Library Research Guides: AFR 202: Critical Perspectives of Humanitarianism in Black Countries: Find Primary Sources

Primary Source Collections

For many more primary source collections, see our primary source guides for History and Literature. I'm happy to help you find primary sources relevant to your topic.

African Newspapers, 1800-1922 This link opens in a new window
More than 60 fully searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries, in English and other languages.

Digital Library of the Caribbean
A digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. Provides access to materials held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
Digital Archive of Latin American & Caribbean Ephemera
Rare pamphlets, flyers, leaflets, brochures, posters, stickers, and postcards that document political and social issues in the region.
Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa
"This collection focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in the region, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It brings together materials from various archives and libraries throughout the world documenting colonial rule, dispersion of exiles, international intervention, and the worldwide networks that supported successive generations of resistance within the region."

HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
A growing collection of nearly 3,000 oral history video interviews with both well-known and unsung African Americans, highlighting the history, lives, careers, and accomplishments of African Americans across a wide variety of fields.
Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Thousands of articles by scholars focused on the lives and events that have shaped African American and African history and culture, along with primary source documents, encyclopedias, and biographies.

The following collections are part of AM Explorer, a large database of primary source collections from Adam Matthew Digital. A Wellesley login is required.

Apartheid South Africa, 1948-1980 This link opens in a new window
Primary sources on the history of South Africa's apartheid regime from South Africa, Britain, the United States, and other powers, including letters, telegrams, reports, trial papers, news clippings, activists' biographies, and first-hand accounts of events.
Dates: 1948-1980 CE
Colonial Caribbean This link opens in a new window
Primary sources from the history of Caribbean territories under British colonial governance, including trade and shipping records, details of plantation life, colonial settlement, and more.
Dates: 1624-1870 CE
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
British government documents from the modern period of European colonization of the African continent through independence movements.
Dates: 1834-1966 CE
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Primary sources tracking forms of colonialism, empire, and imperialism, from the explorations of Columbus to recent decolonization, with an emphasis on the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Dates: 1482-2003 CE
Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration & Cultural Exchange This link opens in a new window
Broad range of primary sources exploring the history of fifteen major commodities: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, opium, oil, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits, but other food and textile commodities are also included. Materials include maps, photographs, advertisements, paintings, statistics, and more.
Dates: 1500 CE-Present
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Primary sources documenting slavery and abolition, including court records, slavery testimonies, pamphlets, books, maps, and more. Areas of focus include the African coast, the Middle Passage, slavery and the Islamic world, spiritualism and religion, resistance and the Underground Railroad, free Black settlements.
Dates: 1490-2007 CE