Slavery Links
Sections
Colonial North America and United States
Academic Centers
The Amistad Research Center
An independent African American archive founded in 1966 to document the American civil rights movement. Includes guides to the center’s manuscript, art, and media collections.
The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African and Afro-American Studies
The University of Virginia houses this center for interdisciplinary teaching and research in African and African-American Studies.
The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
Yale University houses this center dedicated to the investigation and dissemination of information concerning all aspects of the Atlantic slave system and its destruction. The website includes bibliographies and lists scheduled events.
Documents, Narratives, Texts
Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1719-1820
Database of genealogical records, compiled by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall.
American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
Site maintained by Bruce Fort, a graduate student at the University of Virginia. Includes an annotated index to slave narratives and links to related sites.
Antislavery Literature Project
The goal of the Antislavery Literature Project is to increase public access to a body of literature crucial to understanding African American experience, US and hemispheric histories of slavery, and early human rights philosophies. These multilingual collections contribute to an educational consciousness of the role of many antislavery writers in creating contemporary concepts of freedom. Includes the Frederick Douglas Translations, the John Brown Poetry collection, and many other collections.
“‘Been Here So Long’: Selections from the WPA American Slave Narratives.”
Includes a selection of seventeen interviews of former slaves conducted by members of the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration; an introductory essay on the Narratives and their place in the documentary and cultural movements of the 1930s, by Mark Krasovic; three sets of lesson plans by Dick Parsons, a curriculum development specialist at the New Deal Network; and a short guide to bibliographical and online resources.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938
U.S. Library of Congress’s searchable website of interviews and photographs of former slaves generated during the Great Depression under the auspices of the Federal Writers Project.
Chester County, PA Manumissions
Summary of Chester County, PA slave manumissions identified by a survey of the Miscellaneous Deed Index. The 65 entries cover the years 1758-1858. While these manumissions were filed in Chester County, many were for slaves whose masters resided in Maryland or Delaware.
Digital History: African American Voices
Texts and other resources for middle school, high school, and first-year college history teaching on the African American experience. Compiled by Steve Mintz and Sara McNeil, University of Houston.
Documenting the American South: North American Slave Narratives
Searchable full text narratives by former slaves from the collections of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries.
Frederick Douglass Papers
Indiana and Purdue University’s collection and publication of the writings of the great nineteenth-century, African American, anti-slavery and human rights activist Frederick Douglass.
Freedmen and Southern Society Project
An extensive selection of primary documents depicting the drama of emancipation in the words of the participants: liberated slaves and defeated slaveholders, soldiers and civilians, common folk and the elite, Northerners and Southerners.
Freedmens Bureau Online
Online publication of documents (registers, reports, applications) from the Reconstruction era Freedmens Bureau. This is a commercial site that does not explicitly state its methodology, purpose, or sponsors.
Harriet Jacobs Papers
Pace University’s project to produce a two-volume documentary edition of papers by and about the 19th-century African-American author, abolitionist, and reformer Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897), to be published by the University of North Carolina Press.
History Now: Looking at Slavery: Going to the Sources
A state-by-state set of primary sources relating to the U.S. history of slavery.
Memories of Slavery
A database of African and European texts and images concerning the transatlantic slave system. Sponsored by Universität Trier (Germany) and Université d’Abomey-Calavi (Benin).
New Jersey State Archives: Records Relating to Slaves and Children of Slaves
Birth certificates, manumission records, court case records concerning New Jersey slaves, organized by county. Some have been scanned and are available online. Others refer to paper or microfilm records.
Race and Slavery Petitions Project
Prof. Loren Schweninger’s collection of tens of thousands of petitions to southern state legislatures for redress of grievances, 1770-1865.
St. Louis Missouri Circuit Court Historical Records Project
280 legal documents filed between 1814 and 1860 on behalf of slaves suing for their freedom. Includes images of original handwritten documents.
Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
Cornell University’s collection of anti-slavery pamphlets. Searchable by keyword.
Slavery and Emancipation in Washington, D.C. Bibliography
Compiled by Matthew Gilmore. A starting place for research.
Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860, American Memory Project
A Library of Congress collection of over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning legal suits involving slaves. The documents comprise an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance.
Thomas Jefferson Papers
Approximately eighty-three thousand images from the papers of Thomas Jefferson, including correspondence, commonplace books, account books, and manuscript volumes. These documents shed light on the history of Jefferson’s thoughts on politics, slavery, religion, and other subjects; his decades-long political partnership with James Madison; and his friendships with John and Abigail Adams, William Short, and others.
Three African Americans Speak of Religion in Eighteenth-Century New England
Electronic version of three texts from colonial Massachusetts archives, originally printed in the William and Mary Quarterly April 1999.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture
Excellent site covering many sides to Stowe’s multimedia assault on slavery. Bridges academic and public history.
Valley of the Shadow: The Civil War in Two Communities
Includes many kinds of sources on slavery in the Shenandoah Valley.
