Keep Your Top Eye Open
Boston abolitionists on the lookout for slave-catchers in 1851.
Selling a Slave
The obstacles and restraints on disposing of one’s human “property.”
The Disaster of Innovation
How the cotton gin revolutionized the use of slaves and the production of cotton in the Southern United States.
Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
With over 300,000 pages available for full-text searching, this is one of the richest collections of anti-slavery and Civil War materials in the world.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
Read the accounts of former slaves in oral history interviews collected by the Federal Writers’ Project.
Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860
Delve into the complex history of slavery and the law with this collection of primary sources.
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Secondary and primary sources describe 13 African American migration experiences.
Dred Scott Case
Follow the proceedings of the Dred Scott case with facsimiles and transcriptions of 85 legal documents.
Territorial Kansas Online
Primary and secondary sources examine the growing divisions in Kansas and the nation prior to the Civil War.
Slavery in New York
Nine galleries explore the history of slavery in New York City.
Africans in America
Trace the history of Africans in America through Reconstruction, with 245 images, maps, and documents.
North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920
Explore all of the known published slave narratives, to better understand the experience of slavery and the culture that slaves created in the nation.
Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
Explore Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin as the American cultural phenomenon it was.
Sunday School Books: Shaping the Values of Youth in 19th-Century America
Provides full-text transcriptions and page images of 1815–1865 Sunday school books addressing religious instruction for youth.
Lost Museum
Recreates the P.T. Barnum Museum as an interactive 3D exhibit and an archive of images, documents, accounts, and essays on 16 original Barnum exhibits.
Digital Scriptorium
12 collections provide primary sources on ads, health and medicine, the Civil War, sheet music, and more.
Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
Take a closer look at the Civil War with this extensive database that offers a comparison of two Shenandoah Valley counties—Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA.
Geography of Slavery in America
Provides transcriptions and images of more than 4,000 newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves and indentured servants between 1736 and 1803.
Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
Showcases more than 1,230 images depicting the enslavement of Africans, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and slave life in the New World.