LibGuides: African American History: Primary Sources

Freely Available online

This is not exhaustive by any means. However, here are a few examples of resouces you might consult as you seach online

African American Collections: American Memory Project -
Provided by the Library of Congress
TransAtlantic Slave Trade Voyages Database
search for information on nearly 35,000 slave voyages
Cincinnati Birth and Death Records 1865-1912
Civil Rights Movement Veterans
documents and oral accounts from participants in the freedom movement of the 1960's.

Available Elsewhere

Other nearby libraries may have print collections that are valuable for you to use. Look particularly at Ohio State University and the Ohio Historical Society.

Early American Newspapers Series
Available at OSU
Early American Imprints (Evans)
Available at Ohio State
Ohio Historical Society Manuscript Database
May have some small collections on microfilm or in boxes. An example would be the John Rankin family papers.

Online Subscriptions

There are a few special collections available online that have primary documents.

African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2 This link opens in a new window
Series 1 & 2 cover 1827-1998 and includes papers from more than 35 states. Nearly 360 newspapers are featured, chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. Covers life in the Antebellum South, the Jim Crow Era, the Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights movement, and more.

American Periodical Series 1740-1900
over 1,100 periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children’s and women’s magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals.
African-American Poetry 1760 - 1900
full text of 3000 poems written by African-American poets in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The database includes allegories, broadsides, children's poems, elegiac poems, epics, hymns, odes, patriotic poems, and sonnets. The poets are among those included in the William French et al. bibliography, Afro-American Poetry and Drama, 1760-1975.