Library Research Guides: HIST 267: Deep in the Heart: The American South: Find Primary Sources

All Periods
19th Century

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
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
Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971
More than 130 newspapers published by and for American ethnic groups, with German-American, Irish-American, and Japanese-American papers forming the bulk. English language news is predominant.
Dates: 1799-1971 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

Umbra Search
"Umbra Search African American History makes African American history more broadly accessible through a freely available widget and search tool, umbrasearch.org." Use the search to find materials across archives.
Hathi Trust
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Digitized papers from cultural sources, image collections, political figures, and more. Spans all time periods.
Digital Portals to State History
Congressional Record
Debates & proceedings in the U.S. Congress 1789-present
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History

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

Frontier Life
The material covering North America covers the varied frontier regions from fur trappers in Canada to cowboys in Texas and government in Baja California. It is divided into the frontier regions of the American East, the American Midwest, the American Southwest, California & Mexico and Canada.

Civil War and the South

The Civil War in America
from The Illustrated London News
Confederate States of America Records
The records of the Confederate States of America span the years 1854-1889, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1861-1865, during the Civil War in America. The collection relates to the formation of the government of the Confederacy and the conduct of its internal, external, and military affairs.
Documenting the American South
Several collections of materials on the South. Focuses on North Carolina and the 19th century, but other periods and places may be found.
Medical Services and Warfare
"The resource tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927. The wealth of documents cover multiple conflicts as well as interwar developments from a range of perspectives."
Civil War Collection, Library of Congress
Explore the faces, places and events of the U.S. Civil War through photographs, prints and drawings. The Prints & Photographs Division holds thousands of images relating to the Civil War, found in many different collections. This category allows research across those collections.
Confederados Digital Collection
Transcribed letters from families from former Confederate states that moved to Brazil after the Civil War.
Valley of the Shadow
Original material from one town in Virginia and one in Pennsylvania, including diaries, letters, newspapers, records, and statistics.

Race and Slavery

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007
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

Slavery in America and the World
"This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery."
Digital Library on American Slavery
Primary sources including deeds, insurance registries, petitions, and runaway ads.
North American Slave Narratives
UNC Library

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998
Full-text of 282 Black American newspapers.
Dates: 1827-1998 CE

Library of Congress: African American Newspapers
Browse issues of African American newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South
100 oral history interviews chronicling African American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950
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.
Anti-Slavery: Boston Public Library
The Anti-Slavery Collection contains about 40,000 pieces of correspondence, broadsides, newspapers, pamphlets, books, and realia spanning a 35-year period.
Free People of Color in Louisiana
Digital records from several collections of personal and family papers on free people of color in Louisiana, with a focus on the 19th century.

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971
More than 130 newspapers published by and for American ethnic groups, with German-American, Irish-American, and Japanese-American papers forming the bulk. English language news is predominant.
Dates: 1799-1971 CE

The West, Manifest Destiny, and Expansion

American West
Primary sources featuring books, journals, maps and more, documenting westward expansion in America. Includes sources on White American settlers, Indigenous peoples, Black migrants free and enslaved, and more.
Dates: 1718-1968 CE

Archives of the West
Documents and photos gathered as a part of research done for a PBS documentary. Some citations robust, some scant.
US West: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints
In general, collecting at the DeGolyer Library emphasizes the American West, the borderlands, exploration, business history and transportation, particularly the railroads.
Mountain West Digital Library
A central search portal for digital collections about the Mountain West region.
Frontier Life
The material covering North America covers the varied frontier regions from fur trappers in Canada to cowboys in Texas and government in Baja California. It is divided into the frontier regions of the American East, the American Midwest, the American Southwest, California & Mexico and Canada.
Ayer Collection, Newberry Library
As a collection of general Americana, the Newberry’s Edward E. Ayer Collection is one of the best in the country and one of the strongest collections on American Indians in the world.
Photographs of the American West
Hundreds of photos of the West from 1867-1900, with a focus on the Kansas Pacific Railroad and the 1898 Indian Congress.
Diseños Collection
"These sketch maps were hand-copied from originals that were created from approximately 1827-1846. Many of the diseños have labeled neighboring properties and as part of the initial land grant process all boarders were agreed upon by surrounding landowners. The diseños also show existing travel routes, locations of houses and local place names."
Denver Public Library Digital Photographs Collection: American West
The Denver Public Library’s Western History/Genealogy Department collection of digitized photographs (formerly Photoswest) chronicles the people, places and events that shaped the settlement and growth of the Western United States.
Early Advertising of the West
The Early Advertising of the West collection consists of over 450 print advertisements published in local magazines, city directories, and theater pamphlets from 1867 to 1918.
Graff Collection of Western Americana
Explore more than 130,000 digitized images from the Newberry’s renowned Graff collection, documenting America’s westward expansion. Topics covered include narratives from explorers, pioneers, hunters, traders, and prospectors; accounts of the Mormon treks of 1846 and 1849, the California gold rush, and overland travel during the 19th century; the development of transcontinental railroads; the growth of Western city and town life; and the history and culture of Native Americans.
University of Oklahoma Western History Collections
Includes manuscripts by indigenous people, records of Native-pioneer meetings, Civil War manuscripts, and more.
Bexar Archives Online
The Bexar Archives are the official Spanish documents that preserve the political, military, economic, and social life of the Spanish province of Texas and the Mexican state of Coahulia y Texas.
American Journeys
European records of travelers encountering what would become the United States. 1000 AD - 1844 AD

Culture and Society

Social and Political Cartoons: Boston Public Library
Over 100 cartoons, with a focus on the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
Over 3,300 advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States.

Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920
Text-based primary sources covering 19th and early 20th Century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, and health.
Dates: 1800-1940 CE

General Sources

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
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
An archive of American printed primary sources from pamphlets to children's books from the early republic to the last founding father's presidency. An emphasis on English-language documents.
Dates: 1801-1819 CE

Avalon Project: 19th-Century Documents
Legal sources, focuses on Manifest Destiny and foreign policy.
Nineteenth Century in Print
Popular magazines of the era digitized by Cornell