Library Research Guides: HIST 321: Convicted: Crime and Punishment in Early America: Find Primary Sources

Using SuperSearch to find Primary Sources

SuperSearch can also be used to find primary sources.

Put your search terms in and, on the results page, use the filters to select content types like video, magazine articles, and government documents:

If your research is about a specific time period, scroll down to filter by time, too:

Family Search Catalog
Search for court records, vital records, and more by location, name, or keyword and online access.

Accessible collections include court records from individual colonies. Just search by location and scroll to court records in the results page.
Colonial Records
A good list of digitized colonial records, listed by colony. Many of these link to records of colonies that include court records, though court is not in the title.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive has many digitized volumes of court records from early America. Type in the county or other locality you'd like to find into the search bar and see if they have a digitized copy!

For example, the Essex County (Mass.) court records and probate records are all available and text searchable on the Internet Archive. Look at the citations in secondary literature to determine what words you need to use to search, like "quarterly courts" for Essex Co. or "New Amsterdam" for New York.

Caselaw Access Project
Access historical case law from the US going back to 1648. Organized by state/territory, jurisdiction. Find more caselaw on the Internet Archive.
Colonial North America
Colonial North America at Harvard Library provides access to digitized manuscripts and archives documenting a wide range of topics related to 17th- and 18th-century North America. Includes all manner of court records, though coverage is uneven.
Essex County Ma Court Records
The printed court records all conveniently at one link.

American History, 1493-1945
Primary sources from a library in New York spanning American history. Particular strength in the papers of elite white men, but materials include the papers of others as well.
Dates: 1493-1945 CE
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
An archive of American printed primary sources from ads to maps to music from colonial settlement to the early republic. An emphasis on English-language documents from the latter part of the 18th Century.
Dates: 1639-1800 CE
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I, 1760-1900
Full-color, high-resolution images of many pamphlets, fliers, advertisements, and more from the Revolutionary Period through the Spanish-American War.
Dates: 1760-1900 CE

Trial Pamphlets,17th-19th Century (Cornell)
"Trial pamphlets are contemporary accounts of trials that involved prominent citizens or that dealt with especially controversial or lurid topics. These pamphlets were produced quickly and inexpensively, and then sold on the street soon after the trial to a mass audience."
Colonial Records
A good list of digitized colonial records, listed by colony.

Early English Books Online
EEBO contains searchable and browsable page images of virtually every work printed in the English-speaking world from 1473 to 1700, as well as some items printed after 1700.

Try searching for books like printed execution sermons or criminal histories like Cotton Mather's Pillars of Salt.

New England's Hidden Histories: Colonial-Era Church Records
The records of these congregations document births, deaths, and marriages, but also open a window onto the lives of ordinary people deliberating on matters both sacred and secular.

Includes some disciplinary cases.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries
The diaries and letters of over 1300 North American women, mostly white and elite. Common topics include health, relationships, religion, politics, economics, home life, and travel.
Dates: 1600-1950 CE
America's Historical Imprints
Documents published in America up to 1819, including books, pamphlets, broadsides, and ephemera, covering topics such as daily life, politics, religion, science, and more.
Dates: 1640-1819 CE
Colonial America
Records on colonial America from the British Archives from initial European settlement through the early republican period.
Dates: 1606-1822 CE
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007
Documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world, with close attention given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social-justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today.

In the advanced search tool, includes an advanced search for court records.
Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America (American Indian Histories and Cultures)
Primary sources from the largest and best collection of materials on Indigenous (Native American) history, including maps, treaties, letters, journals, art, and more.
Dates: 1500-1998 CE

Massachusetts State Archives Collection
Digitized records from 1622-1788, including indexes. Topics covered include commercial depositions, ecclesiastical records, Indian affairs, and more.

Virginia Company Archives
The most comprehensive collection of the primary source records of the Virginia Company of London, which planted English colonial settlements in what is now Virginia beginning in 1607 in Jamestown.
Dates: 1590-1790 CE

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
An electronic collection of primary source materials relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692 and a new transcription of the court records.
Umbra Search
Nearly a million digital African American archival items, made possible by the University of Minnesota Libraries

America's Historical Newspapers
Full text of more than 1,000 historical U.S. newspapers. Contains Early American Newspapers, 1690-1922, and African American Newspapers, 1827-1998.
Dates: 1690-1998 CE

The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr, Jr.
Revolutionary-era Boston newspapers and pamphlets collected, annotated, and indexed by Harbottle Dorr, Jr., a shopkeeper in Boston.
Adverts 250
Advertisements in Colonial American newspapers from 250 years ago.
Eighteenth Century Journals
Bringing together rare journals printed between c.1685 and 1835, this resource illuminates all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Topics covered are wide-ranging and include colonial life, provincial and rural affairs, the French and American revolutions, reviews of literature and fashion throughout Europe, political debates, and London coffee house gossip and discussion.