Encyclopedia

This interactive encyclopedia offers teachers and students access to terms, people, and events related to the history of Slavery in America. Many entries include reference material and some of the biographies on prominent figures contain suggestions for teaching as well as links to related sections of this site. The encyclopedia will continue to grow throughout the course of this project.

Yazoo Delta: The Yazoo Delta is a triangular area of Mississippi north of the city of Vicksburg and the Yazoo River and stretching in a flood plain along the Mississippi River to its west. It is an area of extraordinary fertile ground and vast plantations and agricultural wealth. "The Delta" is considered most appropriately as the "Home of the Blues" and also home to the Mississippi State Penitentiary--"Parchman Prison," a place of legal incarceration and brutality that was labeled by historian David M. Oshinsky as being "worse than slavery".

Young, Preston Bernard: (1884-1962) The most powerful political figure in Virginia between the World Wars who, as editor and publisher of the Norfolk Journal and Guide, pressed relentlessly on issues of civil rights and equality for blacks. In 1943 he was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to the Fair Employment Practices Commission after his work exposed discrimination practices by defense contractors.