Research Guides: HY243 Slavery and Antislavery Movements. Professor Ratchford.: Home

Secondary Sources

America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

CC Library Catalog

Finding Primary Sources

In addition to the databases and websites below, you might also wish to try Tutt Library's Primary Sources Online guide.

You can find printed collections of primary sources in the catalog by searching for the keyword "sources" along with your subject keywords (i.e. "slavery" or "abolition"). Try this link for those items in the catalog with the subject Slavery -- United States -- History -- Sources.

Slavery—The Peculiar Institution
From the US Library of Congress: This digital exhibit "traces the slave trade and explores the methods enslaved Africans used to resist their enslavement; strategies varied, but the goal remained unchanged: freedom and equality."
Free Blacks in the Antebellum Period
From the US Library of Congress: "Free Blacks in the Antebellum Period presents the commentary of blacks in both the North and South who spoke out on the injustice of slavery, and illuminates the role of the church, and the importance of education, the Underground Railroad, and the Back-to-Africa Movement."
The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship Abolition, Anti-Slavery Movements, and the Rise of the Sectional Controversy
From the US Library of Congress: "Abolition, Antislavery Movements, and the Rise of the Sectional Controversy examines the role of black and white abolitionists and antislavery societies in the continuing debate over slavery during the first half of the nineteenth century."
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Database with information relating to almost 35,000 slaving voyages.
North American Slave Narratives
"North American Slave Narratives" collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920." (website description)
Making of America
The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. The project represents a major collaborative endeavor in preservation and electronic access to historical texts.

American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1848 - 1897. 100,000+ pages of diaries, letters and memoirs by 2000+ authors. Includes many previously unpublished manuscripts. Organized for detailed browsing and searching. Some materials are cross-searchable under Social and Cultural History.
Black Thought and Culture: African Americans from Colonial Times to the Present This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1700 - 2006. Black Thought and Culture contains 1,200+ sources covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Includes non-fiction works, interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material. Also includes the Black Panther newspaper from 1967-1980. Allows for advanced browsing and searching. Some materials are cross-searchable under Social and Cultural History
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1474 - 1800's. Full text works by 1,400+ authors in the form of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters between American Indians, Europeans, Americans, and Africans in all areas of North America. Offers advanced searching and browsing of people, events, flora, fauna and more.

PBS Slavery and the Making of America,

Contributions in print, film, and electronic media continue to expand our understanding of the impact slavery had on the men and women who lived it and the nation that it shaped. Explore some of these sources and broaden your perspective on this significant period in American history.
Resources Page https://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/resources/index.html

Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship
African American Sheet Music Collection https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/index.html

Amistad Research Center
https://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/