As a literary scholar and cultural historian who has spent a lifetime searching out African Americans' lost, forgotten and otherwise unheralded tales, I was honored to serve as a historical consultant on Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave," most certainly one of the most vivid and authentic portrayals of slavery ever captured in a feature film.

Paul Cuffee, perhaps the wealthiest black American of his time, led a Back-to-Africa effort in the early 1800s.

Harry's determination to be free suggests that not all of the slaves found Washington to be the benevolent master whom historians have depicted.

The senators in power after the Civil War had to settle a fundamental question when it came to seating Hiram R. Revels, the first black senator-elect, in 1870: Was it too soon, according to the Constitution, for any black man to be legally entitled to serve?

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. describes the man who inspired his 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro series.