Microfilm

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The collection consists of over 100 reels, divided into six parts. Part one includes the complete papers of Thomas Clarkson, William Lloyd Garrison, Zachary Macaulay, Harriet Martineau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and William Wilberforce from the Huntington Library in California. Parts two and three reproduce the slavery collections of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool. Part four reproduces the Granville Sharp Papers from the Gloucestershire Record Office. Part five reproduces the Papers of Thomas Clarkson from the British Library, London. Part six reproduces the Papers of William Wilberforce, William Smith, Iveson Brookes, Francis Corbin and related records from the Rare Books, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, Duke University.

The American Missionary Association was established in 1846 as an interdenominational missionary society devoted to abolitionist principles. The manuscripts include correspondence, treasurer’s papers, minutes of executive committee meetings, and other materials such as sermons, statistical reports, drawings, pictures and essays. Additional information is available online.

This collection consists of anti-slavery tracts, pamphlets and journals from the Library of the Society of Friends. Also included is the Thompson-Clarkson Collection of autograph letters, portraits, and printed material relating to Thomas Clarkson’s “The history of the rise, progress and accomplishment of the abolition of the African slave-trade.” Originals are in the Library of the Religious Society of Friends, Friends House, London, England.

The collection includes annual reports, 1883-2000, submissions to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and other related bodies, 1965-2000, ephemera & publications of Anti-Slavery International, 1980-2000, and publications and reports of Anti-Slavery International and its predecessors, 1880-1979.

A singular resource for the study of English provincial philanthropic societies. The collection includes documents on Africa, the West Indies, and the American Civil War. Also included are the Raymond English collection of the letters, diaries, pamphlets and press cuttings of the abolitionist George Donisthorpe Thompson and his son-in-law F. W. Chesson and the H. J. Wilson anti-slavery collection of 19th century pamphlets.

Books, pamphlets and other documents outlining the moral, religious, economic and legal aspects of the slavery debate. Includes anti-slavery society records, campaign literature and speeches made in and out of Congress, children’s literature, sermons and theological works, proslavery literature, and more. There are 7,235 fiches, accompanied by a printed guide.

The papers of Benjamin Tappan, lawyer, judge, U.S. Senator from Ohio, and active participant in the antislavery movement, consist of correspondence, speeches, legal and business papers, and miscellaneous material. The correspondence, which constitutes the bulk of the papers, relates to Tappan’s law practice, his activities in the antislavery movement, and to Ohio and national politics especially during the Jacksonian period.

Family members include author and suffragist Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950); her parents, Henry Browne Blackwell (1825-1909) and Lucy Stone (1818-1893), abolitionists and advocates of women’s rights; her aunt, Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the first woman to receive an academic medical degree; and Elizabeth Blackwell’s adopted daughter, Kitty Barry Blackwell (1848-1936). Includes correspondence, diaries, articles, and speeches of these and other Blackwell family members.

The collection consists of over 200 original letters to C.K. Prioleau for the period 1860-1869 from figures such as J.D. Bulloch, agent for the Confederate Navy, Caleb Huse, principal Confederate Army purchasing officer in Europe, and General C.J. McRae, Confederate Treasury Agent in Europe. Subjects include the shelling of Charleston, blockade running, battles, armament supply and the financing of the Southern war effort. Accompanied by a printed guide.

Letters of the Secretary of the Navy to and from agents stationed on the northwest coast of Africa. The agents often dealt with Africans freed from captured slave ships. From the Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

The records consist of fifty volumes of the confidential print relating to the slave trade. The confidential print is a collection of selected correspondence, memoranda and other documents printed for internal use in the Foreign Office and for distribution to the missions. Originals are in the Public Record Office, London, England. Published finding aid available.

The records consist of 2,196 volumes of correspondence with commissioners at the several stations appointed to carry out the articles of the Slave Trade Conventions with various nations. The records constitute part of Public Record Office group Foreign Office class 84 (PRO FO 84). There are 1,222 microfilm reels.

