Librarian
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Content Note
What is a primary source?
There is no one type of thing that is a primary source. Depending on your particular research a primary source might include...
autobiographies, published scholarly journals, newspapers, archival collections of letters, personal diaries, photographs, videos, interviews, pamphlets, or artwork
Be creative! Ask for help!
Primary Sources - Slavery
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American Slavery Documents (Duke)Over 200 legal and personal documents related to the institution of slavery in the United States from 1757-1860s.
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Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' ProjectBorn in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.
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Digital Library on American Slavery (University of North Carolina)An expanding resource compiling independent collections focused upon race and slavery in the American South, made searchable through a single, simple interface.
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Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave TradeExplore data about people, events, places, and sources related to individuals who were enslaved, who owned slaves, or who participated in slave trading.
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Slave Voyages: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade DatabaseCompiled information about more than 36,000 voyages that forcibly transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic between 1514 and 1866. Search and analyze the database for information on the broad origins of enslaved people, the tortuous Middle Passage, and the destinations of Africans in the Americas.
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Slavery and Abolitionist Movement (Black Freedom Struggle in the US series)Featuring select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.
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Slaves and the Courts, 1740 to 1860This collection consists of 105 library books and manuscripts, totalling approximately 8,700 pages drawn principally from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, with a few from the General Collections.
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Slavery in the United States (Economics History Association)Includes population and market price data on enslaved persons and slaveowners. Much of the data has been drawn from Historical Statistics of the United States.
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Voices from the Days of SlaveryAlmost seven hours of recorded interviews presented here took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states. Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom.
History Primary Source Databases
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AM Explorer This link opens in a new windowPrimary sources from the 15th-21st centuries, including the social sciences, humanities, global history, popular culture, history of media, gender and sexuality, trade history, borders and migrations, and war and conflict.
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America: History & Life This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Contains information about scholarly articles on the history and culture of the U. S. and Canada. (For World History, use Historical Abstracts) -
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
The primary place to find scholarship on world history. (For U.S. and Canadian History, use America: History and Life). Covers publications from 1955 - present.
Newspapers and Other Primary Sources
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Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across all of Carleton's Readex collections at once. Includes historical newspapers, government documents, books, ephemera, history of science and artificial intelligence, and the like. -
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of documents generated by the UK Foreign and Colonial Offices in countries and regions of Africa. Covers 1834 - 1966. -
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969 This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of documents generated by the UK Foreign and Colonial Offices in countries and regions of the Middle East including Afghanistan, Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Persia, Sudan, Suez Canal, Syria, and Turkey. Covers 1812 - 1969. -
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Search through hundreds of British periodicals from the late 17th century to the early 20th century, all available in full text. Also allows searching for cartoons, photographs, illustrations, and other images. Covers 1680 - 1930. -
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
Contains the full text and images from historical American newspapers, 1690 - 1922. Also includes sub-collections of African American Newspapers, Ethnic American Newspapers, and Hispanic Newspapers. Languages covered include English, Spanish, Yiddish, French, German, and Japanese.
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Black Abolitionist ArchiveFrom the University of Detroit Mercy. 1830s-1860s covered. Search by keyword, subject, name, date, organization, newspaper.
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Freedmen's Record (1865-1874)Freedmen's Record is a historical journal published in United States by the New England Freedmen's Aid Society. This collection contains issues published between 1865 and 1874.
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ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
A collection of digitized books published in the eighteenth century, 1701 - 1800. -
NCCO: Nineteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
A rich collection of primary sources created or published in the nineteenth century. -
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
Search across fully digitized newspapers, including all articles, advertisements, and illustrations. -
Times Digital Archive 1785 Onwards This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
Full-text page images of The Times (London) from 1785 to 2019. Includes articles as well as advertisements, illustrations, and photos.
Videos and maps
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Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire [ca. 1897-1993](searches metadata, very few actual digitized films)
Search or browse through films depicting life in the British colonies. Of the films that are cataloged here, many have extensive critical notes written by scholars, and about a third are available to watch online. -
"Africa" - British Pathé Films [ca. 1896-1958] (YouTube)[NOTE: This is just a sample search for the keyword "africa" -- try others!]
Before television, people came to movie theatres to watch the news. Over the course of a century, it documented everything from major armed conflicts and seismic political crises to the curious hobbies and eccentric lives of ordinary people. If it happened, British Pathé filmed it.
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Aluka: World Heritage Sites: Africa This link opens in a new window(Searches through citations and the full text)
An online digital library of scholarly resources that explores the archaeology, history and culture of Africa through its heritage sites and landscapes.
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Africa -- from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection18th and 19th Century maps. One of the most highly cited online map collections.
