Research Guides: HIST 490C-05: The Education of African Americans (Fall 2022): [Activity] Secondary Sources

Using Synonyms

As with primary sources, the key to finding secondary sources is deciding which keywords work best.

Use the worksheet to work out keywords for your topic.

Articles

America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides full text coverage of the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes nearly 200 journals and 100 books, selective indexing for over 1,700 journals, and abstracts in English of foreign language articles.

We have a number of excellent databases listed in our history resources library page, but for this class America: History and Life is the best starting point.

Library Catalog
This will bring up significantly more results than America: History & Life, which is both useful and troublesome, depending upon your topic.

Black Studies Center (1893-current) This link opens in a new window
Black Studies Center consists of scholarly journals, commissioned overview essays by top scholars in Black Studies, historic indexes, and the full-text of The Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975.

Books

Encyclopedias, Historiography Texts, Starting points

There are books, sometimes called reference works or tertiary texts, that are about the study of history itself.
These Historiographical texts - the history of history - can provide insights into what historians have said about your topic.

Encyclopedia Virginia This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedia Virginia is the online reference work about the Commonwealth of Virginia. It aggregates in a single resource information on Virginia history, business, politics, and geography, plus the state's proud heritage in the arts, religion, culture, and folklife. As the Encyclopedia grows, it will also explore areas of science, medicine, education, and technology and interpret the state's significance to the people of Virginia, the nation, and the world.

Example: see entry on Freedmen’s Education in Virginia, 1861–1870

Bibliography Resources

American National Biography: ANB This link opens in a new window
Biographical articles of men and women who helped shape the nation. All eras and walks of life. Coverage: varies.

HIST 490C-05: The Education of African Americans (Fall 2022)

Guide to Finding Search Terms for Secondary Sources

Example of a Completed Guide

Suggested Search Terms

Using Synonyms

Articles

Books

Encyclopedias, Historiography Texts, Starting points

Bibliography Resources