Research Guides: HIST 324: African Diaspora since 1808 (Spring, 2024): Primary Sources

Not Sure where to start? Try the Catalog & WorldCat

Collections of reprinted and translated primary sources can be found in the library catalog & worldcat using these subject terms:

Sources
Personal narratives
Slave narratives
Captivity narratives
Correspondence
Biography
Interviews
Diaries
Facsimiles
Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Speeches
Manuscripts
Pamphlets

Example in the Catalog
("african diaspora" OR "Black diaspora") AND (sources OR "personal narratives" OR corresp* OR interviews OR diaries OR fascimiles OR manuscripts)

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Materials held by thousands of libraries in the US and abroad. Books, websites, computer programs, films, slides, journals, magazines, papers, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, newspapers, sound recordings, videotapes, etc. Coverage: Before 1000BC-present.

HINTS

Limit to books and ebooks.
use phrases other than diaspora.
- try africa* AND immigrant* AND [country]
  - example
You can also search without the primary source subjects, but instead limit to time period.
- example africa* AND immigrant* AND "united states" limited to 1900-1920
These approaches also work in WorldCat
- books in Worldcat can be ordered via ILL, but also check to see if the are in GoogleBook, HathiTrust, or Internet Archive as PDFs.

Primary Sources Databases

Hints:

Keep your search simple. No more than 2 or 3 words.
- "black diaspora" or "African diaspora" and women
Choose your database based on the Type of records it contains
- are you looking for newspapers? government reports? scanned personal papers? Organizational records?
Use the filters to limit results, not extra keywords.
- limit by publication date, location, author, etc.
Don't be discouraged! It takes a while to find the database you need and you'll get many zero result searches at first
Pay attention to language. If you find one good primary source, see what phrases it uses. Use that phrase to find more materials yourself.
Use Secondary Sources to point you toward primary sources.
- Does the secondary source highlight specific individuals or organizations or archives? What type of sources are they using?

Primary Sources: Databases

African Diaspora, 1860-Present This link opens in a new window
Essential for understanding Black history and culture, African Diaspora, 1860-Present allows scholars to discover the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France, the collection includes never-before digitized primary source documents.
African Newspapers, Series 1 (1800-1922) This link opens in a new window
African Newspapers in the World Newspaper Archive contains more than 420,000 pages of content from newspapers published throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The database features 67 titles from Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and other countries.
Black Drama This link opens in a new window
Black Drama, now in its expanded third edition, contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
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.
Liberation Movement in Africa and African America This link opens in a new window
Black nationalism and pan-Africanism. FBI documents, correspondence, ephemera, reports, memoranda, transcriptions, etc. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1970-1985.
Daily Observer Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Founded in 1981, the Daily Observer is Liberia’s best-known, independent, national newspaper. The Daily Observer is notable for its coverage of the modern history of Liberia—including the Liberian Civil War and through its current phase of development. Comprising over 35,000 pages, the Daily Observer Digital Archive (DODA) is a comprehensive archive of this title—published in English.
African American Communities This link opens in a new window
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
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.
Atlanta Daily World: Historical Newspapers 1931-2003 This link opens in a new window
W.A. Scott II founded the Atlanta Daily World at a time when most black Americans lived in the South. He felt that the race problem could only be solved in the South, which required an informed community. Rather than reading news about African-Americans through the optics of a host of prejudiced white papers, he launched his own newspaper to educate, inspire, uplift, and promote the expression of the Southern black community. Coverage: 1931-2003
Baltimore Afro-American: Historical Newspapers 1893-1988 This link opens in a new window
One of the most widely circulated African American newspapers on the Atlantic Coast. News articles, photos, advertisements, obituaries, cartoons, etc. Full page and article images with searchable full text. Coverage: 1893-1988.
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.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Black Thought and Culture contains 1,303 sources with 1,210 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.
History Vault [ProQuest] This link opens in a new window
Researchers can access digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. Includes multiple sub-collections in broad subject areas like Civil Rights; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; American Indians and the American West; American Politics and Society; International Relations and Military Conflicts; Women's Studies; and Workers and Labor Unions. Focus of American History primary sources is largely after 1775.
Republic of New Afrika This link opens in a new window
Activities of the Republic of New Afrika leaders, power struggles within the organization, its growing militancy, and its affiliations with other black militant organizations. Documentation collected by the FBI, including newspaper and periodical articles, books, pamphlets, broadsides, leaflets, etc. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1968-1980.

Example Search

Sample question:

The role of African-American women in pan-African political movements in the United States

Use secondary lit to find specific individuals, then search them as "authors" in catalog & worldcat to find their personal writings.
Do basic searches like "Black women" in databases full of political documents like Liberation Movement in Africa and African America or Republic of New Africa
Look for newspaper articles in a database like African American Newspapers using pan-african NEAR15 women or pan-africanist NEAR15 women
Based on Initial findings, I'd revise keywords and possibly try other databases.