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HIS 400: Comparative Slave Systems in Africa and Latin America [Fall 2010]: Finding primary sources

Finding primary sources in library catalogs

To find primary sources in the Main Catalog, use the Guided Search form to search for keywords or subject headings plus terms like:

  • sources
  • diaries
  • correspondence
  • personal narrative

Note: for many topics, there are highly specific subject headings like:

  • Slavery--South Africa--Cape of Good Hope--History--Sources.
  • Slave narratives--United States.
  • Slavery--Mexico--Querétaro (State)--History--18th century--Sources.
  • Slavery--Africa, North--History--19th century--Sources.

To find the papers of an individual, do an Author search, e.g. Wilberforce, Samuel

To find the records of an organization or government body, do an Author search, e.g. United States. Dept. of State

To find works published in a particular time and place, try limiting your search by date, language, or location (click on the orange "set limits" button on the search screen).

Special Collections at Princeton

Harnage, George. Boarded Hall Estate (Barbados) plantation records, 1676-1887
1.5 linear ft. (1 large custom flat box, 1 four-flap enclosure)
Finding aid: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/08612n56p
Rare Books: Manuscripts Collection (MSS) C1227

Miscellaneous slavery collection, 1700-1885.
1.8 linear ft. (1 archival box, 1 17x21 oversize flat box)
Finding aid: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/zw12z533x
Rare Books: Manuscripts Collection (MSS) C1210

Rae family estate collection, 1800-1857.
1.40 linear ft. (3 archival boxes, 1 half-size archival box)
Finding aid: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/12579s28z
Rare Books: Manuscripts Collection (MSS) C1222

New Granada Slavery Collection, 1757-1812.
Consists of 58 manuscript leaves, comprising 27 Spanish documents, relating to the buying and selling of slaves in the Kingdom of New Granada (now Colombia).
Finding air: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/cz30ps71j
Manuscripts Division. C1052

Resources for the history of slavery

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
 Documents the forced migration of Africans across the Atlantic from 1595 to 1866. Nearly two-thirds of all the voyages that sailed from Africa to the Americas are included. Information is provided on ships' owners, captains, date and port of departure and arrival, number of enslaved Africans embarked and disembarked, number of deaths, and vessels that had insurrections.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive
This digital collection will eventually cover a wide range of topics, but the material available now is focused on the 18th and 19th century debate about slavery and abolition.

Black Abolitionist Papers
Primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.

African-American History and the Antebellum South: Slavery and the Slave Trade