(Edmund Quincy, 1857) In its second issue, The Atlantic urged Northerners to take a stand against slavery.

(James Russell Lowell, 1860) The Atlantic’s editor endorsed Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in the 1860 election, correctly predicting it would prove to be “a turning-point in our history.”

(James Russell Lowell, 1861) “We must convince men that treason against the ballot-box is as dangerous as treason against a throne.”

(Julia Ward Howe, 1862) The lyrics to Julia Ward Howe’s patriotic classic premiered in the February 1862 issue of The Atlantic.

(William Parker, 1866) An escaped slave tells his story—including his account of his violent showdown with slave-catchers in Pennsylvania.

(Frederick Douglass, 1866) "No republic is safe that tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens equal rights and equal means to maintain them."

(Frederick Douglass, 1867) “Statesmen, beware what you do. The destiny of unborn and unnumbered generations is in your hands.”

(David W. Blight, 2017) Throughout modern history, the millions forced to flee as refugees and beg for asylum have felt Douglass’s agony, and thought his thoughts.

(Yoni Appelbaum, 2017) Some issues aren’t amenable to deal making; some principles don’t lend themselves to compromise.

(Adam Serwer, 2017) The legend of the Confederate leader’s heroism and decency is based in the fiction of a person who never existed.

(Vann R. Newkirk II, 2017) The most famous Emancipation holiday is more necessary now than it has ever been.

(Vann R. Newkirk II, 2019) The debate over reparations highlights the dual purpose of the holiday: celebrating emancipation but also demanding accountability for historical and present wrongs.

(Matt Ford, 2017) History textbooks used in New York City during the president’s childhood called the Klan “patriotic,” and downplayed the role of slavery in “the War Between the States.”

(Randall Kennedy, 2018) His champions now span the ideological spectrum, but left and right miss the tensions in his views.

(Ibram X. Kendi, 2019) Marking the 400-year African American struggle to survive and to be free of racism

(David W. Blight, 2019) In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, he dreamed of a pluralist utopia.

(Ibram X. Kendi, 2020) The pandemic has brought the latest battle in the long American war over communal well-being.

(Annika Neklason, 2020) The most powerful people and institutions in the South spread paranoia and fear to protect slavery. Their beliefs led the country to war—and continue to haunt our politics to this day.

U.S. National Library of Medicine. Looks at the men and women who served as surgeons and nurses and how their work as medical providers challenged the prescribed notions of race and gender.