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Slavery in the United States - Research Guide
This is a selected bibliography on the topic of Slavery in the United States. This bibliography tends to focus on reference materials available at Van Pelt Library. There is a vast amount of material available throughout the Penn Libraries and elsewhere that is not covered in this guide. Use the card catalog, Franklin, and the assistance of the librarians at the Van Pelt Reference Desk to thoroughly research your topic.
Other Penn library bibliographies related to this topic:
The History Collection Page
U.S. Civil War History: Selected
Primary and Secondary Sources
18th and 19th Century Periodicals
CONTENTS
I. Library Catalogs
II. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
III. Bibliographies, Indexes, and Databases
IV. Source Collections
V. Biographical Resources
VI. Statistical Information
VII. Web Resources
I. Library Catalogs
The University of Pennsylvania
Franklin lists books, journals titles (but not articles within journals), conference proceedings, and other library materials at the Penn Libraries. When looking for works on a topic in Franklin, try searching both by subject heading and by keyword(s).
Subject Headings: When you find works of interest, click on the "Full" button to see the Subject Headings assigned to that work. These headings may then be searched as well. This is a list of some selected Library of Congress subject headings for use in Franklin Subject searches.
| antislavery movements united states plantation life slaveholders slavery and the church slavery emancipation slavery confederate states of america slavery in literature |
slavery law and legislation united states slavery southern states slavery united states slaves emancipation united states slaves united states slaves' writings underground railroad |
Keyword: the searches look for specific words in a record.
slave? AND narrative? AND "united states"
skey slave? AND skey women? AND "united states"
(insurrect? OR fugitive? OR escape? OR rebel? OR revolt?) AND skey slave? AND
"united states"
To search for books and periodicals not owned by Penn:
WorldCat A bibliographic catalog of over 30 million books, serials, archives and manuscripts, musical scores, visual materials, maps, and data files held in universities, colleges, and public libraries around the world. Several Philadelphia-area libraries are included in WorldCat. Items not owned by Penn can be requested through BorrowDirect or Interlibrary Loan.
II. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
The African American Encyclopedia. Williams, Michael
W., ed. New York: Marshall Cavendish corp., 1993-1997.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185 .A253 1993]
Altman, Susan. The Encyclopedia of African American Heritage.
New York: Facts on File, 1997.
[Van Pelt Stacks: E185 .A455 1997]
Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery. Miller, Randall
M. and Smith, John David, eds. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E441 .D53 1997]
Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights: From Emancipation
to the Present. Lowery, Charles D. and Marszalek, John F., eds.
New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185 .61 .E54 1992]
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History.
Salzman, Jack, and Smith, David Lionel, and West, Cornel, eds. New York: Macmillan
Library Reference, 1996.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185 .E54 1996]
Encyclopedia of African American Religions. Murphy,
Larry G., Melton, J. Gordon, and Ward, Gary L., eds. New York: Garland Pub.,
1993.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: BR563 .N4 E53 1993]
Encyclopedia of Black America. Low, W. Augustus,
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981.
[Van Pelt Reference Desk: E185 E55]
Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery. Rodriguez,
Junius P., ed. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1997.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: HT861 .H57 1997]
Grossman, Mark. The ABC-CLIO Companion to the Civil Rights Movement.
Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1993.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185.61 .G895 1993]
Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: From 1492
to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185 .H64 1997]
Luker, Ralph. Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement.
Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1997.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185 .61 .L84 1997]
Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery. Finkelman,
Paul and Miller, Joseph, eds. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, Simon & Schuster
Macmillan, 1998.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: HT861 .M24 1998]
Microsoft Encarta Africana 2000. Appiah, Kwame Anthony,
and Gates, Henry Louis Jr., eds. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corp., 1993-1999. CD
ROM.
[Van Pelt Reference Desk: DT14 .M527 1993a]
New York Public Library African American Desk Reference.
New York: Wiley, 1999.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185 .N487 1999]
Reference Library of Black America. Estell, Kenneth,
ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994.
