Library Research Guides: HIST 312: Understanding Race in the USA: Primary Sources

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.

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
Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954
Primary sources from individuals, families, cultural and political organizations focusing on American Ashkenazi Jewish life.
Dates: 1654-1954 CE
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

Biblioteca Digital Puertoriquena
La Biblioteca Digital Puertorriqueña de la Universidad de Puerto Rico es un repositorio en línea de imágenes y texto relacionadas con la historia y la cultura puertorriqueña.

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
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
American Periodicals, 1740-1940
Full text of over 1,000 American magazines and journals from colonial times to the early 20th century, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, and children's and women's magazines.
Dates: 1740-1940 CE

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.
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.
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.

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.
Indians of North America: Library of Congress Resources
This guide is a compilation of many of the resources on the Indians of North America available at the Library of Congress as well as selected resources outside the Library. They are organized by format.

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

The Jesuit Relations
(From the World History Encyclopedia) The Jesuit Relations, published in France from 1632 to 1673, were a series of annual reports from the Roman Catholic Jesuit missions in the lands claimed by France in North America. The Relations were written as an appeal to French Catholics in hopes of gathering the political and financial support that was essential for the maintenance of the missions.
Indigenous Struggles: Freedom Archives
"This collection features materials covering the centuries long struggles of Indigenous Americans to resist European imperialism and maintain their culture and autonomy. Focuses of the collection include Native American political prisoners, documents and recordings from the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the 1992 Tribunal which centered on challenging the 500th anniversary of Columbus "discovering" America."
National Archives: Indigenous Photographs
BIA photos from the National Archives, browsable by tribal nation, topic, and US state.
DigiTreaties
"The US National Archives holds 374 of the treaties, where they are known as the Ratified Indian Treaties. Here you can view them for the first time with key historic works that provide context to the agreements made and the histories of our shared lands."
Indian Peoples of the Great Northern Plains Digital Collection
Includes photographs, paintings, ledger drawings, documents, serigraphs, and stereographs from 1874 through the 1940's.
Cherokee Museum Archives
Thousands of primary source documents related to the Cherokee Nation.
Translated Folk Tales and Texts
The Publications of the American Ethnological Society include some translated indigenous stories. Some of the editors of these collections were indigenous, some not. For example. Jones was an anthropologist of the Fox nation who collected and translated tales from Ojibwe, Fox, and Kickapoo peoples. There is usually little context or expository methodological information.

Browse these titles online or on the shelf for translated folk tales.
Archive of Early American Images
Images filtered by date, place, subject, and searchable. Concentration on images from Spanish sources on Indigenous cultures, particularly Arctic peoples, South American, and Southern present-day US.
Library of Congress: Indians of North America
Browse 14 newspapers from indigenous communities. Mostly Oklahoma and Minnesota-based.
Chaco Canyon Research Archive
The Chaco Research Archive is an online resource providing access to a wealth of information documenting the history of archaeological research in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The archive includes material from dozens of sites excavated in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park and beyond.

Indigenous Newspapers in North America (American Indian Newspapers)
Indigenous newspapers from the US and Canada, with a special focus on the 1970s-present. Mostly English-language, but some Cherokee, Navajo, and Hawaiian-language papers.
Dates: 1828-2016 CE

American Indian Movement
The official website of AIM, an organization that grew from and with the Red Power movement of the mid-20th Century.
Yale Indian Papers Project
A scholarly critical edition of primary source materials about Native communities from the American Northeast gathered into one robust virtual collection.
Native Northeast Portal
The Native Northeast Portal is a platform for research, scholarly editing, commentary and community sharing of primary source materials from multiple holding institutions.
Declassified Government Documents on AIM
Includes FBI, CIA, White House, and Department of Justice declassified documents on the American Indian Movement.
Wounded Knee: MSU Digital Collections
A PDF of digitized materials from MSU; citations minimal.
American Indian Movement: MSU Digital Collections
A PDF of digitized materials from MSU; citations minimal.
GEE Lindquist Native American Photographs
These photos depict the people, places, and practices of Native Americans and their communities from at least 34 States, plus Canada and Mexico in the period from 1909-1953.

Early American Indian Documents
10 volumes of treaties and documents relating to Native American history: 1607-1789.

National Film Board of Canada
Over 3000 free film on Canadian history, First Nations peoples, environmentalism, and more.
Indian Removal Act
collection of documents and maps from the Library of Congress focusing on the law and forced relocation of Cherokees from Florida to the West.
Medieval Slavery
Sources on slavery in the Medieval period across the world, browsable by region and century. Includes digitized resources on the site as well as a bibliography of sources found elsewhere.

Books

Early English Books Online
EEBO is a full text primary source archive of nearly every book published in English in the Early Modern period. It covers all subjects including literature, science, religion, politics, and more.
Dates: 1473-1700 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

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.
The Jesuit Relations
(From the World History Encyclopedia) The Jesuit Relations, published in France from 1632 to 1673, were a series of annual reports from the Roman Catholic Jesuit missions in the lands claimed by France in North America. The Relations were written as an appeal to French Catholics in hopes of gathering the political and financial support that was essential for the maintenance of the missions.
Records of the American Colonies
"Published documents--legislation, court proceedings, records, correspondence, etc.--from the 13 original colonies and their predecessors."

