Research Guides: Global Slavery: HIST 0861: Find Primary Sources

Suggested Primary Sources

Below is a list of suggested primary source databases, but you can also browse a list of all our History primary source databases.

African American Experience This link opens in a new window
The African American Experience (AAE) provides full-text reference works from Greenwood Publishing. (AAE) includes interviews with former slaves from the WPA Slave Narratives Project. Documents, audio clips, photographs, from Negro University Press titles are also included.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century This link opens in a new window
Note: As of August 2024, the Accessible Archives platform is now History Commons. Please update your bookmarks accordingly.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century contains information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s, with reports on events , including the Mexican War, Presidential and congressional addresses. Starting with the Freedom`s Journal in 1827 and continuing in chronological order with the addition of new text each year (downloaded monthly), this database will contain the complete text of the major African-American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century.
African American Periodicals 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 contains periodicals by and about African Americans. The publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations' bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
America's Historical Newspapers provides searchable, scanned newspaper pages. The collection contains Early American Newspapers, Series 1-5 (1690-1922), Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876), African American Newspapers, Series 1 (1827-1998), and The Civil War (1840-1877).
Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
Black Abolitionist Papers Contains writings and publications of African American activists against slavery, covering the period 1830-1865. The articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany.
British Library Newspapers (1732-1950) This link opens in a new window
Note: Access to Part III and Part V of this resource is guaranteed through May 2027. Part VI is not currently available.
British Library Newspapers is a digital historic newspaper archive. It provides access to historic newspapers, news books, ephemera and national & regional papers from the British Isles.
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 This link opens in a new window
Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876 is a collection of newspapers on Caribbean and Atlantic history, culture and daily life. Featuring publications from islands, Caribbean Newspapers provide complete facsimiles of issues. These newspapers were published in the English language, but a number of Spanish-French and Danish-language titles are also provided.
Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Early Encounters in North America contains documents on relationships among peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides perspectives from all of the protagonists.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: unlimited
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is a digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which includes English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Empire Online contains manuscript, printed and visual materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.
Illustrated London News Archive, 1842-2003 This link opens in a new window
Illustrated London News Archive, 1842-2003 provides online access to the archive from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003.
London Times (1785-2019) [via Gale Times Digital Archive] This link opens in a new window
London Times provides a searchable, full-text and full-image archive of every page of the (London) Times from 1785 to 2014.
New York Times Full-Text / Full-Image (1851-2020) [via ProQuest Historical Newspapers] This link opens in a new window
Incorporates the New York Times Index
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Access to newly added titles is guaranteed through May 2027
ProQuest Historical Newspapers contains many US and international newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries, including the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Washington Post.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 contains resources pertaining to slavery and abolition studies, bringing together documents and collections covering 1490-2007, from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world.

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