| Princeton students, need help with your history research? Make an appointment with Elizabeth Bennett, Librarian for History and History of Science. |
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Primary sources for historical research: African-American History and the Antebellum South
This guide lists important collections of primary sources on African-Americans and the American South from the colonial period through 1890 held by the Princeton University Library. It covers microform, print and digital collections. Microforms listed in this guide are housed in Firestone Library Microforms Service on C floor. Printed guides to these collections are usually also housed in Microforms Service and have call numbers beginning "FilmB." A few collections held by Princeton Theological Seminary or by the Center for Research Libraries are also listed in this guide. Please consult a librarian for help if you would like to use these collections. For further information, please see Guides to primary sources for historical research: introduction.
Table of Contents
| Papers of the American slave trade [microform] |
| Microfilm 10617 |
53 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms E445.R4 P363 |
| This material "documents the international slave trade in Britain's New World colonies and the United States from 1718 to the trade's demise after 1808." See http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/default.asp?t=97 for links to the guides (PDF). |
| Race, slavery and free blacks [microform]: petitions to southern legislatures, 1777-1867 |
| Microfilm 10695 |
23 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms E441 .R323 |
| This collection consists of petitions by slaves and free persons of color to local legislatures. The petitions were selected from those files at county courthouses in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. See http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/default.asp?t=97 for links to the guides (PDF). |
| Slave narratives, a folk history of slavery in the United States from interviews with former slaves |
| 1083.341 |
11 reels |
Printed guide: none |
| Collection of first-person accounts of slavery, prepared by the Federal Writers' project, 1936-1938. This material has been digitized by the Library of Congress. See http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html. See also African American Experience, which includes a digital edition of The American Slave: a Composite Autobiography, a fully searchable database of over 4,000 interviews with former slaves. |
| Slave trade, 1858-1892 : British Foreign Office collection 541 |
| Microfilm 03157 |
10 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms
HT1162.G8 |
| Consists of correspondence and reports of British officials in Africa, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, from the
Foreign Office confidential print |
| Slavery, source material and critical literature [microform] |
| Microfiche 199 |
11,949 microfiche |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HT857 .S528 |
| Large collection of primary source documents on slavery in the United States. All works are individually cataloged in the library's Main Catalog. |
| Slavery tracts & pamphlets from the West India Committee collection [microform] |
| Microfilm 05622 |
28 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HT1071.S52 |
| Consists of pamphlets on the sugar trade and slavery in the West Indies. |
| Southern historical manuscripts [microform] |
| Microfiche 848 |
526 microfiches |
Printed guide: none |
| From
original plantation records in the collection of Louisiana State University, Dept. of Archives and Manuscripts (Baton Rouge). |
| State slavery statutes [microform] |
| Microfiche 1887 |
354 microfiches |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms
KF4545.S5 A127 1989 |
| "This master record of the laws governing American slavery, covering the years 1789 to 1865, assembles ... the texts of more than 7,000 slavery-related statutes and constitutional articles and amendments from the 11 slaveholding states that formed the Confederate States of America, plus four border states. Materials in the collection cover virtually every aspect of the regulation of blacks of the period." See http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/default.asp?t=97 for links to the guides (PDF). |
| Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade [electronic resource] |
| This CDROM is accessible only through Library Web Computers which are located in all of the campus libraries. |
| Documents the forced migration of Africans across the Atlantic from 1595 to 1866. Nearly two-thirds of all the voyages that sailed from Africa to the Americas are included. Information is provided on ships' owners, captains, date and port of departure and arrival, number of enslaved Africans embarked and disembarked, number of deaths, and vessels that had insurrections. |
| Butler plantation papers [microform] : the papers of Pierce Butler (1744-1822) and successors from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania |
| Microfilm 10622 |
22 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms F290.B96 B874 |
| This collection documents both the day-to-day running of the Butler plantations in South Carolina and Georgia from 1786 to 1885, and the political career of Pierce Butler, who served in Congress in 1792-94 and 1802-04. See http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/digital_guides/butler_plantation_papers/Contents.aspx |
| John Horry Dent farm journals and account books, 1840-1892 |
| Microfilm 01553 |
4 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms Z6611.A33D46 |
| Dent was a prosperous plantation (and slave) owner who kept a daily journal for more than 50 years. |
| Records of ante-bellum Southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War [microform] |
| Microfilm 05474 |
1286 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms F213.S35 |
| Plantation records from many libraries and archives, including business records, account books, reports, diaries and letters that offer a detailed view of life on Southern plantations. There is extensive material on slavery, agriculture as a business, and family life. See http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/default.asp?t=343 for links to the guides (PDF). |
| Southern women and their families in the 19th century [microform] : papers and diaries |
| Microfilm 06950 |
411 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HQ1458 .S687 |