[Van Pelt Africana Studies Seminar (Rm. 302): E185 .R435 1994]
III. Bibliographies, Indexes, and Databases
Bibliographies
African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National
Bibliography . Danky, James P., ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1998.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: PN4882.5 A47 1998]
Campbell, Georgetta Merritt. Extant Collections of Early Black
Newspapers: A Research Guide to the Black Press, 1880-1915, With an Index to
the Boston Guardian, 1902-1904. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston Pub Co.,
1981.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: Z6944 N39 C28]
Finkelman, Paul. Slavery in the Courtroom: An Annotated Bibliogrpahy
of American Cases. Washington D.C: Library of Congress, 1985.
[Van Pelt Library Stacks: KF4545 .S5 A123 1985]
Hogg, Peter. The African slave trade and its suppression, a classified and annotated bibliography of books, pamphlets and periodical articles. . London, Frank Cass [1973].
[Van Pelt Stacks: Z7164.S6 H63 1973]
Miller, Joseph Calder. Slavery and Slaving in World History: A
Bibliography, 1900-1991 . Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus Internationl Publications,
1993.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: HT861 .M543 1993]
Olson, James Stuart. Slave Life in America: A Historiography and
Selected Bibliography. Lanham: University Press of America, 1983.
[Van Pelt Library Stacks: E443 O44 1983]
Sims-Wood, Janet L. The Progress of Afro-American Women: A Selected Bibliography and Resource Guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185.86 S495]
Smith, John David. Black Slavery in the Americas: An Interdisciplinary Bibliography, 1865-1980. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: HT1049 .S58 1982] Work, Monroe Nathan. A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America . New York: H.W. Wilson Co, 1928. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: Z1361 N39 W8]
Indexes
| Philanthropist Emancipator Genius of Universal Emancipation Abolition Intelligencer and Missionary Magazine African Observer Liberator Anti-Slavery Record |
Human Rights Observer Friend of Man Pennsylvania Freeman Advocate of Freedom American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter National Anti-Slavery Standard |
Index to Black Periodicals. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co.,
1988-.
[Van Pelt Reference: AI3 O4 (1984-1997) and Van Pelt: AI3 O4 (1954-1983)]
Index to the American Slave. Jacobs, Donald M. ed.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981.
An index to the multi volume collection of slave narratives listed below in
section IV.
[Van Pelt Library; Van Pelt Africana Studies Seminar (Room 302): E444 A45 Suppl.3]
Jacobs, Donald M., ed. Antebellum Black Newspapers: Indices to
New York Freedom's Journal (1827- 1829), The Rights of All (1829), The Weekly
Advocate (1837), and The Colored American (1837-1841). Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185.5 J33 1976]
The Kaiser Index to Black Resources, 1948-1986: from the Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library
. New York: Carlson Pub.,Inc., 1992.
Citations to nearly 200,000 articles from black newspapers and periodicals.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185 K34 1992, vols. 1-5]
Potter, Vilma Raskin. A Reference Guide to Afro-American Publications
and Editors, 1827-1946 . Ames : Iowa State University Press, 1993.
[Van Pelt Reference : PN 4882.5 P63 1993]
Potts, Howard E. A Comprehensive Name Index for The American Slave
. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997. An index to the multi volume collection
of slave narratives listed below in section IV.
[Van Pelt Library: E444 A45 Suppl.4]
Databases
EBSCO MegaFILE. EBSCO MegaFILE's subject strength is its wide coverage, providing indexing and fulltext for scholarly journal articles on every topic, in addition to general and popular magazines and business-related periodicals.
Accessible Archives. This includes African American Newspapers- The Nineteenth Century.
America: History and Life.1964 - "Historical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present." This database covers over 2,000 journals worldwide and can be searched by keyword.
American Periodical Series Online: 1740-1900. Includes digitized images of the pages of 1,100 American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index.1988 - Search for specific articles by subject, author, journal, and/or author address, as well as for articles that cite a known author or work. Covers 5,300 science , 1,700 social science, and 1,140 arts & humanities journals.
