Solomon Northup was a free man living in New York. In 1841, he was lured south and kidnapped and spent more than a decade enslaved. He recorded his experiences in the book 12 Years a Slave, which has been made into an Academy-award winning film. Read this article to find out more about Northup’s struggle for freedom.
Archaeological evidence now supports the idea that the city of Troy was not only larger and more important than previously realized, but that it also may have been able to withstand a ten year siege, just as Homer reported in the Iliad. Was the war really about the kidnapping of Helen? Or might it have been about the city’s overwhelming power? Read to find out.
Many Americans know that the United States and the Soviet Union narrowly avoided nuclear war in 1962. Very few, however, know that poet Robert Frost met with the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, just as the nuclear crisis got underway. Read this article by Stewart L. Udall to find out why the poet and the premier met, and discover what happened.
Human beings have been telling tales for a very, very long time. Check out this site to learn about four tales you may never have heard before, the stories of the Queen of Sheba, Shangri-La, King Arthur, and Jason and the Argonauts.
When composer Nkeiru Okoye was a young girl, her mother shared stories about Harriet Tubman. Now, Okoye is paying tribute to Tubman with a folk opera that shows audiences Tubman’s life, both in slavery and in freedom.
Before South Africa’s late president Nelson Mandela was an inspiring world leader, he was a prisoner, jailed for 27 years for his actions opposing his country’s apartheid rule. Watch dramatic video documenting his release from prison in 1990.
People often refuse to see facts that disprove a common belief. This excerpt from the book You Are Now Less Dumb by David McRaney examines why we stick to easily-disproved ideas and how we can get smarter about what we see and think.
A new exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum attempts to reconstruct the lives of slaves and slaveholders to give a better understanding of that time in history.
Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault reflects on the character and achievements of South Africa’s first black president.
Although best know for his fiction, Ernest Hemingway was also a war correspondent and a Red Cross ambulance driver. Read this article from the National Archives to find out how Hemingway’s wartime experiences influenced his writing.
