Library Research Guides: AFR 345: Enslaved Women in the Atlantic World: Find Primary Sources

A Few Strategies for Finding Primary Sources

Think about the kinds of sources you would like to find (e.g., newspaper articles, letters, speeches, autobiographies, images, advertisements, etc.).
Scan the descriptions of the databases, websites, and books on this page to identify some promising starting places for your search.
When brainstorming search terms, consider older terms that may have been used during the period you're researching.
Use citations in secondary sources to identify primary sources. Some encyclopedias and other reference sources will point to related primary sources. If we don't have a source, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan.
When searching the web for primary sources on a person or topic, adding terms such as "primary sources," "digital collections," archives, or "historical society" to your search can sometimes help.
The Society of American Archivists has put together an extensive guide to Finding and Evaluating Archives, with strategies and resources for finding primary source materials.

Find Primary Sources in SuperSearch

You can find some primary sources through SuperSearch, but don't stop there, or you'll miss a lot of materials that are accessible to you through the library and beyond. SuperSearch does not include materials from several of our historical newspaper databases and other primary source collections.

Try a search in SuperSearch, then use the filters under Refine Results to narrow your search. The Publication Date filter allows you to focus on sources created during a particular time period. You can also filter by Source Type, such as newspaper articles. If you're searching for images, use the filter Non-Print Resources.

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Find Historical News and Magazine Articles

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
270 newspapers published in 36 states, including rare 19th-century titles.
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
More than 170 academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations' bulletins, annual reports and other genres, by and about African Americans.
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text of more than 1,000 historical U.S. newspapers. The core of this database is Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, searchable along with African American Newspapers, 1827-1998, and Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971.
American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
Includes Civil War era and abolitionist newspapers, among many other primary sources.
American Periodicals, 1740-1940 This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text facsimiles of over 1,110 American periodicals from colonial times to the turn of the 20th century.
Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Search for historical articles in a variety of major American and British newspapers. Comprised of the following titles, which can also be searched individually: Boston Globe, 1872-1989; Chicago Defender, 1909-1975; Chicago Tribune, 1849-1997; Guardian and the Observer (UK), 1791-2003; Los Angeles Times, 1881-1996; New York Amsterdam News, 1922-1993; New York Times, 1851-2016; and Washington Post, 1877-2003

Chronicling America: Digitized Historical Newspapers
Chronicling America is a website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Sort newspapers by ethnicity, date, and state.

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Other Primary Source Collections

These are just a few of the primary source collections available to you through Wellesley and on the open web. For more ideas, see our Primary Sources guides for History and Literature, or contact me for help finding sources related to your topic!

Collections with a focus on slavery and abolition

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
This guide from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture includes a digital collection of published works by 19th-century black women writers, biographies for each author, citations, and much more.
Black Abolitionists Archive
A digital collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum Blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938
This digitized collection contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former enslaved people. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration.
Digital Library on American Slavery
Collections include petitions, runaway advertisements, deeds, and other materials that provide personal information and data about enslaved people, slaveholders, and free people of color.
Freedom on the Move: A Database of Fugitives from American Slavery
"Created to control the movement of enslaved people, the ads ultimately preserved the details of individual lives--their personality, appearance, and life story. Taken collectively, the ads constitute a detailed, concise, and rare source of information about the experiences of enslaved people."
Last Seen: Finding Family after Slavery
Thousands of advertisements placed in in hundreds of African-American newspapers by former enslaved people searching for family members and loved ones after emancipation.
North American Slave Narratives
Autobiographies of formerly enslaved people, from the Documenting the American South collection (UNC-Chapel Hill)
Slave Voyages
Searchable and sortable databases of the Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trades as well as the names of African people taken into captivity. Users can sort data on point of departure, gender, slave ship captain, and many many more variables. Site includes image galleries that contextualize data with historical maps, ship manifests, drawings, and more.

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world, covering 1490-2007, with close attention given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social-justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today. Wellesley login required.

Broader collections

Umbra Search
Search hundreds of thousands of digitized primary sources related to African American history from more than 1,000 U.S. archives, libraries, and museums.

Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Thousands of articles by scholars in the field, with primary source documents, maps, and images.
American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window
Over 60,000 primary source documents including correspondence, diaries, government documents, business records, books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides, photographs, artwork and maps, documenting American history. Includes significant material on slavery and abolition, including abolitionist newspapers.
America's Historical Imprints This link opens in a new window
Monographs published in America up to 1819, including books, pamphlets, broadsides, and ephemera, covering every conceivable topic. Wellesley login required.

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 Public Library of America
Search millions of images, texts, videos, and sounds from archives, libraries, and museums across the United States

Artstor This link opens in a new window
Digitized images of art, architecture, and other forms of visual culture from around the world, from museums, archaeology, photo archives, slide collections, and art reference works.

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Selected Books with Primary Sources

The Schlager Anthology of Black America by Dan Royles (Editor)
Publication Date: 2021
Primary documents from all periods of African American history, from the 1500s to the present. Most documents are abridged.
With Pen and Voice: A Critical Anthology of Nineteenth-Century African-American Women by Shirley Wilson Logan (Editor)
Call Number: Clapp PS663.N4 W5 1995
Publication Date: 1995
speeches by nineteenth-century African-American women
Escaping Bondage: A Documentary History of Runaway Slaves in Eighteenth-Century New England, 1700–1789 (e-book)
Publication Date: 2012
Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt (e-book) by Mark M. Smith (Editor)
Publication Date: 2005
African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents by Maurice Jackson (Editor); Jacqueline Bacon (Editor)
Call Number: Clapp Library E185.625 .A3843 2010
Publication Date: 2009
Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents by Laurent Dubois; John D. Garrigus; John Garrigus
Call Number: Clapp Library F2151 .D86 2006b
Publication Date: 2006
African American Voices: A Documentary Reader from Emancipation to the Present by Leslie Brown
Call Number: Clapp Library E184.6 .A346 2014
Publication Date: 2014
Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An African American Anthology by Manning Marable (Editor); Leith Mullings (Editor)
Call Number: Clapp Library E184.6 .L48 2000
Publication Date: 1999

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Find Primary Sources in Wellesley's Special Collections

You have access to many rare books and manuscripts through Wellesley's Special Collections, including materials related to the history of slavery and resistance. Go to the Library Catalog Advanced Search and choose Location: Special Collections to search for relevant material. See the Special Collections page for how to make an appointment to access materials in print. Some materials have been digitized and are available in the Digital Repository.

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Use ArchiveGrid

ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid connects you with primary source material held in archives, special collections, and manuscript collections around the world. Much of these materials are not digitized, but you can limit your search to archives with digital content by adding has_links:1 to your search. This can be a good place to identify materials related to a person you are researching.