Digital Library on American Slavery

The Digital Library on American Slavery is a database of primary sources related to slavery, comprising three types of materials: North Carolina slave notices, race and slavery petitions, and slave deeds. The project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Its goal was to compile independent collections focused on slavery in the American South—and parts of the North—into a single, searchable site. The University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro maintain the site, which is part of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ We the People initiative and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program.

The Digital Library on American Slavery aims to center the lives and stories of enslaved people while also serving as a documentation project designed to support individual research. There are geographical limitations within the collection: slave deeds and notices are limited to North Carolina, and deeds also include Washington, D.C. The petitions have the widest geographical coverage, extending across the South and into parts of the North, including states such as Delaware. While the site offers only a limited window into American slavery through these documents, it remains a valuable tool for gathering primary sources to share with students in lecture-based lessons or as a foundation for independent research or reflective papers for older middle school or high school students.

The petitions, in particular, allow students to gain an understanding of the complexity of navigating the institution of slavery as an enslaved person. They represent a wide range of subjects, including petitions to carry a gun, to purchase one’s own freedom, and to pass as white. An added benefit of the petitions is that they center the experiences of enslaved individuals more fully than deeds or notices, which tend to reflect the perspectives of enslavers. This allows students to encounter a view of slavery that is less dominated by enslavers’ voices. Older students can use the petitions as the basis for a research paper examining how enslaved people navigated the institution of American slavery, with each student researching a different subject, such as those listed above.

Lessons can also incorporate the deeds and notices through student participation by asking students to reflect on the limited information provided about enslaved individuals in these documents and to consider what information is missing when compared to what is available about figures such as George Washington or Theodore Roosevelt. This comparison exercise can help students learn not only about slavery but also about the limitations of the historical record itself. Despite its geographical limitations, the Digital Library on American Slavery is an easily navigable site with a manageable collection of sources for both students and teachers to explore and use in the classroom.