Research Guides: Slavery & Freedom: Abolition

Black History in Two Minutes: Abolition in the North | Elizabeth Freeman Sues for Freedom

Black History in Two Minutes: The First Underground Railroad

Guide Author

Leah Richardson

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Contact:

Special Collections Research Center
Gelman Library, Suite 704

202-994-3263

Subjects: American Studies, Gender Studies, Primary Source Collections, Women's Studies

Abolition Digital Archives

The Abolition of the Slave Trade
The Schomburg Center for Black Research and Culture’s website “provides resources for exploring the various dimensions and consequences, and the impact of decisions made and actions taken or not taken on four continents two centuries ago. It offers insights into the slave trade to the United States, African resistance, abolitionism, the U.S. Constitution and the Slave Trade Acts, 19th century African-American celebrations of the 1807 Act, the illegal slave trade, etc.
Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection at Cornell University
"Numbering over 10,000 titles, May's pamphlets and leaflets document the anti-slavery struggle at the local, regional, and national levels. Much of the May Anti-Slavery Collection was considered ephemeral or fugitive, and today many of these pamphlets are scarce. Sermons, position papers, offprints, local Anti-Slavery Society newsletters, poetry anthologies, freedmen's testimonies, broadsides, etc.
Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and the Law at Yale University
Documents and essays related to the study of “slavery and its role in the development of the modern world.”
The Black Abolitionist Archive
"The Black Abolitionist Digital Archive is a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement; scans of these documents are provided as images and PDF files." Searchable database.
The James G. Birney Collection of Anti-slavery Pamphlets
A bibliography of more than 1,000 anti-slavery documents collected by the abolitionist and donated to Johns Hopkins University.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
A collection of full-text primary materials documenting various movements and events in the history of women's social reform activities. Sources include documents, images, and books, and are organized around topical document projects.
Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
Covering 1830-1865, Black Abolitionist Papers presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings of the activists themselves.

Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation and Freedom
Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom: Primary Sources from Houghton Library was designed to provide a free and accessible collection of Black history resources for scholars of all types.

Newspaper & Magazine Archives

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 (Readex)
Provides access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. The collection features papers from more than 35 states and was in part created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the U.S.
American Periodicals Series (1741-1940)
Page-images from more than 1,100 historic American magazines, journals, and newspapers illuminating the development of American culture, politics, and society across 150 years. Articles can be searched by author, source, or words in the complete text.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century (Accessible Archives)
This database provides full-text access to articles from a number of historic African American newspapers, beginning in 1827 with Freedom's Journal. The collection contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and offers first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day.
Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988)
The Baltimore Afro-American (Historical), a prominent, historic African American newspaper, offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
19th Century U.S. Newspapers
Provides access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life among other subjects.

African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window
This collection features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
National Anti-Slavery Standard This link opens in a new window
This publication was the official weekly newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. The newspaper contained essays, debates, speeches, events, reports and anything else deemed newsworthy in relation to the question of slavery in the United States and other parts of the world. Covers years 1840-1870.
Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search all historical newspapers from ProQuest: The Atlanta Constitution (1869-1875; 1881-1984), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Baltimore Sun (1837-1991), Chicago Defender (1909-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1998), Korea Times (1950-2016), Los Angeles Times (1881-1999), The New York Times (1857-2019), The New York Tribune / Herald Tribune (1841-1962), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1950; 1955-1966), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2012), and The Washington Post (1877-2007).