Resources for the Study of North American Slavery
Web Page created by Eric N. Lindquist, UM Libraries
(Click on image to enlarge)
Poster for Abington Anti-Slavery Fair, November 6, 1857
Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division
This Web site contains links to electronic resources useful for studying and teaching the history of slavery in North America as well as information about finding sources in print and microfilm. Most of the resources included here are freely available on the World Wide Web. Those designated (subscription required) are not free, but many libraries, especially college and university libraries, subscribe to them, and you may be able to use them there. The University of Maryland Libraries subscribe to all the subscription resources included on this page, and you can use them while on campus.
Some of these resources only provide information about books and other materials, but actual documents are increasingly available online. In such cases, the resource is designated (full text).
Note that language has changed over time and that to do a thorough search, it may be necessary to use different terms: Negro(es) for older materials, Black(s), Afro- American(s) or African-American(s) for more recent ones. Note too that some images and texts encountered in these resources, though an important part of the historical record, may be offensive or disturbing.
Very few scholarly books about slavery can be found online; most exist only in print. However, many library catalogs, which can be used to identify and locate books, can be found on the World Wide Web.
To identify books in most online catalogs, do a word or keyword search following these examples:
slavery and United States and history and 17th century (18th century, 19th century)
Journal Articles
Primary sources can be identified in online catalogs by adding such terms as "sources," "biography," "documentary" and others to your search terms. Examples:
slavery southern states (Virginia, New Orleans etc.) sources
Primary sources can also be identified by limiting publication dates. Anything produced about slavery in the 1840s, say, will have primary source value. Most catalogs have a date limitation function, often in the advanced search mode.
Books and Pamphlets
Books and pamphlets about slavery written at the time and owned by libraries can be identified through online catalogs; see information about online catalogs under Finding Scholarly Publications about Slavery. The following Web sites offer complete documents:
Historic Newspapers and Periodicals
Pre-Civil-War newspapers and periodicals owned by libraries can be identified through online catalogs; see information about online catalogs under Finding Scholarly Publications about Slavery. Note that many such newspapers and periodicals are on microfilm. The following Web sites offer information about historic newspapers and periodicals and in most cases the full text:
Government Documents and Archives
Manuscript Sources
Images
Table of Contents
Introduction
Finding Scholarly Publications about Slavery
Books
Links to thousands of library catalogs, including catalogs of public and academic libraries, around the world.
slavery and Cuba and history and 17th century (18th century, 19th century)
slavery law and legislation
slavery and Maryland (Baltimore)
slave insurrections
Afro-Americans and history and 17th century (18th century, 19th century)
African-Americans and history and 17th century (18th century, 19th century)
Database containing information about journal articles (as well as books and dissertations) on U.S. and Canadian history. To locate an item, click on the "find it" button.
Database containing information about journal articles (as well as books and dissertations) on world history excluding the U.S. and Canada, since 1450. To locate an item, click on the "find it" button.
Database containing information about articles published in more than 3,600 humanities and social sciences periodicals, from as early as the eighteenth century to the early 1990s. Once you have identified an article you wish to see, look up the title of the journal (not the title of the article) in a library catalog to see if the library owns it.
Database containing many important American history journals. Note that although these are perhaps the most important journals in American history, many other journals not available online will also have articles on slavery, especially journals devoted to the history of a single state, such as Maryland Historical Magazine. Note also that the most recent volumes of the journals are not available online.
Finding Primary Sources about Slavery
Finding Primary Sources in a Library Catalog
slavery United States personal narratives (diaries)
slave trade sources
slaves biography 19th century
slavery document* United States
slave records Maryland
slavery United States controversial literature
More than 7 million digitized primary sources in more than 100 historical collections, including the following:
A collection of 351 titles.
A collection of 139 books.
A collection of 397 pamphlets.
A collection of 44 books.
Vast collection of digitized books.
A collection of some 200 titles; part of Documenting the American South.
The May Anti-Slavery Collection at Cornell University contains more than 10,000 items, including pamphlets, sermons, broadsides, newsletters, and Anti-Slavery Fair and other ephemera. Several thousand pamphlets are included in this resource.
Digital collection of books and pamphlets.
Freedom's Journal (New York City, 1827-1829); The Colored American (Weekly Advocate) (New York City, 1837-1841); The North Star (Rochester, 1847-1851); The National Era (Washington, D.C., 1847-1853); Provincial Freeman (Chatham, Canada West, 1854-1857); Frederick Douglass Paper (Rochester, 1851-1852); The Christian Recorder (Philadelphia, 1861-1862).
More than 1,000 American magazines and journals published between 1741 and 1900.
A collection of 22 nineteenth-century American periodicals, many with articles about slavery.
A collection of 11 nineteenth-century American periodicals, many with articles about slavery.
Selected articles published in Harper's Weekly.
Advertisements for runaway slaves in Virginia newspapers.
"The United States Newspaper Program is a cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present." This Web site contains links to Web sites of individual state programs. The amount of information about a particular state's newspapers provided in these sites varies from state to state.
More than 7 million digitized primary sources in more than 100 historical collections, including the following:
274 documents relating to the work of the Continental Congress and the drafting and ratification of the Constitution.
Some 100 books and pamphlets relating to legal cases about slavery.
Online version of published public records of Maryland, including laws, court records, probate records etc.
Searchable database containing information about legislative and court petitions concerning slavery in the South, 1770s to 1860s.
Proceedings of suit initiated by Dred Scott and his wife Harriet in the St. Louis Circuit Court in 1846. The case was eventually considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a notorious judgment in 1857.
The National Archives is the major repository of the records of the federal government, many of which bear on slavery. The Web site mostly gives information about holdings, but in some cases an entire document or image is available online. Use the Archival Research Catalog to identify or search for records.
Links to Web sites of state archives. The amount of information about state archival holdings provided on these sites varies from state by state. Some state sites may make complete documents available online.
Includes information about records of slavery in Maryland.
Database of slave and slaveholder populations in Texas during the Republic era (1837-45).
Reports published by the U.S. Census Bureau, 1790-2000.
U.S. census data, 1790-1960; provides demographic information, including numbers of slaves, by state and county.
Database of information on about 35,000 slaving voyages between sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
More than 7 million digitized primary sources in more than 100 historical collections, including the following:
More than 2,300 first-person accounts by former slaves.
Database of descriptions of manuscript collections in U.S. repositories.
Links to more than 4,500 Web sites of repositories of primary sources. The amount and kind of information about holdings vary from site to site; some sites may provide complete documents.
More than 7 million digitized primary sources in more than 100 historical collections, including the following:
A collection of some 725 early photographs, including some of African Americans.
A collection of 20 maps produced by the American Colonization Society (ACS), founded in 1817 to
resettle free blacks in West Africa.
Selected illustrations published in Harper's Weekly.
Teaching Resources
