This is a hard part of our country's story, and it is important to know. For a long time, many people in America were enslaved.
Key idea
People who were enslaved were not free. They were forced to work without pay, and they could not choose where to live. Slavery in the United States ended in 1865.
Why it works
Starting in the 1600s, people were taken from their homes in Africa and brought across the ocean on ships. They and their children were enslaved. They worked on farms and in homes and towns, in all thirteen colonies. Enslaved people kept their families, songs and faith as best they could, and many tried to escape. After the Revolution, the Northern states began to end slavery, but in the South it grew. It took a long struggle and the Civil War to end slavery everywhere, in 1865.
Common mistake
Some children think slavery was only in one place, or that it ended as soon as people said it was wrong. It was in all thirteen colonies, and it lasted more than 200 years. Many people, enslaved and free, worked for a long time to end it.
For the grown-up: Children may feel sad or upset. Let them ask questions and answer simply. The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) ended slavery in the United States; Juneteenth remembers the news of freedom reaching Texas.