ATLA Religion Database.Covers all religious traditions; strongest coverage is for materials dealing with the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Ethnic NewsWatch. 1990 - This is a full text, comprehensive archival database providing access to more than 400,000 articles in nearly 200 ethnic, minority and native press newspapers, magazines, and journals. Over 1,000 articles currently retrieved under the subject search "Politics (Slavery)".
Historical Abstracts.1970 - Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada). Useful for articles on the slave trade outside of the U.S.
International Index to Black Periodicals Full Text. includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from over 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers and newsletters from the United States, Africa and the Caribbean--and full-text coverage of over 20 core Black Studies periodicals (1998 forward)
JSTOR. a Mellon funded project to provide full-text elecronic versions of major scholarly journals in several humanities and social sciences disciplines from their first issues to recent years. Coverage usually stops five years short of the present. Most current issues can be accessed through the e-journals home page.
MLA International Bibliography. (language, literature, folklore)1963 - Covers literature, languages, folklore, and linguistics.
19th Century Masterfile. Provides indexing to nineteenth century periodicals, books, newspapers, and government documents. The main index is Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906).
Periodicals Contents Index. (indexing up to 1990) Indexing to millions of articles published in thousands of periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences since 1770.
IV. Source Collections
African-American Poetry (1750-1900). Nearly 3,000 full-text poems written by African-American poets in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Anti-Slavery Collection, 18th-19th Centuries, from the Library of the Society of Friends [microform] . London: World Microfilms Publica$ 1978. [Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm 3193, 25 reels] The collection of the Library of Society of Friends includes tracts, pamphlets, and periodicals. The contents of the microfilm collection is described in a guide book shelved in: [Van Pelt Microtext: HT857 W67] Aptheker, Hervert.
A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States. New York: Citadel Press,1969- 1974. [Van Pelt Library: E185 A58 1969, vols 22-3.] [Van Pelt Africana Studies Seminar (Room 302): E185 A58 1969] Catterall, Helen Honor (Tunnicliff).
Irish University Press series of British Parliamentary papers.Slave Trade. Shannon, Irish University Press, 1968-1971. [Van Pelt Library: HT 1161.I73, vols 1-91, 93-95.]
Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro . Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1926-1927. [Van Pelt: AS32 A5 no.374]
The Conrad/Tubman Collection [microform] . Wilmington,
DE: Scholarly Resources, 1995. [Van Pelt Microtext: microfilm 4369]
From the Schomburg Center Collection of the New York Public Library. Collection
includes Conrad's correspondence and research notes, statements and texts of
interviews with people who knew Harriet Tubman and members of her family as
well as drafts of his biography of Tubman. See the guide for this microfilm:
Guide to the Scholarly Resources Microfilm Edition. Series 2, Antebellum America
and Slavery [Van Pelt Microtext: E184.6 G854 1995]
Library Company of Philadelphia. Afro-Americana, 1553-1906:
Author Catalog of the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1973. A catalog, by author, of selected
Afro-American books, prints, pamphlets, and manuscripts from the Library Company
of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania collections.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: Z1361 N39 P48 1973] [Van Pelt Africana Studies Seminar
(Room 302): Z 1361 N39 P48 1973]
Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War [microform] . Stampp, Kenneth M., general ed. Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, 1985-. [Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm 3880 and Guide] Records of the pre-Civil War plantations. We have:
ser. A. Selections from the South Caroliniana Library, University
of South Carolina (2 pts.)
ser. B. Selections from the South Carolina Historical Society (1 pt.)
ser. C. Selections from holdings of the Library of Congress (2 pts.)
ser. D. Selections from the Maryland Historical Society (1 pt.)
ser. E. Selections from the University of Virginia Library ( pts.)
ser. G. Selections from the Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas
at Austin (5 pts.)
ser. I. Selections from the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections,
Louisiana State University Libraries
ser. L. Selections from the Earl Gregg Swem Library, the College of William
and Mary in Virginia
ser. M. Selections from the Virginia Historical Society ( pts.)