The papers document the life and career of Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, orator, journalist, diplomat, and public official. They contain correspondence, a diary, speeches, articles, a manuscript of Douglass’ autobiography, financial and legal papers, newspaper clippings, and other material, chiefly covering the years 1862-1895. Topics include emancipation and the problems of emancipated blacks, women’s rights, political affairs, a proposed naval station in Haiti, and family.

The papers contain correspondence, business and land records, writings, legal records, and maps of Peter Smith, land speculator and local politician in Madison County, New York and his son Gerrit Smith, land owner, philanthropist, reformer, abolitionist, and temperance advocate. 89 reels, plus finding aid.

The papers consist primarily of correspondence and other papers relating to John Brown and events in Kansas for the years just before the Civil War. Some correspondence is family related, but the bulk concerns Brown’s anti-slavery activities. A series of documents from 1878-1919 consist of reminiscences about Brown and events like the Pottawatomie massacre. Originals at the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas.

The papers consist of letters written to John J. Crittenden, law papers, a few copies of his own letters, and speeches relating to Crittenden’s political career in Kentucky and the United States Senate, with extensive material on the United States Civil War, 1861-1865, and the compromise efforts which proceeded it.

The papers consist of personal correspondence of Joshua Reed Giddings, Ohio abolitionist and politician, while he was serving as Abraham Lincoln’s consul-general in Canada. There is one microfilm reel, covering the years 1861-1864.

The papers of Lewis Tappan, merchant and abolitionist, consist of correspondence, letterbooks, journals, notebooks, clippings, photocopies, notes, and miscellanea. The journals and notebooks, which date from 1814-1869, document Tappan’s activities in the antislavery movement. The bulk of the correspondence consists of copies of Tappan’s outgoing letters. Originals are in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Mary Estlin was the daughter of John B. Estlin (1785-1855), a prominent opthalmic surgeon of Bristol, England, a Unitarian reformer and anti-slavery supporter. She was a member of the Bristol and Clifton Auxiliary Ladies Anti-Slavery Society and maintained an extensive correspondence with fellow abolitionists in the United States. After the Civil War she transferred her energies to the Women’s Rights campaign.

The papers consist of correspondence, minutes, financial records, records of manumission and emigration, reports of colonial agents, pamphlets and books on the colonization movement, copies of the Maryland Colonization Journal and the Liberia Herald, and census records of Maryland in Liberia. The materials shed light on race relations and socioeconomic conditions in antebellum America and are a source of information on the founding of Liberia. The complete collection is available online.

The collection contains material on the capture, trial, and release of the Amistad captives who were illegally sold into slavery. The collection consists of diaries, letters, court and government records, and newspaper accounts of the case; secondary accounts of the case; and background information on Africa, Cuba, the slave-trade, similar cases, slavery in the United States, and abolitionist sentiment in the North.

Papers of the American Slave Trade, provides scholars with access to primary source material on the business aspect of the trade in human beings. The collection documents the international slave trade in Britain’s New World colonies and the United States from 1718 to the trade’s demise after 1808. There are multiple series accompanied by printed guides. The printed guides are also available online.

Part one centers on Jamaica, c1765-1848. It includes the Taylor and Vanneck-Arcedekne Papers from Cambridge University Library and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Highlights include the correspondence and papers of West Indian agents, correspondence and accounts of London agents concerning Jamaica, and materials covering the Maroon and French wars, slave revolts, the treatment of colonists by the British government, births, deaths, marriages, inheritances, debts and family quarrels. A detailed guide is available online.

Correspondence, business and personal papers, volumes and pamphlets, diaries, family papers, planation records, and miscellanea of families and individuals in Louisiana and the Mississipppi Valley. The effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction, emancipation, and social and economic change in the South are documented in nineteen separate collections. An unpublished finding aid is available.

Reproduces a collection of nearly 3,000 petitions assembled over a period of ten years by the Race and Slavery Petitions Project, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Documents were drawn from state archives in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The digital compliment to this project is now availableonline.