| Consists of diaries and letters written by women in the American South in the 19th century. Covers a rich variety of topics including the Civil War, slavery, marriage and childbearing, religion and politics. |
| American Missionary Association archives |
| Microfilm edition of the American Missionary Association archives. |
261 reels |
Printed guide: none |
| Consists of records of the American Missionary Association, a 19th-century abolitionist organization. The material is held by the Amistad Research Center. See http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/ama-research.htm |
| Anti-slavery materials [microform]: regional records and other pamphlets, 18th-19th centuries : the collection at John Rylands University Library, Manchester |
| Microfilm 06843 |
20 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HT1163 .A675 |
| Pamphlets collected by H.G. Wilson and now held at John Rylands University. The collection is particularly rich in materials from British provincial philanthropic societies. Also includes materials from America, the West Indies (Jamaica), and India. |
| Black abolitionist papers, 1830-1865 [microform] |
| Microfilm 05367 |
17 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms E449.B625 1981. |
| Documents the work of black abolitionists in the United States and elsewhere. |
| Correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy relating to African colonization, 1819-1844 [microform] |
| Microfilm 09664 |
2 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms CD3026.A52 |
| Consists mainly of copies of letters sent by the Secretary of the Navy to agents of the United States stationed on the northwest coast of Africa for the purpose of receiving blacks freed by the capture of slave ships, and letters and reports received by the Secretary of the Navy from these agents. |
| Estlin papers, 1840-1884 [microform] |
| 1098.331 |
6 reels |
Printed guide: none |
| Papers covering the activities of J. B. Estlin and his daughter Mary in supporting the British and American anti-slavery movements |
| Papers of Frederick Douglass [microform] |
| 1083.309 |
20 reels |
Printed guide: none |
|
Born a slave, Douglass escaped to the north and became a leading abolitionist in the 1840's. http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00186.html. See also the printed edition of Frederick Douglass' papers at E449 .D733 and E449.D734. |
| Liberator (1831-1865) |
| |
| Full-text of the weekly abolitionist newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts by William Lloyd Garrison. |
| Papers of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society [microform] |
| 1083.706 |
5 reels |
Printed guide: none |
| These papers document the activities of the first formal abolitionist society in America. Included are minutes from 1787 to 1916 and the society's large collection of manuscripts dealing with abolition, spanning the years of 1775-1868. |
| Rhodes House anti-slavery papers [microform] : material relating to America from the anti-slavery collection in Rhodes House, Oxford ; mainly 1839-1868 |
| 1083.692 |
2 reels |
Printed guide: none |
| A collection of anti-slavery papers acquired in 1951 from the Anti-slavery Society by the Rhodes trustees. This is the largest Anti-slavery collection in Great Briain, containing well over 1,000 volumes of manuscript and typescript material in addition to pamphlets and periodicals. |
| Confederate military manuscripts [microform] |
| Microfilm 10612 |
94 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms E484 .C663 |
| Records from various archives in southern states. "These manuscripts chronicle the organization and operation of the South's war effort at every level—from Robert E. Lee's headquarters papers to the personal correspondence and diaries of everyday soldiers." See http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/default.asp?t=97 for links to the guides (PDF). |
| Travels in the Confederate States [microform] |
| Microfiche 1748 |
3616 microfiches |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms Z1215.S7 C755 |
| This collection is based on the titles listed in the bibliography Travels in the Confederate States by Ellis Merton Coulter published in 1948. It "covers a broad spectrum of accounts of the Civil War and post-Civil War period as told by on-the-scene observers ---- soldiers, journalists, foreigners, visitors and innocent victims of war." An online guide is linked from http://microformguides.gale.com/GuideLst.html. |
| Freedmen's Aid Society records, 1866-1932 [microform] |
| Microfilm 11661 |
120 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms LC2703 .F743 |
| Consists of the records of the Freedmen's Aid Society, which was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1866 to set up schools for African Americans in the South. |
| The Negro in the military service of the United States, 1639-1886 [microform] |
| 1099.9227 |
5 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms CD3026.A52 |
Consists of records compiled for publication by the Colored Troops Division of the Adjutant General’s Office in 1888. Originals held by National Archives as part of Record Group 94, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917. See
http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/094.html#94.7 |
| Selected series of records issued by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872 [microform] |
| Microfilm 08518 |
7 reels |
Printed guide: none |
|
| Registers and letters received by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872 [microform] |
| Microfilm 08519 |
74 reels |
Printed guide: Firestone Microforms E185.2 .U547 1968 |
| The Bureau "supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen. Assumed custody of abandoned or confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory." From National Archives, Record Group 105, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. See http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/105.html |
| State free Negro capitation tax books, Charleston, South Carolina, ca. 1811-1860 [microform] |
| Microfilm 08353 |
2 reels |
Printed guide: none |
| "The twenty-nine books in this publication list names of many free blacks who lived in Charleston between 1811 and 1860. The tax collector of the parishes of St. Philip's and St. Michael's probably created the books to collect the capitation tax between 1756 and 1865. Names, addresses, tax status, and notations like 'dead' and 'overage' appear. The 1822 and 1823 books list occupations." Records from the South Carolina Archives. Guide on film at beginning of both reels. |
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