Primary sources in this group focus on Black experiences with slavery, abolition, emancipation, and freedom -- a phrase derived from the Harvard Library project linked below. Many primary sources included here are written about, rather than by, Black people; be sure to keep this in mind when analyzing these sources.
Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom: Primary Sources from Houghton Library (SAEF) is a growing digital collection highlighting materials related to Black history and culture from Harvard University's Houghton Library. These materials were hand-selected to provide freely accessible digitized primary sources for scholars of all sorts.
This enormous collection of newspapers written by and for African Americans contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and is rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and Congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion.
The subcollection Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War consists of several modules:
-Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Law and Order in the 19th Century (1636-1880)
-Slavery and the Law (1775-1867)
Slavery and the Law features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867.
-Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries (1700-1896)
-Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records (4 parts)
Southern Plantation Records document the far-reaching impact of plantations on both the American South and the nation. Plantation records are both business records and personal papers because the plantation was both the business and the home for plantation owners.
-Confederate Military Manuscripts and Records of Union Generals and the Union Army (1854-1870)
The Confederate Military Manuscripts module brings together unique collections that are being digitized for the first time.
-Reconstruction and Military Government after the Civil War (1865-1877)
Reconstruction and Military Government after the Civil War features correspondence of the U.S. Army's Office of Civil Affairs.
Includes multiple sub-collections in broad subject areas like Civil Rights; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; American Indians and the American West; American Politics and Society; International Relations and Military Conflicts; Women's Studies; and Workers and Labor Unions
Bringing together primary source documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world, this resource allows students and researchers to explore and compare unique material relating to the complex subjects of slavery, abolition and social justice.
View a collection of primary source documents about the Black experience organized chronologically from slavery and the early Abolitionist movement to the contemporary era.
The SlaveVoyages website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Search these records to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships, and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators, and much more.
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
Collection of oral histories from the podcast Teachers in the Movement of Civil Rights-era educators who worked in South Carolina and four other states between 1950 and 1980.
