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The Transatlantic Slave Trade
A guide to primary and secondary sources organized by topic, covering the slave trade in Africa, the Americas, and the U.S.
Slavery & Slave Trade before the Transatlantic Slave Trade
- JCB Archives of Early American ImagesDigitized images and text with full source documentation. Browse all or sort by category. From the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
- Slave Societies Digital ArchiveA collection of archival materials dating from the 16th through the 20th centuries documenting the history of Africans and their descendants in the Atlantic World. Includes maps, images, and secular documents such as bills of sale, property registries and disputes, dowries, and letters of manumission, as well as church documents pertaining to baptism, marriage, wills, and more.
The Geography of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
- A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races - NYPL Digital CollectionsMaps showing colonization of Africa from ancient times to the end of the 19th century.
- Introductory Maps - Slave VoyagesA selection of maps reproduced from Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by David Eltis and David Richardson.
- Afriterra: The Cartographic Free LibraryAfriterra is an archive of antique maps and books related to Africa. It maintains a searchable catalog of over 2,500 high-resolution maps dating from 1480 to 1900 .
- American Geographical Society Library - Digital Map CollectionMore than 700 maps, ranging from early maps of Asia to historical maps of American cities, states, and national parks.
- David Rumsey Map Collection, Cartography AssociatesThe historical map collection has over 22,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
- Maps in the Perry-Castañeda Library Map CollectionDigitized maps from the University of Texas at Austin.
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Other Historical Map Web SitesThis site out of the University of Texas at Austin is an excellent portal to a variety of high quality cartographical web sites. The links are very reliable.
The Slave Trade in Africa
- Slavery Images: Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, CultureImage reproductions from the 17th-19th centuries.
- Slavery Images: European Forts and Trading Posts in AfricaReproductions of maps and book illustrations.
Slavery in the Americas
- Digital Library on American SlaveryAn expanding resource compiling various independent online collections focused upon race and slavery in the American South, made searchable through a single, simple interface. Slave petitions, deeds, runaway slave advertisements, and data about the slave trade highlight this collection.
- Slavery Images: Slave Occupations and Economic ActivitiesReproductions of book illustrations, mostly from the 19th century.
- Slavery Images: Slave Sales and Auctions: African Coast & the AmericasImage reproductions, mostly from the 19th century.
- Slavery Images: Plantation Scenes, Slave Settlements and HousesArt and illustration reproductions and photographs. Most from the 19th century.
- Slave Societies Digital ArchiveA collection of archival materials dating from the 16th through the 20th centuries documenting the history of Africans and their descendants in the Atlantic World. Includes maps, images, and secular documents such as bills of sale, property registries and disputes, dowries, and letters of manumission, as well as church documents pertaining to baptism, marriage, wills, and more.
- Le Marronage dans le Monde Atlantique, 1760-1848More than 20,000 transcribed newspaper announcements documenting runaway slaves from South Carolina, Louisiana, and the Caribbean. Includes notices published in English and in French.
Europeans and the Atlantic Slave Trade
- Legacies of British Slave OwnershipBrowse information about slave owners and their estates in Britain and the Caribbean.
- British Foreign Office Records - FO 84FO 84 is the main Foreign Office series relating to diplomatic efforts on the suppression of the slave trade, 1816-1892. A selection of records in this series have been digitized and are available for free PDF download. To obtain free PDFs, select the particular record set you want (ex. FO 84/3) and click on "details." If a free download is available, it will be indicated. Click "add to basket." When you have finished adding files to your basket, click "go to basket." You will be required to enter an email address to receive the free PDFs.
- British Library - Archives and ManuscriptsFind free digitized primary sources from the British Library. Search on a topic, select an item from search results, and click on "browse this collection" to reveal contents. Select "view digital version" to see a particular document.
- Liverpool and SlaveryAn interactive map revealing Liverpool's deep historic links to the transatlantic slave trade.
The U.S. Slave Trade
- Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790-1860Interactive map showing the spread of slavery in the United States. Using Census data from the National Historical Geographic Information System, this visualization shows the population of slaves, of free African Americans, of all free people, and of the entire United States. It also shows those subjects as population densities and percentages of the population. The author also provides a useful introduction to the map.