Most reels have an accompanying guide which gives a historical sketch for each plantation as well as mention of other material published about the plantation. The records include names of slaves and other information.
The
Crisis of the Union: An Electronic Archive of Documents about the Causes, Conduct
and Consequences of the U.S. Civil War.
"This collection is comprised of pamphlets, books, broadsides,
cartoons, clippings, paintings, maps, and other print memorabilia about America
from circa 1830 to 1880."
The Slavery and Abolition Collection, 1700-1890 [microform]
. Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources Inc, 1971.
From the Schomburg Center Collection of the New York Public Library. "An assortment
of letters, bills of sale, passes, certificates of registry, manumission papers,
several wills, and speeches relating to slavery and its abolition, primarily
in the Anglo-American colonies and the United States. Included are letters discussing
the famous slave revolt aboard the Amistad; a two-page list of slaves, with
names and ages, from an 1824 Virginia will; receipts for the schooling of black
children; a broadside advertising an 1839 lecture by former slave Moses Roper;
legal papers from various court cases concerning slaves; documents relating
to Liberia and several colonization societies, and a variety of similar documents"--Publisher's
description. See the guide for this microfilm: Guide to the Scholarly Resources
Microfilm Edition. Series 2, Antebellum America and Slavery [Van Pelt Microtext:
E184.6 G854 1995]
[Van Pelt Microtext: Microfilm 4368]
V. Biographical Resources
Slave Narratives
The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography. Ed. by George
P. Rawick, Jan Hillegas and Ken Lawrence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972-1979.
The main set (vols. 2-17) consists of transcriptions of narratives collected
under the direction of the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1939, and initially
published under the title "Slave Narratives: a folk history of slavery in
the United States from interviews with former slaves." Supplements are texts
of oral histories from other sources.
[Afro-American Studies Seminar: E444.A45 and suppls.]
The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 19??. Do a title search in Franklin to see all of the titles in this series which includes slave narratives.
Other Biographical Resources
American National Biography. General editors, John A.Garraty, Mark C. Carnes. NY : Oxford University Press, 1999.African American Biographical Database 1790-1950 [Accessible from the Penn Library Databases Page.] This database covers the content of the Black Biographical Dictionaries, 1790-1950 microfilm set as well as other recently discovered sources which are added as the database expands. It can be searched by name, state, city, occupation, religion, birth and death dates, gender, and full-text keyword. Afro-American Writers Before the Harlem Renaissance .
Dictionary of Literary Biography: Afro-American writers before the Harlem renaissance. Vol. 50. Harris, Trudier, ed. Detroit: Gale, 1986. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: PS153 N5 A393 1986]
Black Biographical Dictionaries, 1790-1950 [microform] . Alexandria: Chadwyck-Healey, 1987. [Van Pelt Microtext: Microfiche 847 (fiche 1-1068 and guide)] A microfiche collection of numerous biographical sources including dictionaries, newpapers, obituaries, handbooks, and yearbooks. Indexed in Black Biography, 1790-1950: A Cumulative Index , also listed here. This microfiche collection is now availble electronically through the African American Biographical Database listed above.
Black Biography, 1790-1950: A Cumulative Index. Burkett, Randall K., Burkett, Nancy Hall, and Gates, Henry Louis, eds. Alexandria: Chadwyck-Healey, 1991. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185.96 B53 1991] This is the cumulative index, arranged by name, to entries in the microfiche collection Black Biographical Dictionaries, 1790-1950 . Volume three of the index includes complete references for all of the biographical works contained in the microfiche collection. Volume 3 also includes indexes to biographies by place of birth, occupation, religion, and sex.
