AskHistorians

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How long did it take slavery to really end after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect? Slave owners didn’t just free all their slaves right then, did they? How was the EP enforced? Did some owners threaten their former slaves if they tried to leave?	31
My dad who’s a huge Led Zepplin fan loves to tell me how Zepplin, along with rock in general, is derived from jazz. How did jazz become rock and roll, and why is rock and roll mostly made of up white men when jazz is a traditional black music that developed during a highly racist time?	31
I recall reading somewhere that when the concentration camps were liberated, volunteers/nurses and medics tried to help the survivors by doing their make up and hair, to show them they saw them as people. Did this happen in multiple places? How did medics go about treating survivors emotionally?	30
During the AIDS crisis, did people understand or even know how it was transmitted? Was it thought of a “contagious cancer?” Who was putting out health information about AIDS out, and how long did it take scientists to understand how it spread?	29
I rewatched the movie “Selma” this afternoon and noticed a character wrote “Negroe” for her race on her voter registration form. How did black people go from calling themselves n*gger, negroe, to well, black?	28
What are the ethics surrounding using and displaying personal artifacts, such as diaries, letters, phone calls, texts, etc?	27
Wikipedia states the famous "Who's on First?" sketch is “descended from turn-of-the-century burlesque sketches that used plays on words and names.” Where could I find these routines written down?	27
There’s debate today over how progressive “Huck Finn” really is. What were the reactions of newspapers, politicians, pro/anti slave groups, free/enslaved blacks+ to it? Was there another way to refer to a black person at the time besides the n word? Had any books featured black characters before?	26
Where can I find first-hand accounts of people’s reactions to vaccines when first administered? I’m specifically interested in the relief parents of children would’ve felt at their children surviving adolescence. I’m also interested in reactions to the polio vaccine, but any vaccine too	26
Did Victorians think poor people deserved to be poor, and that if they really wanted a better life they’d just work harder? How did religious people in the government justify not doing much about literal streets of homeless children, considering what the Bible says about helping those in need?	25

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