- Mapping the Southern and Westward Expansion of Slavery, ca. 1790-1860This module employs census data to explore the relative size and geographic distribution of the enslaved and free black populations, with an emphasis on slavery's southern and westward expansion, ca. 1790-1860.
- North East Slavery Records IndexA searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and their owners, beginning as early as 1525 and ending during the Civil War. Includes essays on enslaved people, topics and issues, and useful lists of records. Records from New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- Legacy of Slavery in MarylandSearch their database for newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves, committal notices, census records, domestic traffic, and more. Also included are case studies of fugitives, accomplices, and slave holders that provide documentation from available runaway ads, court documents, census data, and published material on an individual from the Antebellum Maryland Community connected to the institution of slavery. From the Maryland State Archives.
- Geography of Slavery in VirginiaA digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers. Includes a useful glossary of terms found in such advertisements. Additional documents include official state and country records, as well as slaveholder records.
- North Carolina Runaway Slave Notices, 1750-1865A digitized collection of all known runaway slave advertisements (more than 5000 items) published in North Carolina newspapers from 1751 to 1865, with full-text transcripts. A project of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
- Virginia Untold: The African American NarrativeSearch the Narrative to find records documenting the lives of pre-1865 African Americans in Virginia. Search by name/keyword, record type, or locality. From the Library of Virginia.
- Yale Slavery PortalA portal to digitized primary sources related to slavery, abolition, and resistance at Yale University. In addition, use the "Links" tab to find an extensive list of links to external resources.
Abolition
- Liberated AfricansThis website retraces the lives of over 250,000 people emancipated under global campaigns to abolish slavery, as well as thousands of officials, captains, crews, and guardians of a special class of people known as "Liberated Africans." Browse by courts, cases, or sources. Includes an image gallery.
- Antislavery Petitions: Massachusetts DataverseA collection of digitized historical Massachusetts petitions relating to anti-slavery and anti-segregation activities. From Harvard University.
- Livingstone Online: Illuminating Imperial ExplorationA digital collection of the written, visual, and material legacies of the famous Victorian explorer, missionary, and abolitionist David Livingstone (1813-73). Includes high-resolution manuscript images and critically-edited transcriptions – 15,000 images and 780 transcriptions.
- Slavery and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Amistad CaseA digital collection created by the Amistad Research Center comprised of correspondence, dating from 1839-1841, by abolitionists, pro-slavery advocates, governmental officials, and the Amistad Africans themselves, related to the development of efforts to provide legal assistance to the Africans charged with piracy and murder in the Amistad slave ship revolt.
Enslaved African Experiences
- African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection of the Library of CongressDigitized content from the Library of Congress African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African American history. Includes sermons on racial pride and political activism, slave narratives, speeches by members of Congress, legal documents, poetry, playbills, dramas, librettos, and pamphlets pertaining to slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and other related topics.
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938An online collection from the Library of Congress containing more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. Transcripts of interviews with former slaves are organized by state, and then alphabetically by name of informant within each state.
- North American Slave NarrativesAutobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Part of Documenting the American South.
- Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their StoriesAudio recordings of former slaves. Twenty-three interviewees discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. Includes transcripts. From the Library of Congress.
- Freedom NarrativesBiographical accounts included here include the testimonies and stories of individuals born in West Africa. (Website is under development and user may need to redirect to archived prototype website. 3/22/2021)
- Slave Ship in 3D - video from slavevoyages.orgDigital recreation of a slave ship based on documentation of the slave ship Aurore. From slavevoyages.org
- Slavery Images: Slave Ships and the Atlantic Crossing (Middle Passage)Image reproductions, mostly from the 19th century.
- Slavery Images: Portraits and Illustrations of IndividualsPortrait image reproductions from the 18th and19th centuries.
- Lowcountry Africana: African American Genealogy in SC, GA and FLContains records that document the family and cultural heritage of African Americans in the historic rice-growing areas of South Carolina, Georgia and extreme northeastern Florida. Includes plantation and slaveholder records, selected Freedmen's Bureau records for SC and GA, and more.
- Slavery Images: Music, Dance, and Recreational ActivitiesImage reproductions from the 18th and19th centuries.