Research Guides: HIST 100 Beyond the Plantation (Spring 2024): Free Search

Free Search

Using the previously discussed database, work with the people around you to search for primary sources on your topic.

You might start with African American Newspapers first, then try other databases to see what you can find.

Please use this opportunity to ask the librarians for extra assistance if you have questions.

Databases at WM Libraries

The William & Mary Libraries have an outstanding collection of databases. We have about 150 primary source databases, and another 150 newspaper databases. This does not include digitized primary sources indexed in the main library catalog, nor does that touch upon our unique physical holdings in Special Collections. The options can be overwhelming.

Where to start?

W&M Libraries has a LOT of primary source databases.

Full list of primary source databases
Full list of our massive collection of Primary sources databases
Databases relating to Slavery

The reason we have so many different primary source databases is because they all do different things and cover different time period.

Some are full of old scanned booked published before 1800.

Some are scanned collections of letters.

Others are full of newspapers and broadsides.

Others are government and trade records.

It's unlikely that any 1 database will meet all your needs, so it's important to spend a bit of time search several of them.

Read the database summaries to see what each contains, and to decide if it relates to your topic.

IMPORTANT TIP

Keep your searches basic, no more than 2 or 3 keywords. Then limit those results by publication, location, type.

Use Period-Specific terms.

Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries (History Vault) This link opens in a new window
Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries presents some of the richest, most valuable, and most complete collections in the entire documentary record of American slavery, focusing on the industrial uses of slave labor. The materials selected include company records; business and personal correspondence; documents pertaining to the purchase, hire, medical care, and provisioning of slave laborers; descriptions of production processes; and journals recounting costs and income.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Broad coverage of African American history, culture, and daily life. Newspapers from over 35 states. Coverage: 1827-1998.

Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
"The recordings of former slaves in Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine states. Twenty-two interviewees discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. It is important to note that all of the interviewees spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives that are reflected in these recordings. The individuals documented in this presentation have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond."
North American Slave Narratives
"North American Slave Narratives" collects 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.

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries, with 16 key areas of focus: slavery in the early Americas; African coast; the Middle Passage; slavery and agriculture; urban and domestic slavery; slave testimony; spiritualism and religion in slave communities; resistance and revolts; the Underground Railroad; the abolition movement and the slavery debate; legislation and politics; freed slaves, freedmen and free black settlements; education; slavery and the Islamic world; varieties of slave experience; slavery today and the legacy of slavery. Documents include legal materials and court cases, broadsides, court records, maps, pamphlets, lists of enslaved peoples, ship's logs, registers, and reports. The collection also includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.
Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records (History Vault) This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents of records and correspondence of southern plantations during the Antebellum period of U.S. History. These documents reflect the business and operation of plantations, including slavery records. Part of ProQuest's History Vault.

Full list of W&M primary source databases
This is just to give you a sense of all the databases *just* for primary sources we carry at the Library

Black Life in America This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of the African American experience from the early 18th century to the present. Sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources.
19th Century US Newspapers This link opens in a new window
19th century U.S. urban and regional newspapers. Fully searchable. Coverage: 1800-early 20th century.