Reading - Primary Sources - Slavery and Slave Life in the American South, 1619-1865 (AM407)
General
- Steven Mintz (ed.), African American Voices: A Documentary Reader, 1619-1877
- Elizabeth Donnan, Documents illustrative of the slave trade
- Helen Catterall, Judicial cases concerning slavery
- Willie Rose, A Documentary history of slavery
- Paul Escott & David Goldfield eds, Major problems in the history of the American South Vol 1: The Old South
- Rick Halpern and Enrico Dal Lago (eds.), Slavery and Emancipation
- John Commons, Documentary history of American Industrial Society, Vol 1: Plantation and Frontier
Slave narratives
These and many other slave narratives are available online at the Documenting the American South site.
- George P. Rawick, [ed.], The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (31 vols) see also the online collection of 2,300 narratives at the Library of Congress.
- Charles L. Perdue, Thomas Barden, and Robert K. Philips (eds.), Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves
- Charles Ball, Life of a Negro slave / Fifty years in chains
- W W Brown, Narrative of William Brown
- A Steward, Twenty-two years a slave
- Sam Ward, Autobiography of a fugitive slave
- John Blassingame, Slave testimony
- Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a slave
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of Frederick Douglass
- Arna Bontemps, Great Slave Narratives - Olaudah Equiano; W C Pennington; William Craft
- Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the life of a slave girl
- William Katz, Five slave narratives - Lunsford Lane; Fugitive Blacksmith (W C Pennington); Wm W Brown; My Life in the South (Jacob Stroyer); Moses Grandy Gilbert Osofsky, Puttin on ole massa; Henry Bibb; W W Brown; Solomon Northup William Andrews, Six women's slave narratives - Old Elizabeth; Mattie L Jackson; A Slave Girl's Story (Kate Drumgold
-
C W Larison, Silvia DuBois, a biography
- Robert Starobin, Blacks in Bondage, the letters of American slaves
- T R Gray, Confessions of Nat Turner
- Henry Tragle, The Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831: A compilation of source material
- Yuval Taylor, I was born a slave : an anthology of classic slave narratives.v.1: 1770-1849,v.2: 1849-1891
Analysis
- Charles Davis, The Slaves' Narrative
- Blassingame, John 'Using the testimony of ex-slaves: approaches and problems' JSH 41 (1975) 373-392
- Bailey, David Thomas 'A divided parish : two sources of black testimony on slavery' JSH 46 (1980) 381-405
- Donna J. Spindel, 'Assessing Memory: 20th Slave Narratives Reconsidered' JIH (1996), 247-261
Travel Accounts
- Frederick Olmsted, Journey through the Seaboard Slave States
- Frederick Olmsted, Journey through the backcountry
- Frederick Olmsted, Journey through Texas
- Frederick Olmsted, The Cotton Kingdom
- Charles Lyell, A Second visit to the United States of America
- Basil Hall, Travels in North America
- E. Abdy, Tour in the United States
- James Stirling, Letters from the slave states
- E. Schwaab, Travels in the Old South
- E. Davies, American scenes and Christian slavery
- A. Marjoribanks, Travels in South and North America
- J. Benwell, An Englishman's Travels in Americ: his observations of life and manners in the free and slave states
Plantation Life
- James Clifton, Life and Labor on Argyle Island
- Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian plantation
- J S Bassett, The Southern plantation overseer as revealed in his letters
- Bennet Barrow, Plantation life in the Florida parishes of Louisiana
- Susan Sedes, Memorials of a Southern Planter
Microfilm
- Butler Plantation Papers
- Egmont Papers
- Colonial Records of Georgia
Websites
There are many relevant websites relating to American slavery. Use an engine such as Google to locate specific materials.