Research Guides: HIST 344: Antebellum America: Finding Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Finding Primary Sources

AAS Historical Periodicals Collection. Series 1
Coverage: 1684-1820
Provides digital access to a comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1684 and 1820. Subject coverage includes advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry, and professions, religious issues, culture, the arts, and more.
AAS Historical Periodicals Collection. Series 2
Coverage: 1821-1837
Provides digital access to a comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1821 and 1837. Subject coverage includes advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry, and professions, religious issues, culture, the arts, and more.
AAS Historical Periodicals Collection. Series 3
Coverage: 1838-1852
Provides digital access to a comprehensive collection of American periodicals published between 1838 and 1852. Subject coverage includes advertising, health, women's issues, science, the history of slavery, industry, professions, religious issues, culture, the arts, and more.
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries
Coverage: 1855-1875
Collection of American Civil War (1861-1865) letters, diaries, memoirs, and biographies.
American State Papers
Coverage: 1789-1838
Sponsored By: Irene Bostrom Endowment in the CSU College of Liberal Arts
Contains the legislative and executive documents of the first 14 U.S. Congresses. The collection includes documents that cover the critical historical gap from 1789 to the printing of the first volume of the U.S. Serial Set in 1817
Archives Unbound
Coverage: Varies
U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history. Broad topic clusters include: African American studies; American Indian studies; Asian studies; British history; Holocaust studies; LGBT studies; Latin American and Caribbean studies; Middle East studies; political science; religious studies; and women’s studies
Black Thought and Culture
Coverage: Varies
Contains the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans, including interviews, journal articles, letters and other fugitive material.
Black Women in America
Coverage: Varies
Describes the achievements of black women throughout history and highlights their ongoing contributions in America today.
Civil War in Words and Deeds
Coverage: 1860-1865
These first-person accounts, compiled in the postwar period and early 20th Century period, chronicle the highs and lows of army life.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
Coverage: 1840 to present
Publications of all kinds, from the political party newspapers at the beginning of the nineteenth century to the dailies at the century's end. Includes major newspapers as well as those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women's rights groups, labor groups, the Confederacy, and other groups and interests. Also included are illustrated papers.

Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection
Coverage: 1859 to 1923
Provides full-page images of newspapers published in Colorado from 1859-1922, and others post-1922 as copyright clearance permits. Newspapers within the collection come from throughout the state and include papers published in English, German, Spanish, or Swedish.
Early American Newspapers
Coverage: 1823-1860
Events covered include: Second Great Awakening, Lowell Textile Mills, Monroe Doctrine, Trail of Tears, Indian Removal, Height of Plantation Slavery, California Gold Rush, Dred Scott decision, Mexican War.
New York Times Historical Newspapers (1851-2008)
Coverage: 1851-2008
This is the paper of record in the U.S., best known for its analysis of news, issues and social changes. Navigate by title, date, and page number. Photos, graphs, and tables are replicated providing cover-to-cover full image content.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Coverage: 1800-1899
Publications of all kinds, from the political party newspapers at the beginning of the nineteenth century to the dailies at the century's end. Includes major newspapers as well as those published by African Americans, Native Americans, women's rights groups, labor groups, the Confederacy, and other groups and interests. Also included are illustrated papers.
The Sunday Times Historical Archive, 1822-2006
Coverage: 1822-2006
Provides access to the back issues of The Sunday Times (London). Resource for all humanities and social sciences courses, especially in history, media studies/journalism, literature, cultural studies, politics, and performing arts.

