African American History: Primary Sources: Collections and Websites
This page lists online collections that Miami University subscribe to or have in the print collection. For a more comprehensive list of primary sources see the subject guide: Primary Sources.
Digital Resources and Collections
Freedmen's Bureau Records
- Freedmen's Bureau Online. (Some good links and a search engine. Not a U.S. government site, probably not complete.)
- FamilySearch Freedmen's Bureau Records
- W.E.B. Du Bois Papers 1803-1999Correspondence, writings, nonfiction books, etc. At University of Massachusetts.
- Anti Slavery PamphletsSelected.
Websites
- In Motion: The African-American Migration ExperienceImages, texts, maps with analysis.
- Martin Luther King Jr. Papers and ArchivesProvided by Stanford University. Source is the MLK Library. Selected papers.
- The Church in the Southern Black CommunityAutobiographies, biographies, church documents, sermons, histories, encyclopedias, and other published materials. From Documenting the American South.
- Digtial HarlemThe Digital Harlem website presents information, drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City's Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915-1930. Most of the material relates to the years 1920, 1925, and 1930.
- Frederic Douglass Papers at the Library of CongressContains approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images), spans the years 1841-1964, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1865
- Oral Histories of the American South500 oral history interviews. From Documenting the American South
- Eyes on the Prize: interviewsThese interviews are part of the Henry Hampton Collection housed at the Film and Media Archive at Washington University Libraries. Each transcript represented the entire interview conducted by Blackside including sections which appeared in the final program and the outtakes.
- FBI Files on the Freedom RidersPart of the FBI Vault
- FBI Files on Mississippi BurningPart of the FBI Vault.
- Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African DiasporaDigital archive for hundreds of historical images, paintings, lithographs, and photographs illustrating enslaved Africans and their descendants before c. 1900.
- Digital Library on American SlaveryGathers contents of several collections into one database. Includes: Court Petitions, Runaway Slave Notices, Slave Deeds, and Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.
- Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade DatabaseStatistical Data. maps, documents, 3D models etc. on nearly all of the voyages of British and Dutch ships. Also includes Iberian and Brazilian trades.
- North American Slave NarrativesBibliography enumerates all separately published autobiographical texts in English produced by slaves or former slaves
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938First-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slave
- Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their StoriesTwenty-two interviewees discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs,. Interviews took place between 1932 and 1975.
- Civil Rights Digital LibraryIndex with links to digital collections.
- Photographs of African Americans During the Civil WarFrom many collections in the Library of Congress
- Africana and Black HistoryFrom the New York Public Library.
- Civil Rights Movement ArchivePhotos, posters, etc. created by veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement (1951-1968).
- O Say Can You SeeDocuments the challenge to slavery and the quest for freedom in early Washington, D.C., by collecting, digitizing, making accessible, and analyzing freedom suits filed between 1800 and 1862. Also traces the multigenerational family networks they reveal.
- Brown V. Board of Education Digital ArchiveContains documents and images which chronicle events surrounding this historically significant case up to the present.
- Digital SNCCContains photos, documents, maps, etc.
- A Tale of Two PlantationsSite to accompany the book A tale of two plantations : slave life and labor in Jamaica and Virginia by Richard S. Dunn.
- Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave TradeFrom archival fragments and spreadsheet entries, we see the lives of the enslaved in richer detail. Explore the data and life stories on Enslaved.org and read articles on data-driven research about the lives of the enslaved in the Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation.
Collections
- We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South This link opens in a new windowIncludes surveillance reports, chronologies, witness statements and more. These materials provide unique (and in some cases recently declassified) insight into the Freedom Rides, the Kennedy administration and the segregated South.
- Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records This link opens in a new windowThe political side of the freedom movement, the role of civil rights organizations in pushing for civil rights legislation, and the interaction between African Americans and the federal government in the 20th century. Including the FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.; Centers of the Southern Struggle, an exceptional collection of FBI Files covering five of the most pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis; and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.
- Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowDatabase contains 1297 sources with 1100 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Full texts of books, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to the present.
- Declassified Documents Reference System This link opens in a new windowFull-text of more than 78,000 declassified documents from various government agencies including the White House, CIA, FBI, State Dept. and others. Publications cover major foreign and domestic events such as the Cold War, Vietnam, and the civil rights movement. Useful for research in American history, foreign policy and international relations.
- Slave NarrativesSome 20th century, but primarily 19th
- Behind the Veil (Duke University)A selection of 410 recorded oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s
- Civil Rights Digital LibraryThe struggle for racial equality in the 1950s and 1960s. Includes news footage and other primary sources.
- Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers ProjectContains sample documents, not complete
- 1964 Freedom Summer (Wisconsin)official records of organizations, personal papers of movement leaders, letters, racist propaganda, diaries, images, newsletter
- Border and Migration Studies This link opens in a new windowA collection that explores and provides historical background on select border areas in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe in text, video, and images.
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window5 simultaneous users. Contains a comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Includes articles from Oxford's reference works, primary sources with specially written commentaries, images, maps, charts and tables, timelines, and biographies.
- Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new windowThis collection brings together legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes statutes passed by every colony and state on slavery, federal statutes dealing with slavery, and reported state and federal cases on slavery. It also includes U.S. Congressional documents, pamphlets, books, law review articles, and some modern legal histories.
Images, Art and Literature
- Black Drama 1850 to Present This link opens in a new window1200 plays by 201 playwrights, with detailed, searchable information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more.Includes selected playbills, production photographs
- Black Drama: Second Edition This link opens in a new windowAfrican, African American, and Diaspora, 1850 to present. Contains approximately 1,462 plays by 233 playwrights. Continuation of above
- Black Short Fiction and Folklore This link opens in a new windowA full-text collection of stories from Africa and the African Diaspora. fom more than 15 countries from the mid-1900s to the present, including previously uncollected works and unpublished manuscripts by many authors, as well as complete runs of selected literary magazines that feature short stories
Video, Audio, Images
- American History in Video This link opens in a new windowThe collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.
- American Music This link opens in a new windowEclectic collection of music from Americans of diverse origins and all walks of life, from America’s past and present. The songs are by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, cowboys, and ordinary people. They touch topics as varied as Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests, and more. And the range of genres includes country, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, shape note singing, doo-wop, Motown, R&B, soul, funk, and others.
- ARTstor This link opens in a new windowARTStor is a repository of over 500,000 digital images of art, architecture, photography, decorative arts and design, and archaeology.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowKanopy is a streaming video platform with more than 8,000 films from a variety of important collections and producers, including the California Newsreel, Green Planet, PBS, BBC Active, and Stanford Executive Briefings collections.
Diaries
- Social and Cultural History: Letters and Diaries Online This link opens in a new windowExperience the past through thousands of private writings and personal narratives.
Statiistics
- Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new windowCollected from governmental and non-governmental resources, this collection of data (also available in print) provides statistics on social, behavioral, humanistic, and natural sciences including history, economics, government, finance, sociology, demography, education, law, natural resources, climate, religion, international migration, trade and more.The online version allows for customization of data into tables.
- Statistical Abstract of the United StatesSince the late 1800s. Different catalog records for different dates.