American South

Harper Lee on the porch of her parents' home in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1961

Eight Never-Before-Seen Short Stories by 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Author Harper Lee Will Be Published This Year

After Lee's death in 2016, typescripts of her early fiction were discovered in her New York apartment. The previously unseen drafts offer new insights into her creative development

A Harper's Weekly illustration of Confederate soldiers driving Black Americans south in 1862

After Confederate Forces Captured Their Children, These Black Mothers Fought to Reunite Their Families

During the Civil War, Confederates targeted free Black people in the North, kidnapping them to sell into slavery. After the conflict ended, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved ones

Residents of Summerville have reported sightings of a mysterious glowing light over the town's old railroad tracks. The pictured tracks, while not the "haunted" site, were studied in an effort to determine the source of the 1886 Charleston earthquake.

The 'Ghost' Haunting This South Carolina Town Might Have an Earthly Explanation, Scientist Says

In a new research article, a seismologist argues that earthquakes are the reason for the mysterious lights associated with a local urban legend in Summerville

Major Pierce Butler, a U.S. senator representing South Carolina and an original signer of the United States Constitution, left the 1,500-acre rice plantation—and its enslaved laborers—to his grandsons when he died. For locals whose ancestors were forced to work there, it’s considered a sacred place.

Inside the Struggle to Preserve Georgia's Butler Island, Home to a Notorious Plantation

Descendants of people enslaved at the site are grappling with its complicated history while also honoring the region's rich culture

Daniel Bachman at home in Madison County, Virginia, with his trusty Martin D-18 guitar.

A Brilliant Folk Musician Turned the Natural Sounds of the Blue Ridge Mountains Into Powerful Songs

Daniel Bachman is on a mission to evoke Virginia’s past through strange medleys of sounds

Estimates of the number of Pacific Islanders captured by blackbirders and forced to work on cotton and sugar plantations in Fiji and Australia range from 61,610 to more than 100,000.

How 'Blackbirders' Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War

The decline of the American South's cotton and sugar industries paved the way for plantations in British-controlled Fiji and Australia, where victims of "blackbirding" endured horrific working conditions

Smithsonian's picks for the best books about food of 2024 include McAtlas, A Call to Farms, Slow Noodles and more.

The Ten Best Books About Food of 2024

Travel to the American South, Vietnam and beyond with this year’s best cookbooks, memoirs and historic deep dives

Steadfast Stride Toward Justice by artist Basil Watson is the first life-sized depiction of John Lewis in his home state.

New Statue Honoring Civil Rights Activist John Lewis Unveiled in His Home State of Alabama

The life-sized bronze sculpture of the congressman joins statues of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Plaza in Montgomery

The machine features a ceramic countertop and two parallel rollers—one that's covered with small nubs.

Historians Say They've Solved the Mystery of a Curious 100-Year-Old Contraption Discovered in Storage

Staffers at the Dorchester County Historical Society in Maryland were baffled by the unusual machine, so they asked the public for help in determining its purpose

A white mob poses outside of the razed office of the Daily Record, a Black-owned newspaper in Wilmington, North Carolina, on November 10, 1898.

When White Supremacists Staged the Only Successful Coup in U.S. History

The 1898 Wilmington massacre left dozens of Black North Carolinians dead. Conspirators also forced the city's multiracial government to resign at gunpoint

Robert Smalls made headlines when he commandeered a Confederate ship during the Civil War.

He Escaped Slavery and Became a Civil War Hero. Now, Robert Smalls Is Getting a Statue in South Carolina

A special committee has until January 15 to finalize the design, location and funding for a monument that will be erected on the lawn of the South Carolina State House

The grand Biltmore house will reopen on November 2.

Asheville's Biltmore Estate Will Reopen for the Holidays After Sustaining Damage From Hurricane Helene

The sprawling estate, which is the largest privately owned home in the country, will open its doors in November after a month-long closure

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How Black Americans in the South Boldly Defied Jim Crow to Build Business Empires of Their Own

The Great Migration transformed the nation—but millions of African Americans never left their Southern communities. Their unlikely success makes their stories all the more remarkable

This specimen is the first complete tusk of its kind found in Mississippi.

Rare Seven-Foot Mammoth Tusk Unearthed in Mississippi Creek

The enormous fossil belonged to a Columbian mammoth, a larger relative of the woolly mammoth

Start dates at schools across American range from mid-July to early September.

When Do Kids Go Back to School? It Depends on Where They Live

In some districts, students returned to their classrooms weeks before Labor Day

A 1959 photograph of William "W.R." Saxon, who is standing third from left

This Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Refused to Give Up His Bus Seat Four Years Before Rosa Parks Did

William "W.R." Saxon filed a lawsuit against the company that forced him to move to the back of the bus, seeking damages for the discrimination and mental anguish he’d faced

To mark her graduation from dental school in 2021, Breanna Henley took photographs in front of a slave cabin at Redcliffe Plantation.

Why Descendants Are Returning to the Plantations Where Their Ancestors Were Enslaved

Some Black Americans are reclaiming antebellum estates as part of their family legacy, reflecting the power and possibility of these historic sites

The badges identify the wearer's occupation, such as servant or porter. 

These Badges Shed New Light on the Enslaved Workers Who Built Charleston

The Smithsonian has acquired a collection of 146 slave badges from between 1800 and 1865

Rickwood Field is the oldest ballpark in the United States.

Everyone Should Know About Rickwood Field, the Alabama Park Where Baseball Legends Made History

The sport's greatest figures played ball in the Deep South amid the racism and bigotry that would later make Birmingham the center of the civil rights movement

Members of the Little Rock Nine study together after being blocked from Little Rock Central High in 1957.

Little Rock Nine and Paul McCartney React to Beyoncé's 'Blackbird' Cover

McCartney was inspired to write the song after hearing about the battle to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957

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