African Slave Trade - A Visual Quick Study

Between 1650 and 1860, approximately 10 to 15 million people were enslaved and transported form Western Africa to the Americas.  Of those transported, roughly 2 million died at sea.

Arabic Invovlement - The Trans Saharan Slave Trade

Settlement by Ethnic Group U.S.A. 1755

Distribution of enslaved African Americans in 1850

U.S. Slave Concentration 1860

Domestic Slave Trade

Between 1790 and 1860, 835,000 slaves were moved from Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

Domestic Slave Escape Routes 

 The "Underground Railroad"

Further Info (Articles)

• Facts About the Slave Trade >
• How Slavery Expanded Across the United States >
• The Trans Saharan Slave Trade >

The Language of the State of the Union

An amazing interactive that charts a list of all the times that the corresponding president used the word in a State of the Union address.

A insightful revelation of which issues (and buzzwords) where prominent at the time.

Interactive Graph >

35 Maps - American Immigrants

35 maps that explain how America is a nation of immigrants...

Article >

Maps of U.S. Freight Railroads

Did You Know?

There are seven major railroads in the United States (Class I railroads) and over 500 shortline and regional railroads (Class II & Class III railroads)?

UP - Union Pacific BNSF - Burlington Northern Santa Fe

NS - Norfolk Southern CSX - CSX Corporation

UP and BNSF dominate the country west of Chicago

CSX and NS dominate the east

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Interactive Maps of U.S. Freight Railroads

This site features interactive route maps of the major seven carriers

Maps >

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Map showing average daily freight and passenger train traffic on routes operated by major freight railroads in the United States.

Map showing levels of service (LOS) on major U.S. railroads.
Rail corridors operating at LOS A,B, or C (shown in green) are below practical capacity. Corridors operating at LOS D (shown in yellow) are near practical capacity, and those operating at LOS E (shown in orange) are at practical capacity. The most severe congestion is on corridors at LOS F (shown in red), where traffic exceeds capacity.

National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission

Read the Article >

The Real Reason U.S. Gas Is So Cheap

American fuel prices are kept down artificially by low gas taxes that fail to address the true social cost of driving. This national refusal to increase gas taxes—which have gone unchanged at the federal level since 1993. Most first-world countries paid at least double what America did then, just as they do today.

This “budget gap” has two enormous impacts on everyday life. The first is that drivers no longer cover the cost of road and bridge maintenance, as the gas tax originally intended.

The far bigger problem is that America's gas taxes are too low to offset what economists call the "externalities" of driving these are the negative social impacts that aren't being compensated for: personal time and work productivity lost to traffic congestion, lives lost to car crashes, health risks created by air pollution, etc.

Article >