Methodology

Developed in cooperation with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, this portal shares the Center’s interest in the global history of slavery and its legacies, broadly defined. Items featured on this website are not confined to the United States or the Atlantic world or the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, even if these places and periods tend to form the focus of the sources we have included.

Collection descriptions were excerpted or adapted from those in the Finding Aid Database, the Orbis Libary Catalog, and other relevant sites. In some cases, we have added text to alert researchers to additional information about a collection. At this stage, we have decided to limit our focus to original manuscripts, material artifacts, and other rare or unpublished material. With a few exceptions, we have excluded printed books and pamphlets and material that is readily available elsewhere online.

Although we hope this portal will provide a springboard for future research, it is hardly exhaustive, and we welcome suggestions of new content from researchers, students, and staff. Information about how to locate primary source material in Yale archives can be found on the research page.