Introduction


The sources here have been selected to aid your research for your final term paper and throughout the semester. Rather than an exhaustive list of all sources, they represent some of the best starting points for further research. I am available to assist with research throughout the semester. You can email me (david.lambert@simmons.edu) to set up an appointment to discuss your research, or contact me through this page by IM for simpler questions. Good luck with your research, and I hope to hear from you! ---David

Journals and Periodical Databases


** When accessing these databases, you may be prompted to enter your UMass username and password.
This database provides full-text articles from several prominent 19th century African American newspapers including The North Star and Freedom's Journal.  Searches can be limited to editorials, an important source of abolitionist sentiments.

JStor is an interdisciplinary collection of journals with a much longer historical scope than most journal databases.  As such, this could be an especially useful resource for historiographic research on abolitionism.  

This peer-reviewed journal approaches the subjects of slavery and abolition with an interdisciplinary and international focus.  This could be a particularly useful source for research topics comparing 19th century American abolitionism to abolitionist movements of other nations or periods. 
This database is a collection of over 300 biographical reference sources covering African Americans from the 1790s-1950s.  Allows the user to construct searches by geographical region, occupation, gender,religion, or birth and death dates in addition to biographical subject.

A database of history journals on the United States and Canada that covers all periods of history through the present.  This is a great source for making connections between abolitionism and its larger historical contexts (i.e. abolitionism and the temperance movement, the emergence of the Free Soil Party, etc.).  Try narrowing searches by time period for more focused results.


Encyclopedias and Other Reference Materials


**These print materials are located in the reference collection on the lower level of the W.E.B. Du Bois library.  The staff at the reference desk can assist you in locating or using these sources.

Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery
Ref E441 D53 1988
This one volume encyclopedia covers topics in American slavery from the point of European colonization through the end of Reconstruction.  Each entry features a selected bibliography for further research, making it a great starting point for generating research topics.

Atlas of African-American History and Politics
Ref E185 5574 1998
A collection of historical maps including many relevant to antislavery movements. Includes, for example, maps depicting slave rebellions, colonization and resettlement ventures, demographics of slave and free black populations. Includes map and text sources for further research.

Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political and Historical Encyclopedia
Ref E441 .S635 2007
This two volume encyclopedia is another great starting point for research topics, due to the ample bibliographies included with each entry.  There's also an extensive primary document collection, featuring 200 pages of speeches, legislation, sermons, slave narratives, editorials and minutes of antislavery conventions.

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
Ref DT14 A37435 2005
A good general five-volume encyclopedia of African and African American studies.

RefWorks
RefWorks is a computer program that helps you to organize, store, format and cite information for your bibliography or works cited page.  For assistance with RefWorks try the website RefWorks at the UMass Libraries or sign-up to attend a RefWorks Workshop at the library or online.

Primary Sources


Antislavery in New England
This is an online collection of 100 digitized abolitionist pamphlets from the UMass Special Collections, with a particular emphasis on materials from Massachusetts and Connecticut.  The website allows you to view these materials page-by-page, zoom in for detail, and to format for printing.

This website is an online collection of 10,000 antislavery documents from Cornell University which are freely accessible for students and researchers.  These materials are searchable for keywords that appear anywhere in the text.  The May Collection was complied in the 1870s by antislavery activists who consciously sought to preserve their work for the use of future generations.  As such, it is an indispensable collection for historians of abolitionism.

This site lists the contents of the print antislavery materials located at the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College.  Most materials are available for research in the Reading Room.  If you are interested in visiting an archive it is advisable to contact the staff to plan a research visit.


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