Victorian

Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848. Found in the Collection of Musée Carnavalet, Paris. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The death of a dream: why Europe’s great year of revolution in 1848 failed

A family comprising several generations of enslaved people. Resistance, common throughout the history of slavery, ranged from slow working to violent fights for freedom (Universal History Archive/Gertty Images)

Freedom fighters: the enslaved people who fought for the abolition of slavery

Prospectors pan for gold in Siberia during the 19th century.

Where did the major gold rushes of the 19th century happen? And why were people so keen to join the gold rush?

Prospecting towns like Dawson boomed during the gold rush.

The dark side of the 19th-century gold rush

Queen Victoria of Great Britain with her husband, Prince Albert, and their nine children. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria’s children

Violence erupted in New Orleans, and white southerners killed and injured more than 100 freed slaves during a riot against reconstruction plans. (Image by Alamy)

Rebuilding America after the Civil War: what was the Reconstruction era and why did it fail?

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A slave in chains expressing the inhumanity of slavery with the words 'Am I not a man and a brother?', 1774. (Photo by Getty Images)

Britain and the slave trade . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Slaves of Confederate Brigadier-General Thomas F Drayton at his cotton plantation in South Carolina during the American Civil War

Why is America haunted by its past?

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Abraham Lincoln (Photo by Library of Congress)

The secret plot to kill Lincoln . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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HEX_Voices_Michael Wood

Michael Wood on statues "These ‘history wars’ over statues are really about something bigger: about different views of the past, and who controls it" . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Podcast Website large Afua Hirsch

From Nelson to Churchill: challenging British heroes with Afua Hirsch . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An African man after being liberated from a slave ship by the Royal Navy, 1871. In all, more than 12 million captives were loaded onto Atlantic slavers’ vessels. (Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images)

A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade

An 1826 illustration from 'The Black Man's Lament

David Olusoga "Thousands of Britons opposed abolition – because they owned slaves"

An engraving depicting a scene of chaos at Bethlem Royal Hospital

Bethlem Royal Hospital: why did the infamous Bedlam asylum have such a fearsome reputation?

Ramshackle homes in a Newcastle slum, c1880

From riches to rags: David Olusoga reveals how Britain’s grand houses descended into Victorian slums