Abraham Lincoln Papers
– Library of Congress – An extensive collection of Lincoln's incoming and outgoing correspondence, drafts of speeches, and notes.
African-American Mosaic: Abolition
– Library of Congress – Antislavery petitions and other sources that document the struggle to abolish slavery.
American Slave Narratives
– University of Virginia – An online anthology of interviews conducted with former slaves, who describe their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms.
Black Abolitionist Archive
– University of Detroit Mercy – a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period.
Cholera at the National Library of Medicine
- National Library of Medicine - Cholera related documents available online.
Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877
– Library of Congress – A selection of interviews, photos, and maps that provide an overview of the North and the South in the Civil War and the life of the soldier.
Civil War in the American South
– Association of Southeastern Research Libraries – 10,000 primary sources from 37 libraries.
Documenting the American South
– University of North Carolina – Thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, letters, oral history interviews, and songs that highlight southern history, literature, and culture. One of the collections features the Southern homefront during the Civil War.
The Dred Scott Case Collection
– Washington University in Saint Louis – The records displayed in this exhibit document the Scotts' early struggle to gain their freedom through litigation and are the only extant records of this significant case as it was heard in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This collection was expanded from 85 - 111 documents, over 400 pages of text.
A Guide to the War of 1812
– Library of Congress – The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with the War of 1812, including manuscripts, broadsides, pictures, and government documents.
Lincoln/Net
– Northern Illinois University – presents primary source materials from Lincoln's Illinois years (1830-1861) and other resources for study of antebellum Illinois.
Making of America
– Cornell University – primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
O SAY CAN YOU SEE: Early Washington D.C., Law & Family
Explores multigenerational black, white, and mixed family networks in early Washington, D.C., by collecting, digitizing, making accessible, and analyzing thousands of case files from the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, Maryland state courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court
Secession Era Editorials Project
– Furman University – this site provides editorials of the partisan press in antebellum America, currently including those concerning the Nebraska bill debates, Dred Scott, John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry, and the attack on Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by South Carolina representative Preston Brooks.
The Valley of the Shadow
– University of Virginia – An extensive archive of sources depicting two communities, one Northern and one Southern, at the time of the Civil War; includes newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, and census records.
Westward Expansion: Encounters at a Cultural Crossroads
– Library of Congress – The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Manifest Destiny, including manuscripts, broadsides, pictures, and government documents.
Women of the Antebellum Reform Movement
– Digital Public Library of America – This collection uses primary sources to explore women in the antebellum reform movement.

Congressional Publications (ProQuest)
Coverage: 1789- Present
This is a database of hearings, committee prints, reports, documents and other Congressional resources. Provides full text of hearings and citations and selected full text for other publication types. Primary source content on subjects ranging from war and military incursions to nuclear energy, space exploration, terrorism, and human rights
Nexis Uni
Coverage: Varies
Nexis Uni is a comprehensive database with access to over 17,000 news, business and legal sources. It provides full-text of local, regional, national and international newspapers, as well as access to scholarly journals, trade publications, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs. Its extensive legal sources include federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790. With business information on more than 80 million U.S. and international companies and more than 75 million executives, it is a robust resource for in-depth business research.
United States Congressional Serial Set
Coverage: 1817 to 1994
Sponsored By: Irene Bostrom Endowment in the CSU College of Liberal Arts
All the reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from 1817-1994. Covers subjects ranging from slavery in Antebellum America and the expansion of the American West and the impeachment of presidents to the founding of the United Nations, public and private legislation, and more.

Finding Primary Sources in Primo

Start your search in the CSU Libraries catalog with a subject or keyword subject, then enter one of the following words as a separate subject, then click on search.

Sources [will pull up collections of documents]

Diaries
Correspondence
Interviews
Personal narratives

You may also want to try for certain keywords in the title, usually the subtitle, such as "documentary history," "letters," or "papers." You will almost certainly get some false hits, but you can weed through them.

Examples of Primary Sources Located in Primo

The Antebellum Era by David A. Copeland
ISBN: 0313320799
Publication Date: 2003-12-30
Firsthand accounts offer students, scholars, or anyone interested in the pivotal period preceding the Civil War a look at how America's press covered important national issues and events of the day, from the passage of the Missouri Compromise through John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.
A House Divided by Mason I. Lowance (Editor)
ISBN: 0691002274
Publication Date: 2003-01-26
This anthology brings together under one cover the most important abolitionist and--unique to this volume--proslavery documents written in the United States between the American Revolution and the Civil War.