Primary Sources
Books published before 1923 may be available in full text digital collections such as HathiTrust or Internet Archive. These are excellent sources for primary information.
Newspapers
- New York Times, Historical (1851-2020)Full text historic database of the New York Times newspaper which covers international, national, and regional stories on a variety of topics. Includes issues published from 1851-2020. A new year is added annually. For the most current issues, create a free NYT website account via the Library catalog.
- Chicago Tribune, Historical (1849-2013)Full text historic database of the Chicago Tribune newspaper which covers international, national, and regional stories on a variety of topics. Includes issues published from 1849-2012; new year added annually.
- Newspapers.com Illinois CollectionFull text historic database of regional and local Illinois newspapers.
- HarpweekFull text database of the historic American news magazine, Harper's Weekly.
- Nineteenth Century U.S. NewspapersFull text and image database of 19th century US newspapers with an emphasis on the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration, and Antebellum-era life.
- Chronicling AmericaFull text database of selected historic American newspapers from 1789 -1963.
- African American Newspapers SeriesFull text of African American newspapers from 39 different states from 1827 - 1998.
- The Times Digital Archive (London)Digitized full text replica of the print version of The Times. The years covered within the archive are from the first year of publication, 1785 through 2019.
- British Library NewspapersDigitized full text replicas of British newspapers of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries from the British Library. Milner's collection covers 1800-1900 and 1741-1950. Includes content ranging from articles to advertisements.
Library Collections
A Documentary History of Slavery in North America by Call Number: E441 .D64ISBN: 9780820320656Publication Date: 1999-09-30
The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison (five volumes) by Call Number: E449 .G245ISBN: 9780674526600Publication Date: 1971-01-01
The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series 1 by Call Number: E449 .D733ISBN: 9780300022469Publication Date: 1979-09-10
The Frederick Douglass Papers series 2 by Call Number: E449 .D734 1999ISBN: 9780300071962Publication Date: 1999-07-11
The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series 3 by Call Number: E449.D75 A4 2009ISBN: 9780300135602Publication Date: 2009-12-08
The Frederick Douglass Papers. series 4 by Call Number: E449.D75 A25 2021ISBN: 9780300246810Publication Date: 2022-01-11
- Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of CongressThe papers of nineteenth-century African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), who escaped from slavery and then risked his freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher, consist of approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images), most of which were digitized from 34 reels of previously produced microfilm. The collection spans the years 1841-1964, with the bulk of the material dating from 1862 to 1895. Many of Douglass’s earlier writings were destroyed when his house in Rochester, New York, burned in 1872.
- The LiberatorFirst published on January 1, 1831, The Liberator quickly became the preeminent abolitionist newspaper in the United States. Edited by the fiery activist William Lloyd Garrison, this weekly Boston-based periodical served as a major platform to attack slavery and its supporters, inspire action, and promote equal rights for all.
- Annual report of the American Anti-Slavery SocietyThe American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, had become a prominent abolitionist and was a key leader of this society, who often spoke at its meetings.
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress.