Primary Sources

Provides selections of works offering the perspective of famous African Americans on historic topics. To search the collection, use the search bar at the top of the page. To browse click the "collection items" button beneath the collection title.

Database covering a variety of topics ranging from witchcraft from the Middle Ages to World War II and more contemporary political history. The format of the archives lends better to browsing as a lot of the materials provided by searching do not have full text access.

Offers free access to a selection of 410 oral history interviews from African Americans living during the era of legal segregation in the American South from the 1890s to 1950s. Currently, this resource is the largest single collection of oral histories from the Jim Crow era.

Contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. To search this collection use the search bar at the top of the screen. To browse, click the "collection items" button beneath the collection title.

Collection of oral histories conducted or filmed by the Crossroads to Freedom team of Rhodes College. In these interviews members of the Memphis community discuss a range of topics including Stax Records, the Civil Rights Movement, the life and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, education, integration, race relations, and local neighborhood histories.

Includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs. This resource also includes first hand slave narratives documenting the South prior to and during the Civil War.

Papers of the 19th century African American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher. To search the collection, use the search bar at the top of the page. To browse click the "collection items" button beneath the collection title.

Primary source materials from ProQuest's University Publications of America (UPA) Collection in digital format. Topics include African- American History, Southern plantation records, Vietnam War, and national security.

Documents comprising an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance relating to slavery in the U.S. To search this collection use the search bar at the top of the screen. To browse, click the "collection items" button beneath the collection title.

Contains images and manuscripts relating to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The images and manuscripts are easily browsable as a collection, but the database also has a variety of advanced functionalities to produce statistical data on the slave trade throughout its duration. For assistance on the more advanced functionalities of this database, please consult a librarian!

Offers sources related to historic values and behaviors in the United States. Sources in this resource cover a range of topics with a focus on traditional American gender roles.

Volunteer Voices provides access to digitized primary sources, such as photographs, letters, diaries, oral histories, and other artifacts, documenting the history and culture of Tennessee. The collection includes materials from archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums from across the state.

Includes photographs from the Freedmen's Normal Institute, a school for African-American teachers.

Consists of oral histories documenting the experiences of individuals integral to the United States Civil Rights Movement. Of particular note is an interview with Malcolm X.