Libguides History 151 Resistance To Slavery Primary Source Databases
Ask-A-Librarian Get research and reference help 24 hours/7 days a week. Go to the Ask-A-Librarian page for more information. For the full list of Hunter College's Africana Studies Databases click here. For the full list of Hunter College Databases click here. The following are great collections of primary source material on microfilm at Howard-Tilton. Topics include the slave trade, Louisiana plantations, and abolitionists.
Welcome to the Slavery and Abolition Primary Source Guide. The purpose of this guide is to provide you the researcher with both print and links to online primary sources covering various subject areas pertaining to Slavery and Abolition. This guide is a live guide, and always growing as new links or subject areas are added. Good Luck in your research endeavors. The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865. Slavery was established throughout the European colonization of the Americas.
From 1526, during early colonial days, it was practiced in Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until abolition. In the decades after the end of Reconstruction, many of slavery's economic and social functions were continued through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing. By the time of the American Revolution (1775–1783), the status of enslaved people had been institutionalized as a racial caste associated with African ancestry.
During and immediately following the Revolution, abolitionist laws were passed in most Northern states and a movement developed to abolish slavery. The role of slavery under the United States Constitution (1789) was the most contentious issue during its drafting. Although the creators of the Constitution never used the word "slavery", the final document, through the three-fifths clause, gave slave owners disproportionate political power by augmenting the congressional representation and the Electoral College votes... All Northern states had abolished slavery in some way by 1805; sometimes, abolition was a gradual process, a few hundred people were enslaved in the Northern states as late as the 1840 Census. Some slaveowners, primarily in the Upper South, freed their slaves, and philanthropists and charitable groups bought and freed others. The Atlantic slave trade was outlawed by individual states beginning during the American Revolution.
The import trade was banned by Congress in 1808, although smuggling was common thereafter. It has been estimated that about 30% of congressmen who were born before 1840 were, at some time in their lives, owners of slaves. The rapid expansion of the cotton industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased the demand for slave labor, and the Southern states continued as slave societies. The United States became ever more polarized over the issue of slavery, split into slave and free states. Driven by labor demands from new cotton plantations in the Deep South, the Upper South sold more than a million slaves who were taken to the Deep South. The total slave population in the South eventually reached four million.
As the United States expanded, the Southern states attempted to extend slavery into the new western territories to allow proslavery forces to maintain their power in the country. The new territories acquired by the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican Cession were the subject of major political crises and compromises. By 1850, the newly rich, cotton-growing South was threatening to secede from the Union, and tensions continued to rise. Bloody fighting broke out over slavery in the Kansas Territory. Slavery was defended in the South as a "positive good", and the largest religious denominations split over the slavery issue into regional organizations in the North and South. When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election on a platform of halting the expansion of slavery, seven slave states seceded to form the Confederacy.
Shortly afterward, the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked the U.S. Army's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Four additional slave states then joined the confederacy after Lincoln, on April 15, called forth in response "the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in... During the war some jurisdictions abolished slavery and, due to Union measures such as the Confiscation Acts and the Emancipation Proclamation, the war effectively ended slavery in most places. After the Union victory, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on December 6, 1865, prohibiting "slavery [and] involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime." Wikipedia Primary sources are original documents and objects which were created at the time.
Typical examples include letters, diaries, photos, newspaper articles, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies, government reports, paintings, maps, etc. In actuality, it can be more complicated and can depend on the topic/time period. Always clarify with your professor. Browse footnotes and bibliographies of books, encyclopedias, and articles for information about primary sources. Search the Library Catalog for primary sources--both unpublished manuscripts and modern editions in print and online, sometimes in translation, of original primary sources. Use the "advanced search" with the terms for primary sources below as subjects, not keywords.
Library catalog/database terms for primary sources: Sources means primary sources in a library catalog. It can mean a printed, edited, modern edition of an archival source; or it can mean a collection of excerpted, translated sources which might have the words "reader" or "documents" in the title; or... All are invaluable. The footnotes and bibliography of any of them will lead to more sources. Covers hearings, reports, documents and committee prints.
The subscription also covers bill tracking & profiles, bill text, members and committee coverage, the Daily Congressional Record and the Code of Federal Regulations and Federal Register, and political news. For a better understanding of what is covered, here is a link to a Content Coverage Chart Features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. Includes Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro; Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States; Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks, Series I & II; and State Slavery Statutes. Visit: Monday: 7:30AM - 10:00PM Tuesday: 7:30AM - 10:00PM Wednesday: 7:30AM - 10:00PM Thursday: 7:30AM-10:00PM Friday: 7:30AM - 10:00PM Saturday: 8:00AM - 1:00PM Sunday: 6:00PM - 10:00PM A collection of 27 historical newspapers, including domestic and international publications.
Domestic publications include historical black and Jewish newspapers. Dates of coverage for individual newspapers vary, but the collection overall covers 1791-2016. AASC contains over 7,500 articles from Oxford's reference program and includes 5 major encyclopedias; Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History,1619-1895 ; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America;... This database also includes thematic timelines, primary source documents, and specially written commentaries on the personal and public histories of African Americans. See Terms and Conditions. Provides full text databases of primary source material from the 18th and 19th century publications.
Collections include the Civil War; African American newspapers from the 19th century; American county histories to 1900; and specific resources and newspapers such as Godey’s Lady’s Book and the Pennsylvania Gazette. 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers American County Histories: The Southwest States Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1, 1718-1876 Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) is where you can access the library's rare and unique materials. SCRC and its collections are open to the GW community and the public. The majority of the archival, manuscript, and rare book collections in the SCRC are housed offsite and require 3-5 business days for retrieval. See the subject guides to the collections or search the archives database to locate materials. Contact the SCRC with questions and to place a request to view materials. See also the Images & Material Culture page for more relevant links.
You can find primary sources in three places: If you're not sure if you're looking at a primary source, just ask a librarian for help!
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Ask-A-Librarian Get Research And Reference Help 24 Hours/7 Days A
Ask-A-Librarian Get research and reference help 24 hours/7 days a week. Go to the Ask-A-Librarian page for more information. For the full list of Hunter College's Africana Studies Databases click here. For the full list of Hunter College Databases click here. The following are great collections of primary source material on microfilm at Howard-Tilton. Topics include the slave trade, Louisiana plan...
Welcome To The Slavery And Abolition Primary Source Guide. The
Welcome to the Slavery and Abolition Primary Source Guide. The purpose of this guide is to provide you the researcher with both print and links to online primary sources covering various subject areas pertaining to Slavery and Abolition. This guide is a live guide, and always growing as new links or subject areas are added. Good Luck in your research endeavors. The legal institution of human chatt...
From 1526, During Early Colonial Days, It Was Practiced In
From 1526, during early colonial days, it was practiced in Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until abolition. In the decades after the end of Reconstruction, many of slavery's economic and social functions ...
During And Immediately Following The Revolution, Abolitionist Laws Were Passed
During and immediately following the Revolution, abolitionist laws were passed in most Northern states and a movement developed to abolish slavery. The role of slavery under the United States Constitution (1789) was the most contentious issue during its drafting. Although the creators of the Constitution never used the word "slavery", the final document, through the three-fifths clause, gave slave...
The Import Trade Was Banned By Congress In 1808, Although
The import trade was banned by Congress in 1808, although smuggling was common thereafter. It has been estimated that about 30% of congressmen who were born before 1840 were, at some time in their lives, owners of slaves. The rapid expansion of the cotton industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased the demand for slave labor, and the Southern states continued...