Virginia Runaways: A Project of the Virginia Center for Digital History
One of the best web-based historical databases available on runaway slaves. Developed and maintained by Tom Costa, Professor of history at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories
Part of the Library of Congress American Memory project, featuring audio recordings made of people who had experienced slavery first-hand, recorded between 1932 and 1975.
Public History: Media, Museums and Sites
Abolition of the Slave Trade
The Schomburg Library (New York Public Library ) has online with text, images, maps, even a timeline etc of slavery and its abolition in the US and other countries.
Africans in America
Site devoted to the Public Broadcasting Service series about the history of Africans in America from colonial times to the Civil War.
The Amistad Case: Documents and Teaching Activities
The National Archives and Records Administration presents documents related to the circuit court and Supreme Court cases involving the Amistad and offers suggestions for teaching activities that are correlated to the National Standards for History and the National Standards for Civics and Government. The teaching activities encourage educators and students to analyze the documents and draw conclusions about slavery, abolition, and the United States legal system.
The Amistad Case: “Outright plagiarism” or “Who owns history?”
Summary of the legal battle between novelist Barbara Chase-Riboud and Dreamworks SKG, producer of the Steven Spielberg film, Amistad.
Dunkerhook: Slave Community?
An article on the history of an African-American community in New Jersey by Alglen Lutins, an archeologist.
Exploring Amistad: Race and the Boundaries of Freedom in Antebellum Maritime America
This site explores the Amistad Revolt of 1839-1842 and how history is made of it. Includes a narrative and timeline of the revolt, teaching suggestions, and a digital archive of nineteenth century documents concerning the event. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Flight to Freedom
A computer simulation in which the player takes on the persona of a slave escaping from slavery, attempting to make it to the northern U.S. or Canada with as many family members as possible.
Key West African Memorial Committee
A public history site devoted to recovering the memory of the African Cemetery on Higgs Beach, Key West, Florida and the transatlantic slave trade.
Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery
Created by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, in conjunction with the UNESCO Slave Route Project to mark the United Nations General Assembly’s resolution proclaiming 2004 as the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and Its Abolition. A web exhibit (modeled on a traveling exhibit) featuring segments on Africa, the transatlantic slave trade, slave labor and slave systems, the struggle against slavery and its abolition, family life and social development, religion, language, literacy and education, and expressive culture.
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives
Companion website to HBO’s 2003 documentary on U.S. slave narratives.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture
Excellent site covering many sides to Stowe’s multimedia assault on slavery. Bridges academic and public history.
The Underground Railroad
Sponsored by the National Park Service, this site lists historic places, educational materials, programs, parks, and links to other internet sources on the Underground Railroad.
United States National Slavery Museum
A project to create a national slavery museum in Virginia. Founded by Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder.
World
Contemporary Slavery
Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking
U.S. government division, under Health and Human Services. Aimed at identifying and rescuing victims of human trafficking in the United States, with factsheets in English, Polish, Russian, Spanish and “Traditional” Chinese. Includes “Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline,” 1.888.3737.888. Established in conformity with U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA).
Free the Slaves
A non-profit organization working to end slavery world-wide. Includes Resources for teachers.
Anti-Slavery International
An organization devoted to the abolition of contemporary forms of slavery, including debt bondage, false adoption (of children to work as domestic servants), servitude imposed by serfdom or caste, and domestic slavery.
Academic Centers
AARDOC: African American Religion: A Documentary History Project
An effort to produce a comprehensive history of African-American religion, from the earliest African-European encounters along the west coast of Africa in the mid-fifteenth century to the present day, to be published by University of Chicago Press.
Banque Numérique des Patrimoines Martiniquais
Devoted to the cultural heritage of Martinique, includes the slave registers (births, marriages and deaths), and the 1848-freed people registers.
Mémoire St Barth | Histoire de Saint-Barthélemy (Comité de Liaison et d’Application des Sources Historiques)
Resources dedicated to the history of Saint-Barthélemy (FWI) : slave trade, slavery, their abolition and impact on this island of the Lesser Antilles. .
Esclavages
Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) website devoted to resources and information about slavery in the world, historical and current. Maintained by Myriam Cottias.
Harriet Tubman Resource Centre on the African Diaspora
Paul Lovejoy, York University, Toronto. A tremendous site with a wealth of information, especially for academics, including conferences and news.
Institute for the Study of Slavery
University of Nottingham’s research center devoted to slavery studies.
Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
Site includes a critical biography, map of Equiano’s travels, bibliography, excerpts, portraits and related sources. Created and maintained by Brycchan Carey, lecturer in English at Kingston University in Surrey, England.
Yekrik! Yekrak!
An idiosyncratic site maintained by Dominique Chathuant devoted to the abolition of slavery in the Francophone world. The site’s gateway gives access to English and French versions. Accessing the site will notify the webmaster of your visit and record your e-mail address ONLY if you approve but my experience is that this feature is not abused. Ms Chathuant is interested in monitoring the international interest in the site and making contact with interested parties.
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Documents, Narratives, Texts
The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record
Jerome S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite, Jr. present hundreds of images of the Atlantic slave trade in a searchable database.
