Harriet Tubman
After gaining her freedom by running to Philadelphia in 1849, Harriet Tubman returned to the South nearly nineteen times to help over three hundred slaves escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad. A large number of slaves, unwilling to wait for manumission or formal abolition, took emancipation into their own hands by escaping to freedom.
Primary Source Databases and Print Books
- HistoryMakers: African American Video Oral History Collection This link opens in a new window HistoryMakers is a collection of video oral history interviews with historically significant African Americans. Transcripts are included with the interviews.
- Law and Society since the Civil War (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window A collection of documents from the Harvard Law School Library featuring the papers of three Supreme Court Justices, the first Black federal judge, and the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
- NAACP Papers (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window The NAACP Papers collections contains internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues of the struggle for civil rights.
- Slavery and the Law (ProQuest History Vault) This link opens in a new window Features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. Also includes the State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865.
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database This link opens in a new window Contains records of trans-Atlantic slave ship voyages made between 1595 and 1866. Format allows users to track information by time period and geographic region, and includes interactive maps that allow viewers to chart the trans-Atlantic connections. The accompanying data contains materials about people on board, owners and captains, ships' characteristics, and the geographic trajectory of each voyage.
- Making of America The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints
- The Negro Motorist Green Book, 1949 editionThe Negro Motorist Green Book was a travel guide that listed lodgings, tailors and other businesses that welcomed black patrons during Jim Crow. The guide, which was launched in 1936 and published for nearly 30 years."
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Eyewitness accounts of historical events, ads and genealogical records published in popular 19th century newspapers including African-American publications.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window This collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865. The content includes letters, speeches, editorials, articles, sermons, and essays from libraries and archives in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and the United States. Supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund.
Historical Newspapers
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Full-page images and article images (PDF) with searchable full text from the following newspapers: Boston Globe; New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Defender. See listing for each individual newspaper for date coverage and to search that publication separately.
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Fully searchable digital images of newspapers from 23 states and the District of Columbia. Focusing largely on the 18th and early 19th centuries. Date coverage: 1690 -1876.
- Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Eyewitness accounts of historical events, ads and genealogical records published in popular 19th century newspapers including African-American publications.
- Library of Congress web guide A Web guide developed by the Library of Congress listing and linking to various documents from the American Revolution to 1920.
- Chronicling America Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Primary Sources in BU Libraries Search
The search box on the main library webpage (use Advanced Search) is a good place to begin a search for primary sources. The library uses Library of Congress subject headings to classify the books in the collection and there are a number of Library of Congress subheadings that point to primary sources. They are:
- correspondence
- sources
- diaries
- personal narratives
- interviews
- speeches
- documents
- archives
- early works to 1800
These terms can be used in a subject search or a keyword search. Examples of subject searches would be:
- African Americans--Historiography
- African American History Sources
- African American Women Civil Rights Workers Sources
Examples of keyword searches would be:
- Black veterans and politics
- Integration and civil rights
- Black Panthers and police
Many primary documents are reprinted in published sources such as Documents of American History, Annals of America, and Speeches of the American Presidents and these and others are available in the library.
