HIST 121: United States History to 1877 (Becker, Spring 2024)

I very strongly suggest using our specialized US history database to find articles for this class.

This database is designed specifically for Historical research, and indexes all the major history journals.

Unlike GoogleScholar, it can also be used to only find high-quality peer reviewed articles.

Tips

• No need to use "history" as a search term when using a history database!
• Use the filters to find articles specifically about your time period.
  • under advanced search, use the Historical Period feature
• Start with basic searches and use the suggested subject terms in the results to narrow your field
• Pay attention to Subject Headings.

Just as Important: our databases are designed to help you:

• Find similar articles
• Identify correct keywords and subject terms
• Limit to peer reviewed articles only
• Limit to Discipline specific articles

EXAMPLE:

Say I'm interested in American women's colleges in the 19th century. A search might be:
Women AND (American OR "united states") AND (nineteenth or 19th) AND college* OR "higher education")

BUT Using a history database, we don't need most of those terms.
Example:

Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.

AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Schools AND Education

OR - searches for one of the words. Example: schools OR academies

NOT - exclude a term. Example:  Universities NOT academies

Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (schools OR academies) AND women = search for schools and academies for women
Example: (universities NOT academies) AND women = search for women's universities, excluding women's academies

Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "higher education"
Example: "West Virginia"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "Captain Smith" will exclude all results for "Captaine Smith," which was the original spelling. "College of William & Mary" will exclude when it's just called "William & Mary"

Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR.
Example: Virginia* will give you results for Virginia, Virginian, Virginians. 
Example: wom* will cover women, woman, womens, womanhood.
Example: Brit* will give you British, Britain, Brits.
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Brit* will also yield Brittany, Britons, and Britches. Virginia* will bring up articles on the Virginia opossum. Wom* will include wombat.

1. Start by writing out your question or topic.
2. identify key terms
3. identify potential synonyms
4. Use AND OR NOT to create search phrases. 
5. Conduct several searches, revising keywords backed on subject terms & commonly used language in the articles/books.

1) Example questions:

• Why did the Transatlantic slave trade end? 
• What were the economic aspects of the Transatlantic slave trade?
• Why were Virginians interested in endling the slave trade?
• How did the Middle Passage impact African Culture of the enslaved individuals?
• What is the role of African enslaved revolts in shaping the Transatlantic slave trade?
• What was the experience of enslaved women in the Transatlantic slave trade?

2) Identify key terms. NOTE: the databases do best with nouns. Verbs & abstract ideas, however, are difficult for the database. 

• Why did the Transatlantic slave trade end? 
• What were the economic aspects of the Transatlantic slave trade?
• Why were Virginians interested in endling the slave trade?
• How did the Middle Passage impact African Culture of the enslaved individuals?
• What is the role of enslaved revolts in shaping the Transatlantic slave trade?
• What was the experience of enslaved women in the Transatlantic slave trade?

3) Consider synonyms.

• Why did the Transatlantic slave trade end? 
  • Why or Causes 
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade
• What were the economic aspects of the Transatlantic slave trade?
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade
• Why were Virginians interested in endling the slave trade?
  • endling or Abolishing or Abolish or Abolition
• How did the Middle Passage impact African Cultures of the enslaved individuals?
  • Middle Passage or Triangular slave Trade or Triangular slave Trade
  • enslaved individuals or slaves
• What is the role of enslaved revolts in shaping the Transatlantic slave trade?
  • enslaved revolts or Slave Revolts or African revolts
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade
• What was the experience of enslaved women in the Transatlantic slave trade?
  • enslaved women or slaves and women
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade

4) Create search phrases (use the synonyms that sound the most formal)

• Why did the Transatlantic slave trade end? 
  • Why or Causes 
  • end or abolition or abolished
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade
    • Cause* AND (abolish OR abolition) AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")
• What were the economic aspects of the Transatlantic slave trade?
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade
    • Economic* AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")
• Why were Virginians interested in endling the slave trade?
  • endling or Abolishing or Abolish or abolition
    • Virginia* AND (abolition OR abolish) AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")
• How did the Middle Passage impact African Cultures of the enslaved individuals?
  • Middle Passage or Triangular slave Trade or Triangular slave Trade
  • enslaved individuals or slaves
    • ​​​​​​​("Middle Passage" or "Triangular slave trade" OR "Triangle Trade" or "Slave trade") AND ("African culture" OR "African cultures") AND (slaves OR enslaved)
• What is the role of enslaved revolts in shaping the Transatlantic slave trade?
  • enslaved revolts or Slave Revolts or African revolts or resistance
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade
    • ​​​​​​​ ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade") AND (enslaved OR slave* OR african) AND (revolts OR resistance)
• What was the experience of enslaved women in the Transatlantic slave trade?
  • enslaved women or slaves and women
  • Transatlantic slave trade or Atlantic Slave trade
    • ​​​​​​​women AND (enslaved OR African) AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")

5) Look at the search results. Pay attention to subject headings, keywords being used by others. Refine your search.

• For example, America: History & Life suggests "Slave Trade" is the better term for ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade"). Knowing this, we'd revise our searches to:
• Cause* AND (abolish OR abolition) AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")
  • (​​​​​​​Cause* OR reasons* OR motiv*) AND (abolish OR abolition) AND "slave trade"
• Economic* AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")
  • ​​​​​​​Economic* AND "slave trade"
• Virginia* AND (abolition OR abolish*) AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")
  • ​​​​​​​Virginia* AND (abolition* OR abolish*) AND "slave trade"
• ​​​​​​​("Middle Passage" or "Triangular slave trade" OR "Triangle Trade" or "Slave trade") AND ("African culture" OR "African cultures") AND (slaves OR enslaved)
  • ​​​​​​​Due to poor results, would broaden search to "Slave trade" AND african* AND culture*
• ​​​​​​​ ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade") AND (enslaved OR slave* OR african*) AND (revolts OR resistance)
  • ​​​​​​​"Slave trade" AND (enslaved OR slave* OR african*) AND (revolts OR resistance)
• ​​​​​​​women AND (enslaved OR African) AND ("Transatlantic slave trade" OR "Atlantic Slave trade")
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​women AND (enslaved OR African) AND "Slave trade"