L’Esclavage au Cinema: Quelques films
Brief reviews of films that deal with slavery, culled from the H-Slavery listserv, translated into French. Also includes recommended novels dealing with slavery. sity.
H-Slavery Listserv Backlogs
These are the records of previous conversations by the participants in the H-Slavery Listserv. Searchable by keyword and accessible by author, subject and date.
Histoire d’esclaves dans le monde atlantique français
The Group d’Atlantique Français (McGill University) and the Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humanes of the Université de Sherbrooke are developing this site, which will include a database of blacks in the French Atlantic, including runaway notices and admiralty recods.
History in Focus
History in Focus invited eight academics to write short pieces on various aspects of slavery, the slave trade and its abolition from their own research perspectives. The resulting articles cover a broad range of issues, including resistance among slaves, runaway slave communities, proslavery arguments in the British West Indies, aspects of abolishing the slave trade including the economic consequences, and memories of slavery in Africa.
Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African
Created and maintained by Brycchan Carey, contains a summary of up-to-date scholarship on Equiano.
Records of Slave Ship Movement Between Africa and the Americas, 1817-1843
Raw data and documentation of slave ship movement between Africa and the Americas from 1817-1843, including: ship’s port of arrival, date of arrival, type of vessel, tonnage, master’s name, number of guns, number of crew, national flag, number of slaves, port of departure, number of days of voyage, and mortality. Based on Philip Curtin and Herbert Klein’s data sets.
Slavery and Abolition
Website for the journal Slavery and Abolition, including table of contents of current and previous issues.
Slavery and Antislavery: A Bibliography of Recent Works in English
Compiled by Steven Mintz.
Slavery and Manumission Manuscripts of Timbuktu.
A collection of 206 Arabic manuscripts from the Bibliothèque Commémorative Mama Haidara in Timbuktu, Mali, including documentation on Africans in slavery and manumission in Muslim societies. Selected by Abdel Kader Haidara, Curator of the Bibliotheque Commemorative Mama Haidara and John O. Hunwick, Professor of History and Religion, Northwestern Univer
Slavery in the Francophone World
Doris Kadish’s website includes texts, images, and a section devoted to the Atlantic revolutionary experience of the 1790s.
Studies in the World History of Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation
An electronic journal devoted to the worldwide study of slavery. Published “occasionally” since 1996. Links to bibliographies, document collections, museums, courses.
Public History: Media, Museums and Sites
Anneaux de la Memoire
French language website dedicated to five centuries of history connecting Europe, Africa and the Americas, with particular reference to the slave trade, slavery and their influence on the present. Sited in Nantes, France.
Bristol and the Slave Trade
Links to a variety of sites dealing with the British slave trade. Maintained by actor Jeremy McNeill.
Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas
A NEH-funded project of the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia, this site includes text and a few images from the transatlantic slave trade. A more extensive image bank requires users to certify their use as “personal” or “commercial” before viewing the images. “Educational” is not listed as an option.
Caribbean Histories Revealed
On-line exhibit mounted by the British National Archives narrating the history of enslaved people and their descendents, 17thcentury to the present. Includes sample documents and links to archival research tools, including censuses.
Centre de Recherches Internationales sur les EsclavagesFrench-only site.Le Centre International de Recherches sur les Esclavages. Acteurs, systèmes, représentations (GDRI du CNRS) a été créé à la suite du RTP « Esclavages ». Il est composé d’un réseau international de chercheurs appartenant à des universités et des centres de recherche des continents africain, américain et européen.
Heritage of Slavery in South Africa
A project of Iziko Museums, a national museum group that manages fifteen museum sites in and around Cape Town, including the former VOC Slave Lodge and Groot Constantia Estate, a wine estate that made extensive use of slave labour.
History of Slavery in Martinique
A fairly comprehensive website focusing on Martinique, with an unusual and engaging game good for all ages that brings the history of slavery into context (game is in French only). Good time line and developing forum for discussion.
Le site « Histoire de l’esclavage en Martinique » propose un panorama complet sur le tragique phénomène de l’esclavage qui influa de manière décisive sur le peuplement des Antilles françaises
Juneteenth.com
A commercial site promoting the celebration of the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Kura Hulanda
Webpage to the museum of slavery on Curacao, formerly a Dutch sugar colony.
The Museum of African Slavery
A “virtual museum” maintained by Pier M. Larson, an assistant Prof. of History at Pennsylvania State University, this site presently contains mostly text.
Slave Trade Simulation
A demographic simulation summarizing available information on slave trade and combining it with what is known of normal human patterns of birth, death, and migration. Users may vary the demographic conditions and see their implications.
Slavery @ the Cape
This site, created by Mogamat G Kamedien in conjunction with the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Dutch East India Company, gives information about the Cape Slave Code of 1754, Social conditions of slaves at the cape, a Timeline, and other related information about slavery in colonial South Africa.
Tracks to Freedom: Canada and the Underground Railroad
Blog chronicling the 2006 journey of writer Chris Lackner and photographer Malcolm Taylor along the historical route of the Underground Railroad. Contains photos and videos.