Digital Collections
Examples of materials related to slavery are provided for
most of the collections listed below. Search on the term slavery
to locate additional resources within these Digital Collections.
Abraham
Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
consists of approximately 20,000 documents. The collection
includes a special presentation on the Emancipation
Proclamation that includes a timeline
and gallery.
African
American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray
Collection, 1818-1907
The collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review
of African-American history and culture, spanning almost
one hundred years from the early nineteenth through the
early twentieth centuries.
Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana
This online release presents over 1,300 items with an over 4,000 images and a date range of 1824-1931. It includes the complete collection of Stern's contemporary newspapers, Lincoln's law papers, sheet music, broadsides, prints, cartoons, maps, drawings, letters, campaign tickets, and other ephemeral items.
Amazing Grace
John Newton wrote the words to "Amazing Grace" in 1772. He was moved to speak out against slavery from which he had once profited. This hymn has become for so many an anthem against all forms of social injustice.
America
Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets
This collection spans the period from the turn of the
nineteenth century to the 1880s, although a majority of
the song sheets were published from the 1850s to the 1870s.
American
Notes: Travels in America, 1750 to 1920
The collection comprises 253 published narratives by Americans
and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies
and the United States and their observations and opinions
about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750
to 1920.
American
Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the
Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States
The site contains a slightly expanded and fully searchable
version of the print publication American Women: A Library
of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture
in the United States (Washington, D.C.: Library of
Congress, 2001). The guide has been redesigned for online
use, with added illustrations and links to existing digitized
material located throughout the Library of Congress Web
site.
Born
in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project,
1936 to 1938
The collection contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts
of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former
slaves. The special presentations in the collection are
An
Introduction to the WPA Slave Narratives and Voices
and Faces from the Collection.
"California
as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's
Early Years, 1849 to 1900
The collection consists of the full texts and illustrations
of 190 works documenting the formative era of California's
history through eyewitness accounts.
The
Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake
Bay Region, 1600 to 1925
The collection includes first-person narratives, early
histories, historical biographies, promotional brochures,
and books of photographs that capture in words and pictures
a distinctive region as it developed between the onset of
European settlement and the first quarter of the twentieth
century.
A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional
Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
The collection consists of a linked set of published congressional
records of the United States of America from the Continental
Congress through the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875.
Civil War Maps
Brings together materials from three premier collections: the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman's Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts all available for the first time in one place.
Civil War Sheet Music Collection
Consists of over 2500 pieces culled from the Library's collections. This collection is unique in that it offers a contemporary perspective from both sides of the conflict, unfiltered by generations of historical interpretation.
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
The black-and-white photographs of the Farm Security Administration-Office
of War Information Collection are a landmark in the history
of documentary photography.
The
Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American
abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his
own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer,
writer, and publisher. The special presentations for the
collection include a Timeline, Douglass
in His Own Words, and a Family
Tree.
From
Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection,
1824-1909
The collection includes 396 pamphlets from the Rare Book
and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through
1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about
slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction,
and related topics.
George
Washington Papers
The complete George Washington Papers collection from the
Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists
of approximately 65,000 documents. This is the largest collection
of original Washington documents in the world.
Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic
American Engineering Record (HAER) collections document
achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in
the United States through a comprehensive range of building
types and engineering technologies.
- Melrose
Plantation, Slave Hospital, State Highway 119, Melrose,
Natchitoches Parish, LA.
- Sotterly,
Slave Quarters, State Route 245 & Vista Road Vicinity,
Hollywood vicinity, St. Mary's County, MD.
The
James Madison Papers, 1723 to 1836
The James Madison Papers from the Manuscript Division at
the Library of Congress consist of approximately 12,000
items captured in some 72,000 digital images.
Map
Collections
The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress
holds more than 4.5 million items, of which Map Collections
represents only a small fraction, those that have been converted
to digital form. The collection is organized according to
seven major categories: Cities
and Towns, Conservation
and Environment, Cultural
Landscapes, Discovery
and Exploration, General
Maps, Military
Battles and Campaigns, and Transportation
and Communication.
Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1870 to 1885
This collection consists of over 47,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1885. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra.
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection
The NAWSA Collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and
other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign.
Omar Ibn Said Collection
This consists of 42 digitized documents in both English and Arabic, including an 1831 manuscript in Arabic on "The Life of Omar Ibn Said," a West African slave in America, which is the centerpiece of this unique collection of texts. Some of the manuscripts in this collection include texts in Arabic by another West African slave in Panama, and others from individuals located in West Africa.
Pioneering
the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin,
ca. 1820 to 1910
The collection's 138 volumes depict the land and its resources;
the conflicts between settlers and Native peoples; the experience
of pioneers and missionaries, soldiers and immigrants and
reformers; the growth of local communities and local cultural
traditions; and the development of regional and national
leadership in agriculture, business, medicine, politics,
religion, law, journalism, education, and the role of women.
Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
The Printed Ephemera collection at the Library of Congress
is a rich repository of Americana. In total, the collection
comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth
century to the present and encompasses key events and eras
in American history.
Slaves
and the Courts, 1740 to 1860
The collection contains just over a hundred pamphlets and
books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult
and troubling experiences of African and African-American
slaves in the American colonies and the United States.
Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
A multi-format ethnographic field collection that includes approximately 700 sound recordings, as well as photographic prints, fieldnotes, dust jackets, and other manuscripts documenting a three-month, 6,502-mile trip through the southern United States collecting folksongs.
Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827
The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript
Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately
27,000 documents. This is the largest collection of original
Jefferson documents in the world.
Voices
from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories
The almost seven hours of recorded interviews presented
in this collection took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine
Southern states. The collection includes Faces
and Voices from the Presentation and Biographies
of the Interviewers.
William A. Gladstone Afro-American Military Collection
The William A. Gladstone Afro-American Military Collection (ca. 500 items) spans the years 1773 to 1987, with the bulk of the material dating from the Civil War period, 1861-1865. The collection consists of correspondence, pay vouchers, orders, muster rolls, enlistment and discharge papers, receipts, contracts, affidavits, tax records, miscellaneous military documents, and printed matter. Most items document African Americans in military service, especially the United States Corps d'Afrique and the United States Colored Troops, which were organized during the Civil War. Also included are many documents concerning slavery and various other Civil War documents that mention African Americans.
William A. Gladstone Collection of African American Photographs
Provides almost 350 images showing African Americans and related military and social history. Subjects of special note include Sojourner Truth, fugitive slaves, former slave children from New Orleans, and freed slaves at Seabrook Plantation in South Carolina.
Words
and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating
the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
The Manuscript Division staff selected approximately ninety
representative documents spanning from the fifteenth century
to the mid-twentieth century.
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