Archival Materials

American Antiquarian Society Digital Collections
Focus on early New England, but rich resources throughout.
Avalon Project: 17th Century Documents
Legal documents from Yale, with a focus on colony-level charters and agreements.
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.
Virginia Company Archives
Documents by and about the Virginia Company and their settlement in what is now the state of Virginia.
Colonial Records
A good list of digitized colonial records, listed by colony.
Digital Records at the Massachusetts Archives
Includes some digital records of the first years of the colony, including military records, town records, court documents, and more.
Early Americas Digital Archive
The Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.
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.
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.
Virtual Jamestown
Virginia Company records, documents from indentured servants and about enslaved people, and more. Choose a link from the resources tab.
The Works of Jonathan Edwards Online
The Works of Jonathan Edwards Online is a collection of writings and articles from important early American theologian Jonathan Edwards. The collection contains edited published works and raw manuscripts.

European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750
An index to printed primary sources about the Americas written in Europe before 1750. Not all full text will be instantly available, use interlibrary loan for what is not.
Dates: 1493-1750 CE

American Journeys
European records of travelers encountering what would become the United States. 1000 AD - 1844 AD
Colonial America
This collection covers the American colonies from the British perspective, utilizing British governmental documents.
Archive of Early American Images
Images filtered by date, place, subject, and searchable. Concentration on images from printed books.
Electronic New France
A collection of links to digital archives of French colonies in North America.

Archival Collections

African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts
Web displays of manuscripts and early printed works about the lives of African Americans in Massachusetts from the late 17th century through the abolition of slavery in the state in 1780.
American Journeys
European records of travelers encountering what would become the United States. 1000 AD - 1844 AD
American Independence: Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Links to documents and sites with primary sources on American Independence.
Avalon Project: 18th-Century Documents
Legal sources, with a focus on revolutionary records.
Social and Political Cartoons: Boston Public Library
Over 100 cartoons, with a focus on the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
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.
Archive of Early American Images
Images filtered by date, place, subject, and searchable. Concentration on images from printed books.
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.
Colonial America
"Consists of the original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, making it a uniquely rich resource for all historians of the period." Coverage: 1606-1822.
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.
Early Americas Digital Archive
The Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.
French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, and Nineteenth-Century Louisiana Documents
Louisiana documents from 1655 to 1924 with a strong emphasis on the French colonial, Spanish colonial, and early national periods.
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.
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.
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.

Colonial Caribbean
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
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

Books

Early English Books Online
EEBO is a full text primary source archive of nearly every book published in English in the Early Modern period. It covers all subjects including literature, science, religion, politics, and more.
Dates: 1473-1700 CE

Newspapers and Periodicals

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
Eighteenth Century Journals
18th-century social, political, and literary life, as covered in full-text journals published in the United Kingdom and across its empire. Topics covered include life in Britain and its colonies (India, the Caribbean, Canada), the French and American revolutions, reviews of literature and fashion, political debates, gender and society, and London coffee house gossip and discussion.
Dates: 1685-1835 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.
Electronic New France
A collection of links to digital archives of French colonies in North America.

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.
Calisphere
Digitized materials from institutions in California. Collection strengths include California history, Chinese immigration, and the 19th century.
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

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.
The War of the Rebellion
"The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies."
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

North American Slave Narratives
UNC Library
Digital Library on American Slavery
Primary sources including deeds, insurance registries, petitions, and runaway ads.
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."
Enslaved.org
Search through different types of records and record fragments to learn about the lives of enslaved people. Filter by age, ethnomarkers, status, and more.

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.
Colored Conventions
"From 1830 until well after the Civil War, African Americans gathered across the United States and Canada to participate in political meetings held at the state and national levels. A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, these “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights." This site brings together their records for use.
Schomburg Center Collections
"Featured in this collection are more than 2,000 images from the Schomburg Center, one of the world’s leading cultural institutions on the African American experience. Most focus on early community leaders and institutions in the United States: schools, churches, the military, and businesses. "
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.
Slavery and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Amistad Case
Over 300 documents relating to the Amistad case.

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
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

Culture and Society

Women Working, 1800-1930
a digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression, from Harvard University.
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.
Trial Pamphlets,17th-19th Century (Cornell)
American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside
Digitized newspapers by imprisoned people over two centuries.
Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900
"This unique collection showcases the development of 'popular' medicine in America during the nineteenth century, through an extensive range of material that was aimed at the general public rather than medical professionals. "
Political Americana
A major collection of materials from U.S. national political campaigns, including pamphlets, political cartoons, buttons, and more.

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
Gilded Age and Progressive Era
A wide variety of primary sources focused on America's transformative age of industrialization, urbanization, expanding wealth, extreme inequality, and social change, with an emphasis on 1870-1920. Themes include art and literature, charity and philanthropy, protests and strikes, roles of women, and more.
Dates: 1800-1976 CE
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

Foreign Relations of the United States
Official historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions, declassified (meaning a significant delay) and edited for publication. Earlier volumes available from the University of Wisconsin.
Puerto Rican Civil Court Documents Collection
Handwritten documents that cover civil disputes over land, slaves, and livestock that occurred in the Arecibo appellate court district from 1844-1900.
Confidential Print: North America, 1824-1961
This collection consists of the Confidential Print for the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some coverage of Central and South America, and covers such topics as slavery, Prohibition, the First and Second World Wars, racial segregation, territorial disputes, the League of Nations, McCarthyism and the nuclear bomb. The bulk of the material covers the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.

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
Migration to New Worlds
This source contains letters, journals, images, and more that cover all aspects of the migration experience, from motives and departures (from Europe and Asia) to arrival and permanent settlement (in North and South America as well as Oceania).
Dates: 1800-1924 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