Brignano, Russell C. Black Americans in Autobiography: An Annotated Bibliography of Autobiographies and Autobiographical Books Written Since the Civil War. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1984. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185.96 B84 1984]
Foner, Eric. Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E 186.96 F64 1996]
Logan, Rayford Whittingham. Dictionary of American Negro Biography. New York: Norton, 1982. [Van Pelt Reference Desk: E185.96 L6 1982]
Notable Black American Women. Carney Smith, Jessie, ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. [Van Pelt Reference Desk: E185.96 N68 1992]
Notable Black American Women: Book II. Carney Smith, Jessie, ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996. [Van Pelt Reference Desk: E185.96 N68 1996]
Spadling, Mary Mace. In Black and White: A Guide to Magazine Articles, Newspaper Articles, and Books Concerning More than 15,000 Black Individuals and Groups. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1980. [Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185.96 S75 1980] [Van Pelt Africana Studies Seminar (Room 302): E185.96 S75 1980]
VI. Statistical Information
Cramer, Clayton E. Black Demographic Data, 1790-1860:
A Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
An excellent source for tables and graphs of the demographics of American
black population before the civil war. Also includes chapters such as: "Limitations
of Census Data," "Manumissions," and "Internal Immigration Restrictions" as
well as a discussion of the controversies of the 1840 census.
[Van Pelt Reference Stacks: E185.18 C73 1997]
Historical Statistics of Black America. Carney
Smith, Jessie, and Peterson Horton, Carrell, eds. New York: Gale Research,
1995.
Two volume work including an entire chapter of tables on slavery and the slave
trade.
[Van Pelt Reference Desk: E185 H543 1995]
McClelland, Peter D. Demographic Dimensions of the New Republic:
American Interregional Migration, Vital Statistics, and Manumissions, 1800-1860
. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
[Van Pelt Library: H214 M38 1982]
Philadelphia Social History Project. This collection of photocopies and computer printouts consists of 19th Century statistical data for Philadelphia, collected from U.S. Census and Quaker sources. It includes Black Population in Philadelphia 1838-1856: Statistics , among others. Do an author search on "Philadelphia Social History Project" in Franklin to see the full list. You may request that the materials be retrieved from High Density Storage via the REQUEST button in Franklin.
United States. Bureau of the Census. Decennial Census of the United States . Decennial census publications of the nineteenth century are located in Van Pelt Library, on the 4th floor east end, at the call number HA 201 [decade].
A guide to the contents of the early decennial censuses is: Schulze, Suzanne. Population information in nineteenth century census volumes. [Van Pelt Reference Desk: HA 214 .S35 1983]
United States. Bureau of the Census. Negro Population in the United States, 1790-1915 . New York: Arno Press, 1968. [Van Pelt Reference: HA205 A33 1968] Compiled from unpublished census data, this volume includes numerous tables of data, including some data on the white population for comparative puposes. It also has charts and graphs, informative essays and commentary, and an index. United States. Bureau of the Census.
The Social and Economic Status of the Black Population in the United States : An Historical View, 1790-1978 . Washington: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1979. [Van Pelt Reference: HA 203 A218 no. 80] Includes Table 3: Black Population by Free Slave Status and Change in Slave Population by Region 1790-1860 , and Table 4: Distribution of Black Slaves and Slaveholding Families by Selected Divisions and States 1790-1850 .
United States Historical Census Data Browser: 1790-1970 . [Accessible from the Penn Library Databases Page.] This census data, created by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, is easily browsed and covers statistics including slave population, "free colored" population, and slaveholder numbers. A number of variables can be examined and charted.
VII. Web Resources
The African American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture Some good examples of the kinds of documents that might be available.
Amistad Library at Mystic Seaport Includes online searchable documents from their archives.
The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: Documents on Slavery Full text statutes, treaties, agreements, and other documents.
Black Abolitionists Archive The University of Detroit Mercy Black Abolitionists Archive is an historical research center which contains an extensive primary source collection on antebellum black activism.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 This site "contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves."
PBS Online: Africans In America Includes a Resource Bank of documents and narratives.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture See the African American Women Writers of the 19th Century digital collection and the Images of 19th Century African Americans digital collection.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Academic Affairs Library: Documenting the American South Includes slave narratives, other narratives, and a section on The Church in the Southern Black Community.
University of Pennsylvania Library Selected Web Sites: African-American Studies See this list for more links.
Send mail concerning this page to Nick Okrent, okrent@pobox.upenn.edu.
