Republican congressman Charles Hays of Alabama, a former slaveholder, shares his views on a new civil rights bill that would end segregation of public transportation and public accommodations.