Research Guides: Slavery & Freedom: Race & U.S. Law

Black History in Two Minutes: Separate But Equal: Homer Plessy and the Case That Upheld the Color Line

Black History in Two Minutes: The 15th Amendment

Guide Author

Leah Richardson

she/her/hers

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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

Slavery & the Law Digital Archives

Slavery and the Law (History Vault) This link opens in a new window
Slavery and the Law features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. These petitions were from hundreds of courthouses and historical societies in 10 states and the District of Columbia. This database also includes the State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865.

Overview of African American Digitized History
From the Colonial Period to the 1960s.
Slavery and the Law in Virginia
A timeline of slave laws passed in Virginia.
Missouri’s Dred Scott Case, 1846-1857
“This site from the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office provides background information and primary sources on the landmark case.”
The Missouri Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act
“The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery. In 1849 California requested permission to enter the Union as a free state, potentially upsetting the balance between the free and slave states in the U.S. Senate.” Includes document, additional electronic resources and bibliography.
The Kansas Nebraska Act
"Introduced by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, the Kansas-Nebraska Act stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory, a concept known as popular sovereignty. After the bill passed on May 30, 1854, violence erupted in Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, a prelude to the Civil War.” Includes document, additional electronic resources and bibliography.
Long Road to Justice: The African American Experience in the Massachusetts Courts
This website from the Massachusetts Historical Society includes information about the Anthony Burns Trial and other important cases.
The Geography of Slavery in Virginia
This site from U.V.A. has a collection of digitized ads from the 18th and 19th centuries with historical contextualization.
Plessy V. Ferguson
Cornell’s Legal Studies Institute supplies the full document of Justice Brown’s 1896 opinion and Harlan’s dissent.

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).