Offering 230 full-text documents, this collection presents the written lives of American slaves, including all known published slave narratives and many published biographies of slaves. Materials include autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published in a range of formats, such as broadsides, pamphlets, and books.

In addition, biographies of fugitive and formal slaves and fictionalized slave narratives are included. The collection includes well-known authors, such as Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, as well as many authors less commonly known. Documents are available in HTML and SGML/TEI file formats and are accessible through alphabetical and chronological listings. Users can also view images of the covers, spines, title pages, and versos of title pages. Documents have been indexed by subject, but searches return materials in additional collections. An introductory essay by Professor William Andrews is available.

Migration, both forced and voluntary, remains a prominent theme in African American history. This website is built around the history of 13 African American migration experiences: the transatlantic slave trade (1450s–1867), runaway journeys (1630s–1865), the domestic slave trade (1760s–1865), colonization and emigration (1783–1910s), Haitian Immigration (1791–1809), Western migration (1840s–1970), and Northern migration (1840s–1890).

Twentieth-century migrations include the Great Migration (1916–1930), the Second Great Migration (1940–1970), Caribbean immigration (1900–present), the return South migration (1970–present), Haitian immigration in the 20th century (1970–present), and African immigration (1970–present). More than 16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, and 67 maps are included. An interactive timeline places migration in the context of U.S. history and the history of the African Diaspora.

Transcriptions and images of more than 4,000 newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves and indentured servants between 1736 and 1803 can be browsed or search on this website. The runaways are primarily from Virginia, but also come from states along the Eastern seaboard and locations abroad. Materials include ads placed by owners and overseers as well as those placed by sheriffs and other governmental officials for captured or suspected runaway slaves. Additional advertisements announce runaway servants, sailors, and military deserters.

"Exploring Advertisements" offers browse, search, and full-text search functions, as well as maps and timelines for viewing the geographic locations of slaves. The site also provides documents on runaways—including letters, other newspaper materials, literature and narratives, and several dozen official records, such as laws, county records, and House of Burgess journals. Information on the currency and clothing of the time, a gazetteer with seven maps of the region, and a 13-title bibliography are also available.

These 150 oral history interviews and 16 collections of documents address the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Interviews were conducted with figures on both sides of the movement, including volunteers and activists as well as "race-baiting" Governor Ross Barnett and national White Citizens Council leader William J. Simmons.

Document collections offer hundreds of pages of letters, journals, photographs, pamphlets, newsletters, FBI reports, and arrest records. Approximately 25 interviews also offer audio clips. Users may browse finding aids or search by keyword. Six collections pertain to Freedom Summer, the 1964 volunteer initiative in Mississippi to establish schools, register voters, and organize a biracial Democratic party. One collection is devoted to the freedom riders who challenged segregation in 1961. Four explanatory essays provide historical context. Short biographies are furnished on each interviewee and donor, as well as a list of topics addressed and 30 links to other civil rights websites.

These materials were collected for a study on the attitudes, backgrounds, goals, and experiences of volunteers participating in a 1965 Southern Christian Leadership Conference voter registration effort. Resources include questionnaires submitted prior to and following the project, as well as a follow-up survey conducted in 1982.

Participants were queried about why they volunteered, what they expected, their attitudes regarding race and politics, images they held of the South, expectations they had regarding the African American community, personal memories and effects of their participation, and subsequent attitudes regarding civil rights, violence, and social change. These resources offer insight into the Civil Rights Movement and some sociological aspects of American reformers.