LibGuides: Black American Literature: Primary Sources

About This Page

If you are looking for archival materials on a topic related to Black American Literature, this page provides resources. Primary sources include archived historical materials such as letters, original literary manuscripts, photographs, maps, news or magazine articles, and many others.

Read the descriptions of the linked resources below, to find materials that interest you. Once you've found material(s), use the Primary Sources Worksheet to ask key questions that will help you analyze and use the material.

Primary Sources Worksheet

Archival Databases @ the Library

Women's Studies Archive: Women's Issue and Identities
Primary source materials on women's issues, movements, and achievements, including topics such as sexuality and reproductive freedom, women and the labor movement, and second wave feminist movements, Includes manuscripts, ephemera, newspapers, journals, and more.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery
Historical primary sources including books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, legal documents, court records, manuscripts, and maps from many different countries, covering 1490 to 1888.
Early American Imprints, Series 1: Evans 1693-1800
Historical primary sources such as books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents, and ephemera printed in the early U.S.

Archives on the Web (public)

American Slaves Narratives: An Online Anthology
A project of the University of Virginia, this website shares an anthology of slave narratives.
Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South
A selection of 410 recorded oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s (Duke University).
Black Abolitionist Archive
A collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from 1890 to the civil war. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement; scans of these documents are provided as images and PDF files.
Digital Schomburg
Relying on the expertise of distinguished curators and scholars, Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation, and scholarship on the global black experience 24/7 (Digital Schomburg). Created by the New York Public Library.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
A collection of primary sources from the 1790s-2000s including images, writings, news, government and court documents, and more.
Civil Rights Digital Library
materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. The CRDL features a collection of unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyages
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database has information on almost 36,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Covers Africa, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and Brazil.
Digital Public Library of America
A vast project that works with many cultural heritage institutions to bring together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. The portal provides innovative ways to search and scan through the united collection of millions of items, including by timeline, map, virtual bookshelf, format, subject, and partner.

News & Periodical Archives

American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection
Historical American periodicals (e.g. news, magazines, & journals) published between 1684 and 1912 in five series, all searchable through one link.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (1800-1899)
A historical newspaper archive including images of both full pages and clipped articles for hundreds of 1800s U.S. newspapers. For each issue, the newspaper is captured from cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement, and illustration.
Historical New York Times (1851-2021)
Historical back issues of the newspaper including all articles, editorials, classified ads, comics, cartoons, photos, maps, and graphics. For electronic access to current editions, use New York Times Digital.
Historical Los Angeles Times (1881-2001)
Historical back issues of the newspaper including all articles, editorials, classified ads, comics, cartoons, photos, maps, and graphics. For electronic access to current Los Angeles Times from 1985 to present, use Los Angeles Times (1985-present).

Literature

Frederick Douglas Papers
The U.S. Library of Congress makes the digitized papers and essays about them freely available to the public.
Zora Neale Hurston Plays
The U.S. Library of Congress shares annotated and original copies of her plays.

LitFinder
Full-text poems and poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, plays, biographies, work summaries, photographs, and a glossary.

Art and Media

More Primary Sources

Primary Sources
by Kendall Faulkner Last Updated Aug 12, 2025 1299 views this year