Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation at Lauinger Library

Lauinger Library has subscribed to approximately 90 databases that bring together primary sources that can support the historical study of slavery, emancipation, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. These databases make it possible to search similar sources in one consolidated database. For researchers interested in individual items, it is also possible to conduct more limited searches. 

Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865

Primary source documents by and about Black abolitionists selected from 100 repositories including previously unpublished correspondence, speeches, sermons, and lectures as well as articles, essays and editorials that appeared in 200 newspapers. Part of the Black Studies Center, published by Proquest.

HeinOnline Slavery in America and the World: History, Law, and Culture

A collection the brings together legal materials on slavery in the United States and English-speaking world, including every statute passed by the colonial, state, and federal governments; all reported cases on slavery including some that date into the twentieth century; and essays in journals, pamphlets, books, and Congressional debates

Proquest History Vault: Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries

A documentary record that focuses on the industrial uses of enslaved labor, this database includes business and personal correspondence; documents pertaining to the purchase, hire, medical care and provisions of enslaved laborers; descriptions of enterprises such as mining, manufacturing, and heavy construction that exploited enslaved labor.

Proquest History Vault: Slavery and the Law

Slavery and the Law features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. These petitions were collected by Dr. Loren Schweninger, Professor of Emeritus of History at University of North Carolina Greensboro, over a four year period from hundreds of courthouses and historical societies in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

Proquest History Vault: Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records, Part I and II

This collection consists of papers that document both the commercial operations of plantations and the personal lives of plantation owners and their families. Part I includes the Henry Hammond Papers, Custis Family Papers, and Edmund Ruffin Diary. Part II includes the Tayloe Family Papers, Ambler Family Papers, Cocke Family Papers, Gilliam Family Papers, Barbour Family Papers, and Randolph Family Papers from the University of Virginia. Major collections from the Duke University holdings document plantation life in the Alabama, as well as South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery

A collection from 60 institutions including the Amistad Research Center, the National Archives, Oberlin College, Oxford University, and the Schomburg Library includes research guides, subject outlines, and records documenting slavery, modes of resistance, children and women under slavery, the slave trade, and other topics related to the American South and Atlantic world.

Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice

Portal for slavery and abolition studies from libraries and archives that includes images of thousands of original manuscripts, pamphlets, books, maps and other documents. It includes court records from North Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana as well as contextual essays.