LibGuides: HIS 298: Liberty and Justice for All: Democracy and Dissent in U.S. HIstory: Primary Sources

Magazines

These primary source publications are located on the library's lower level. Magazines and Journals are organized alphabetically.

Atlantic Monthly, 1858-present
This general interest magazine contains literary, political, and cultural commentary.

Harper's, 1850 - present
This general interest periodical contains articles about politics, literature, culture, the arts, and finance.

Littell's Living Age / Living Age, 1860-1892
This news and opinion magazine contains articles on world news and culture, book reviews, and poetry.

North American Review, 1829 - present
This literary magazine contains essays, book reviews, poetry, and short stories.

Microfilm Collections

The library's microfilm collection is located on the south end of the lower level. Look for the metal file cabinets on the Beck Hall side.

Slave narratives a folk history of slavery in the United States from interviews with former slaves : typewritten records
Microfilm E444 .S53

American women's diaries from the collection of the American Antiquarian Society
Microfilm CT3260 .A64 1984

Included are papers of Abby Kelley Foster, noted women’s rights advocate and abolitionist, depicting the activities of the antislavery movement in New England, New York, and Ohio

Online Primary Sources

Slavery and Anti-Slavery Part 1 : Debates over Slavery and Abolition This link opens in a new window
Includes collections from the United States and Europe on the worldwide movement for the abolition of slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Contains 1.5 million cross-searchable pages, including over 7,000 books, 79 serials, 16 manuscript collections and 377 Supreme Court records and briefs.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
The collection covers state and federal statutes, judicial cases, and pamphlets and books about slavery.
New York Times Historical This link opens in a new window
The full text of the New York Times from 1851 to 4 years ago -- covering the entire publishing history of the newspaper back to the first issue. The newspaper text is fully indexed and searchable and the database also contains full-page images, including graphics.

Anti-slavery Bugle (Newspaper)
The paper printed letters and speeches, including Sojourner Truth’s 1851 “Ain’t I a Woman” speech, along with calls-for-meetings and editorials that supported its goals. In its first issue the Bugle declared: “Our mission is a great and glorious one. It is to preach deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison door to them that are bound; to hasten in the day when ‘liberty shall be proclaimed throughout all the land, unto all inhabitants thereof.’” To that end, the paper and the society supported women’s rights and criticized churches that neglected the anti-slavery cause.
The Liberator (Newspaper)
This was the most widely circulated anti-slavery newspaper during the antebellum period and throughout the Civil War (1831-1865). It was published and edited in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison, a leading white abolitionist and founder of the influential American Anti-Slavery Society. Over the three decades of its publication, The Liberator denounced all people and acts that would prolong slavery including the United States Constitution. Garrison’s condemnation of the Constitution was an incredibly controversial and eventually led to a split with Frederick Douglass.
Chronicling America (Digitized Newspapers)
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Emancipator (Newsletter)
This short-lived publication came out of Jonesborough, Tennessee, by Elihu Embree, the Emancipator was the first newspaper in the United States “to advocate the abolition of slavery, and to be a repository of tracts on that interesting and important subject.” (Vol.1, No.1) The first issue appeared on April 30, 1820. The previous year, as a member of the Manumission Society of Tennessee, Embree published the weekly, Manumission Intelligencer, which printed local news as well as news about the Society.
Library of Congress: Abolition
More than 90,000 results with the keyword Abolition! You'll want to tailor your research to something more specific than just abolition. Be creative with your keywords.
Library of Congress: Frederick Douglass Papers
The papers of nineteenth-century African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), who escaped from slavery and then risked his freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher, consist of approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images), most of which were digitized from 34 reels of previously produced microfilm. The collection spans the years 1841-1964, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1895. Many of Douglass’s earlier writings were destroyed when his house in Rochester, New York, burned in 1872.
The Abolitionist Movement: Fighting Slavery and Racial Injustice from the Revolution to the Civil War
This is an educational tool designed for students and educators. Make sure to look at the Documents tab.
Internet Archive
You will find a mixture of secondary and some primary sources here. The link provided used the keyword phrase "Abolition movement" as a starting point. You should explore using your own keywords and phrases. You can also limit by date which is very helpful.
Boston Public Library Anti-Slavery Collection (via Internet Archive)
Anti-Slavery collection (approximately 40,000 pieces). In the late 1890's, the family of William Lloyd Garrison, along with others closely involved in the anti-slavery movement, presented the library with a major gathering of correspondence, documents, and other original material relating to the abolitionist cause from 1832 until after the Civil War.
Quakers & Slavery
The goal of this project is to increase public accessibility to rare historical materials formerly available only on-site at the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College and the Quaker & Special Collections at Haverford College. The types of materials covered in the project include: photographs and lithographs, organization records, personal correspondence, and other publications.
Samuel J. May's Anti-Slavery Collection
Cornell University Library began collecting materials on abolitionists, the anti-slavery movement and the American Civil War during the 1860s. Here you will find more than 10,000 titles, May's pamphlets document the anti-slavery struggle at the local, regional, and national levels.
Hathi Trust (digitized publications and much more)
Explore and make sure to limit what your are search via the Advanced Search.
Slavery in the Courtroom by Paul Finkelman
The book provides a detailed discussion and analysis of the pamphlet materials on the law of slavery published in the United States and Great Britain. Slavery in the Courtroom also provides readers with easy access to an understanding of most of the important American and British cases on slavery, including Somerset v. Stewart (Eng., 1772), The United States v. Amistad (U.S., 1841), and Dred Scott v. Sanford (U.S., 1857).
NYPL: The American Anti-slavery Almanac
The American Anti-Slavery Almanac was published yearly from 1836-1843 by the American Anti-Slavery Society, as one of the Society's efforts to raise awareness of the realities of slavery in nineteenth century America.
NYPL: Abolitionists
You'll find many images of leading abolitionists here.
Documenting the American South: North American Slave Narratives
Included are books and articles that document the individual and collective story of Black people struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people and some significant fictionalized first-person accounts of enslavement published in English before 1920.
The Iconography of Slavery by Maurie McInnis
Visual imagery played a major role in the anti-slavery movement. From the iconic image of a kneeling slave asking “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” to images of family separations through sale at auction, images were an important weapon in the arsenal of abolitionist activity. This seminar looks at some of the imagery created in support of anti-slavery activities. How did the imagery evolve? What were the major themes? What were the iconic images of slavery? And how, then, did artists portray freedom? What was the relationship between anti-slavery imagery and slave narratives and abolitionist writing, including Uncle Tom’s Cabin?