LibGuides: Africana Studies: Primary Sources


Library Research Guides

Primary Source Collections - Social Issues and Movements

Early Encounters in North America This link opens in a new window
Contains 1,482 authors and over 100,000 pages of letters, diaries, memoirs and accounts of early encounters.
EEBO / Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Slavery and the Law This link opens in a new window
Slavery and the Law features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. Slavery and the Law also includes the important State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
Reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1817-1980.
Women and Social Movements in the United States This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements provides access to primary resources around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000.

Primary Source Collections - News and Periodicals

African American Newspapers, Series 1 and 2, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. This unique collection, which includes historically significant papers from more than 35 states, features many rare 19th-century titles. Part of the America’s Historical Newspapers collection, African American Newspapers was created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the world.
African Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Nineteenth and twentieth century African newspapers.
Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection This link opens in a new window
Spanning the Early Republic’s Open Door Era to the Era of Liberalization in the mid-1960s, Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection covers two centuries of immigrant life in the United States
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives.

The Liberator
(Boston, MA 1831-1865) Antislavery newspaper

ProQuest Black Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Access to Black newspapers from across the U.S., from 1989-present.
ProQuest News & Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Gives access to thousands of newspapers and articles.

Primary Source Collections - Local Collections from Mount Holyoke

Visit MHC's Archives and Special Collections in Dwight Hall for information about the College's history including student organizations, alumni, and more!

Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections - Digital Collections

Primary Sources in the Library Catalog

Search by keyword for primary sources in Discover
You can search Discover to find direct references to primary source material. Here are some words to include as keywords that would identify a source as primary: correspondence, diaries, early works, interviews, manuscripts, pamphlets, personal narratives, sources, speeches, letters, documents.