Trials in American History: HIST 2106/2906

Highly recommended. A website developed by Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri (Kansas City), School of Law containing primary and secondary sources about famous trials.

"The Spanish schooner Amistad was seized by the US Navy in 1839. It was transporting slaves, which were illegal cargo at that time. District and circuit court records considered claims of salvage by the ship's owners and officers, by the US Navy, and by the Queen of Spain. These claims go to the core of the abolition movement, and show the workings of the courts and the thinking of the times" (National Archives).

"These records contain correspondence and court documents of the Supreme Court case related to the Amistad. Claims of salvage of the ship, cargo, and slaves on board were decided by the Supreme Court in 1841. There were treaties involved, and the case was a flash point for the abolitionist movement of the time. Handwritten records of this landmark case illuminate the conflict over slavery at that time, and are good examples of the operation of the US judicial system" (National Archives).

Library of Congress Web Guide

"The Cornell University Library Witchcraft Collection is an online selecton of titles from the Cornell University Library's extensive collection of materials on Witchcraft." Includes several works of interest to those studying the Salem witch trials.

Online exhibition from the Washington University in St. Louis Libraries created at the occasion of the 150 year anniversary of the Dred Scott case

from the Library of Congress

Online exhibition from the Library of Congress commemorating this landmark case