Slavery in America


The following resources will help you in your search for information on slavery in America.

 Print Resources

Cover Image The Struggle for Freedom: African-American Slave Resistance, by Dennis Wepman (306.3 WEP)
Explores the different methods of resistance to slavery including sabotage, which ranged in severity from "accidentally" breaking tools to poisoning overseers food: organized revolt, which in America began as early as 1526. From Nat Turner's bloody revolt in the dead of night to Joseph Cinque's mutiny on the high seas, heroes and martyrs in the struggle against slavery are brought to life.
Slavery: Opposing Viewpoints (973 SLA)
Chapters cover the following: slavery in early America, life under slavery, slave resistance & slave rebellion, abolitionism and its opponents, slavery divides a nation, two historians look back at slavery.
 
Slavery and the Making of America, by James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton (973 HOR)
Offers a richly illustrated, vividly written history that illuminates the human side of this inhumane institution, presenting it largely through stories of the slaves themselves. Explores  American slavery, from the first Africans brought to British colonies in the early seventeenth century to the end of Reconstruction. The authors document the horrors of slavery, particularly in the deep South, and describe the slaves' valiant struggles to free themselves from bondage.
 

The Struggle Against Slavery: A History in Documents, by David Waldstreicher (306.3 WAL)
traces the remarkable history of the heroic fight to end slavery, from its North American beginnings in the early 1600s to its violent demise in the mid-1800s with the Civil War. Captured in their own words from transcripts, diaries, memoirs, newspaper clippings, drawings, and other documents are the stories of how slaves and free blacks fought against the dehumanization of slavery by developing anti-racist arguments, creating their own institutions, physically escaping, and fighting with weapons

 Online Databases

Discovering Collection
Covering the core curriculum areas, including history, literature, science, social studies, and more, DC provides a selection of reference, primary sources, creative works, and multimedia, including hours of video and audio clips.
 

EBSCO Host - History Reference Center Access newspaper and magazine articles from the past (Select Timeline U.S. History (1800 - 1860). Select Advanced Search to enter multiple keywords.
Student Resource Center Gold - Offers more than 1,100 full-text periodicals and newspapers, primary sources, creative works, and multimedia, including hours of video and audio clips and podcasts

 Internet Sites

Origins, Economics & the Impact of Slavery on America

American Negro Slavery and Abolition - The Economics of Slavery: http://books.google.com/books?id=mr_OpI6i8zYC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=%22economics+of+
 slavery%22+america&source=web&ots=oNkH9zkBmN&sig=vEmOLQ9THbw2QXnhLnnODhYVZQ8

PBS - Africans in America: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

PBS - American Experience - Slavery and Freedom (The Battle for Abolition, The Underground Railroad, Slavery in the North, The Southern States): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/slavery/index.html

PBS  - Slavery and the Making of America: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/

Roots Audio Clips (see clip #7: Alex Haley shares his thoughts on the impact of slavery in America): http://www.rootsthebook.com/audiofiles.html

Slavery in America.org: http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/
Family life, Slave Culture Colonial Williamsburg - Daily Life on a Plantation: http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/february03/techtips.cfm

PBS - Slavery and the Making of America - The Slave Experience - Education, Arts, Culture: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/index.html

PBS - Slavery and the Making of America - The Slave Experience - Living Conditions: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/living/index.html

PBS - Slavery and the Making of America - The Slave Experience - Men, Women & Gender: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/gender/index.html

Stolen Childhood - Slave Youth in 19th Century America:  www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/stolen.htm#TOP
Primary Sources & Slave Narratives

American Slave Narratives - An Online Anthology: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html

Avalon Project at Yale Law School - Documents on Slavery: www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/slavery.htm

Documenting the American South - North American Slave Narratives: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/

Free At Last - A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom and the Civil War: http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/falpg.htm

Library of Congress:     

PBS - Primary Sources - Slavery and Freedom: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/filmmore/ps_freedom.html

University of Houston - Digital History - African American Voices: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/black_voices.cfm

University of Houston - Digital History - Primary Source Documents: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p1.cfm
Revolts, Rebellion & the Abolition Movement Amistad Slave Mutiny: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASamistad.htm

Confessions of Nat Turner: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1826-1850/slavery/confes01.htm

Gabriel Prosser Slave Revolt: http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/spl/gabrielrevolt.html

Nat Turner - A Troublesome Property: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/natturner/slave_rebellions.html\

LOC - The African-American Mosaic - Abolition: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html

PBS - Africans in America - Nat Turner's Rebellion: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html

PBS - Africans in America - New York: the Revolt of 1712: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p285.html
Slavery in CT Archaeology Magazine - Yankee Slavery: http://www.archaeology.org/0109/newsbriefs/slavery.html

Connecticut State Library - Log Book of Slave Traders from New London to Africa 1757-8: http://www.cslib.org/slaverlog.htm

Courant.com - Beyond Complicity: http://www.courant.com/news/local/northeast/hc-complicity2-sp,0,7473864.special

National Park Service - Amistad: Seeking Freedom in Connecticut: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/amistad/slavetrade.htm

Petition of 1788 by Slaves of New Haven for the Abolition of Slavery in Connecticut: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/023.html

Slavery in the North - Connecticut: http://www.slavenorth.com/connecticut.htm
Underground Railroad Friends of the Underground Railroad: http://www.fourr.org/

National Geographic - Underground Railroad: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/

Pathways to Freedom - Maryland and the Underground Railroad: http://pathways.thinkport.org/flash_home.cfm

PBS - American Experience - The Underground Railroad: http://pathways.thinkport.org/flash_home.cfm

Taking the Train to Freedom - Under Ground Railroad: http://www.nps.gov/undergroundrr/contents.htm


If you don't find what you're looking for in any of the sites above, try your 
own keyword search using the following tips...

 Internet Search Tips

  1. Type the URL (web site address) of a search directory/engine in the address box: ex: www.yahoo.com, or www.google.com, etc.
     
  2. (Be sure to type the address exactly the way you see it, including any uppercase letters and punctuation).
     
  3. Type in keyword(s). (If your keyword has two parts such as: "underground railroad", be sure to put quotes around it so that the search engine only finds the Internet sites about the underground railroad as opposed to all of the sites containing the word underground plus all of the sites containing the word railroad.
     
  4. If you would like to search for something specific about a the underground railroad, try a combined keyword search by adding a comma, followed by a space and you other search term.  For instance; if I wanted to find out about slavery and the underground railroad, in Connecticut, I would enter the following:
     

     slavery, "underground railroad", Connecticut
     

  5. Hit Enter on your keyboard, or click on Search, then scan the description of the "hits" (entries) and click on the links that sound best.
     
  6. Be sure to critically evaluate Internet sources.  UC Berkley Library's Evaluating Webpages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask is an excellent source to help you critique the quality of websites in the following areas:
  7. Remember: if you choose to use any information (text or graphics) found on the Internet, online databases, or print material, you must cite every resource you used.  Use the Works Cited Guide to access MLA format.
  8.  

Created by Liza Zandonella, Library Media Specialist.

Back To Research Unit Archive