African American History to 1860

BOOKS | JOURNAL & NEWSPAPER ARTICLES | PRIMARY SOURCES | WEBSITES

To find BOOKS use the Library catalog , search by subject, title, or mixed keyword.

Examples of keywords to use: slavery United States, African Americans history, slaves United States social conditions, slave narratives, person’s name e.g., Nat Turner

TIP 1: When you find a book that is exactly what you are looking for, copy the call number, pick up a blue stack guide at PCL Information and Research Help Desk to find the book's location, and browse for other works on that topic.

TIP 2: Look in the back of the book for sources the author used to write the book, copy some titles, and check the Library catalog if the library has these books or journals

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Online Databases and Indexes to Articles on the Library's home page

NOTE: Do your research from home, find out about Off campus access to the online databases.

• Suggested databases to use:
  • America: History and Life (some full text articles)
  • Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective (full text)
  • International Index to Black Periodicals (some full text articles)
  • JSTOR (full text) limit your search to African American Studies and History journals

Bibliographies

• The African American Experience : an historiographical and bibliographical guide
  E 184.65 A37 2001
• Black slavery in the Americas : an interdisciplinary bibliography, 1865-1980
  HT 1049 S657 1982 PCL Reference, use index in vol. 2 to find sources
• Harvard Guide to African-American History
  E 185 H326 2001 PCL Reference
• Afro-American reference : an annotated bibliography of selected resources.
  Z 1361 N39 D37 1985 PCL Stacks

FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES

BOOKS

In the Library catalog use these keywords with the name of a person or topic e.g., slave(s): journal(s), diary, letters, narrative(s), memoir(s), letters, correspondence, sources, source materials, plantation records.

NEWSPAPERS and PERIODICALS

Online Databases and Indexes to Articles on the Library's home page

Suggested databases:

• African American Newspapers: 19th century (full text)
• African American Newspapers and Periodicals in PCL
• American Periodicals Series (full text) 1750-1805
• Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective (full text)
• HarpWeek, 1857 - 1901 full text version of Harper’s Weekly
• New York Times, 1851-2005 full text of the New York Times. Later years are available in LexisNexis Academic
• Poole's Index to Periodical Literature to find articles use steps above for journals

Other materials for finding 19th century newspaper and journal articles

• African American History in the Press, 1851-1899
  E 185.2 A25 This 2 volume set includes more than 1200 articles and numerous illustrations from newspapers and periodicals documenting the positive and negative portrayals of African Americans
• American Periodical Series on microfilm for period after 1805. Microfilm reel 829, there is a guide to this set in PCL Level 1, ask librarian for help using this set.
• Slavery : source materials and critical literature
  E 441 S632 1998 PCL Level 1 Microforms

TIP 3: Use the following sources to find which African American and other newspapers and periodicals were around for your time period, then check Library catalog to see if library has them

• America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1922. Online newspapers from all 50 states.
• Antebellum Black newspapers: indices to New York Freedom's journal (1827-1829),
  The Rights of all (1829), The Weekly advocate (1837) E 185.5 J33 PCL Ref
• Anti-Slavery Newspapers and Periodicals
  AI 3 B55 PCL Stacks 3C
• Checklist of Negro Newspapers in the United States
  016.071 B815c PCL Stacks 4C
• Early Black Press in America
  PN 4882.5 H87 PCL Stacks 6D
• Plantation Records, these are on microfilm in PCL Level 1, ask librarian for help using these.

WEBSITES WITH ONLINE PRIMARY SOURCES

• Africans in America includes background articles, slave narratives and other primary documents, covers time period 1450-1865
• African American Mosaic slave narratives, abolition movement documents, facsimile illustrations
• American Memory slave narratives, personal papers, pamphlets, search on keyword "African Americans" in Collection finder
• Chronology on the History of Slavery and Racism Included are footnoted entries from archival and secondary source documents with links to full text Internet sites.
• From Slavery to Freedom online pamphlet collection
• Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition speeches, letters, cartoons and graphics, interviews, and articles
• Images of African Americans from the 19th century
• Making of America full text articles of 19th century American magazines
• Slave Narratives selected interviews with former slaves collected as part of the WPA during the New Deal
• Slaves and the Courts "contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States. The documents, most from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, comprise an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance."