Find Primary Sources - BLST/EDST/HIST-286 African American History: Slave Trade to Reconstruction - Course Guide

Digitized Archival Collections

American Slavery Collection (1820-1922)
Digital edition of the American Antiquarian Society's holdings of slavery and abolition materials, with more than 3,500 works.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice (1490-2007)
Thousands of pamphlets, books, paintings, maps and images documenting the varieties and legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective, and the continued existence of slavery today.

Black Abolitionist Papers
This primary source collection details the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War, between 1830-1865.
African American Perspectives
Rare books, pamphlets and other materials with a date range of 1822 through 1909. From the Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections Division.
Colored Conventions
From 1830 until the 1890s, already free and once captive Black people came together in state and national political meetings called "Colored Conventions." This project brings together digitized versions of proceedings, newspaper coverage, and petitions related to the Conventions.
Frederick Douglass Papers
The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher.
Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
This collection from Cornell University includes pamphlets and leaflets documenting the anti-slavery struggle at local, regional, and national levels.
Umbra Search: African American History
Collection of over 400,000 digitized sources in African American history, from more than 1,000 libraries, museums and archives.
Primary Source Collections in Black Studies
Browsable list of primary source collections within the ProQuest Black Studies database.
Harriet Hayden Albums at the Boston Athanaeum
Portraits in the albums include white and Black abolitionists, activists, soldiers, and parishioners centered around Harriet and Lewis Hayden, Robert Morris, and Leonard A. Grimes and the activities of the Boston Vigilance Committee, Twelfth Baptist Church, and the Underground Railroad.

Historical Newspapers and Periodicals

African American Newspapers (History Commons) (1827-1902)
Starting with Freedom's Journal in 1827, the database will eventually contain all major African-American newspapers published in the U.S. during the 19th century.
African American Newspapers (Readex) (1827-1998)
Provides access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers from more than 35 states and chronicles a century and a half of the African American experience.
America's Historical Newspapers (1690-1980)
Searchable archive of American newspapers including Early American Newspapers (1690-1922) and Hispanic American Newspapers (1808-1980).
American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection (1684-1912)
Comprehensive collection of early American periodicals, with coverage of advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, religious issues, culture and the arts, and more.
American Periodicals (1740-1940)
Digitized reproductions of more than 1,100 18th and 19th century newspapers and periodicals.

Microfilm

These collections are available on Microfilm at Frost Library. If you are new to microfilm, check out this video tutorial on using microfilm, microfiche, and the machines you use to read them.

American Negro Historical Society Collection, 1790-1905
Request the collection guide and index (American Negro Historical Society collection, 1790-1905: guide to the scholarly resources microfilm edition) from the Five College Depository or download from Gale: https://www.galesupport.com/psm/8397000.
Black Abolitionist Papers 1830-1865
See the Guide to the Microfilm Edition (REF E449 .B625 1981) for an index to this collection. Also available in the ProQuest Black Studies database.

Find primary sources in the library catalog

Scholars and publishers compile collections of primary sources that can be found in library collections, such as the Five College Catalog or World Cat. Examples include published manuscripts, diaries, or letters of an individual (Lincoln in Private), or sources related to a particular topic (Land and Labor, 1866-1867).

To locate primary sources in Discover, do a search combining keywords for your topic and terms for the kind of source you are looking for.

Common subject terms for primary sources include:

Sources
Archival Resources
Archives
Correspondence [note: use this if you are looking for letters]
Diaries
Interviews
Notebooks, sketchbooks
Personal narratives
Photographs
Pictorial works
Speeches

For a more exhaustive list, with examples, see MIT Libraries' page on primary source subject headings.