Finding Primary Sources
What Are Primary Sources:
"Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research."
(American Library Association, Reference and User Services, History Section)
Start with the following sources:
Oxford African American Studies Center
Provides access to more than 7,500 articles focusing on African American history and culture. The articles come from major reference sources and are written by leading scholars in the field. Also includes primary sources, images, and maps. After you do a search, click on the "Primary Sources" tab.
Black Studies Center
A fully cross searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, images, and videos.
Making of America
Digital library of primary sources in American social history primarily from the antebellum through the reconstruction period. Includes books and journal articles.
Early American Imprints:
A collection of over 75,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides published in America from 1639 to 1819
Documenting the American South
A digital collection of texts, images, and sound files that frocus on southern U.S. history and culture
Slave Narratives:
North American Slave Narratives (from the University of North Carolina)
African American slave narratives : an anthology
Great Slave Narratives
The Adam Francis Plummer Diary: A Living History
Full text diary of a one-time Maryland slave, covering 1840-1905
Slavery and Abolition
The Abolitin of the Slave Trade
Primary-source texts, images, and maps on every aspect of the slave trade and its abolition (from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library)
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Primary source images, maps, and narratives on the transatlantic slave trade, runaway journeys, the US slave trade, African migration, and much more.
Slaves and the Court 1740-1860
This Library of Congress collection comprises an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, and other works of historical importance.
From Slavery to Freedom: the African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 (from the Library of Congress)
The Slave Rebellion Web Site (from CSU Northridge)
Surveys slave insurrections in Africa and the Americas, with a lengthy essay on the subject. Includes histories of various locations and periods; a chronology of events; images, videos, and maps and many primary documents)
Songs
American Song
A streaming music service containing over 50,000 tracks reflecting the music of all American ethnic groups and regions, from the Revolutionary War to the present. Includes all the music formerly available in the African American Song database.
Historical Newspaper Articles
Historical African American Newspaper Available Online
Digitized version of African American newspapers from the Antebellum and Civil War era (1800-1865) and the Reconstruction era (1865-1876)
APS Online (American Periodicals Series)
A collection of full-text periodicals and primary source materials related to the American experience from the colonial days to 1900.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Full text articles for hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers. The newspapers are captured from cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement and illustration.