Special Features
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Preview
Dolley Madison
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Map, Interactive
The Abolitionist Map of America
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Bonus Video
Silicon Valley and the Digital Revolution
The Abolitionists
How five abolitionist allies turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation.
Henry Ford
The story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century.
Silicon Valley
Robert Noyce's invention of the microchip launched the world into the Information Age.
Then & Now
The Panama Canal
One hundred years after opening, the Panama Canal is getting a $5.25 billion makeover.
My American Experience
What does Silicon Valley mean to you?
When you think of Silicon Valley, do you think of a place? An era? A person? A movement? What is its relevance in history or to American culture? Have you been there? What did you think? Share your story with American Experience.
Series Blog
Why Celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation?
On New Years Day, 1863, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and countless other abolitionists across the nation waited anxiously for word on the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. In grade school, I learned that it freed the slaves. But when I later read the document, I realized that it was not that simple: Lincoln only freed the slaves on Confederate soil, exempting those states under Union occupation and those fighting for the Union. Why, then, on January first, 1863, did abolitionists celebrate the news of partial emancipation as if it fulfilled the very core of their mission?