The collection includes about 73 microfilm reels and several printed guides. Documents cover plantations in Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Also included are the Albert A . Batchelor papers, Weeks Family Papers, Hammond Family Papers, 1866 - 1907, and Hammond Bryan Cummings Papers, 1866-1920.

Agents within the Office of the Secretary of the Interior were authorized by the Secretary of the Navy to receive any “Negroes, mulattos, or persons of color” found aboard vessels seized off the coast of Africa and relocate them to what is now known as Liberia. Ten microfilm reels, based on the originals held at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. These documents and several related collections are now available in full online.

Emancipation papers resulting from the Act of April 16, 1862 and July 12, 1862; and manumission papers, 1857-1863, and fugitive slave case papers, 1851-1863. There are 3 reels, accompanied by a printed guide.

The records consist of registers, letters, reports, and newspaper clippings received by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872. There are 74 microfilm reels and a published finding aid. Additional Freedmen’s Bureau records are available for Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

The records consist of correspondence, account books, minutes, attendance registers, and papers from the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, the Aborigines’ Protection Society, and the Mico Charity. There are 59 microfilm reels and a list available in Microform Reference. A smaller collection, Rhodes House Selected Anti-Slavery Papers, 1836-1868, is also available.

The papers consist of selected manuscripts from the Public Archives Record Center, Canada. Included are P.A.R.C. File No. 297-1-21, “Enlistment of Colored Men in the Canadian Militia,” and the Rev. William King Papers, M.G. 28/127. The King papers include three files: his “Auto biography”, “Correspondence”, and the “Buxton Mission and Elgin Settlement.” Part of this collection is available online.

Typewritten records prepared by the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938, of slave narratives from seventeen southern, border, and midwestern states. Arranged alphabetically by state. The bulk of these records are now available online.

Materials related to slave labor in skilled industries such as gold and coal mining, iron manufacturing, machine shop work, lumbering, quarrying, brick-making, tobacco manufacturing, shipbuilding, and heavy construction. Including over 150 microfilm reels, the collection is based on documents from the Duke University Library, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the Virginia Historical Society and the University of Virginia Library. More information is available online.

Slavery tracts and pamphlets from the West India Committee Collection, now housed at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Consists of 28 microfilm reels, including a list of titles and an index

The papers document the life of Southern women through diaries, correspondence with family and friends, and business correspondence and records. The primary focus of the papers and diaries is on home life. Among the frequently discussed topics are courtship, education, child rearing, marriage, and religion. Discussions of family business dealings and women’s thoughts on temperance, slavery, and women’s rights also appear in the collection. Printed guides are available online.

The records consist of statutes passed in fifteen states that deal with slavery, free blacks, and the broader issue of race. Also included are private laws, special acts, legislative resolutions, and state constitutions with subsequent revisions. A published guide is available.

The papers include correspondence, journal extracts, newspaper clippings, and printed material relating to Susan Walker’s activities as a teacher for the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society in Port Royal, South Carolina. Originals are in the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Congressman, abolitionist, and Radical Republican, Thaddeus Stevens emerged as a leader of the fight for emancipation and equal rights in the era of the Civil War. The papers include correspodence, speeches and resolutions, and legal and buisness papers. Accompanied by a printed guide.

Correspondence, sermons, speeches, missionary reports, writings, and printed matter of approximately three hundred nineteenth-century black abolitionists, documenting their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, and Scotland. The collection consists of 17 microfilm reels, drawn from numerous international archives. This collection is also available online.

The collection contains, 2,604 letters, 2,228 of which are from Lydia Maria Child. Topics include antislavery, politics, Childs’ professional writing experience, her work as an editor of a children’s magazine, her financial assistance to musicians and artists, feminism, and Child’s personal life. Recipients include Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Eliot, Margaret Fuller, Charles Dickens, James T. Fields, William Cullen Bryant and other prominent cultural figures.

Includes the Slave Journal of Humphrey Morice (1721-1730), Journal of Humphrey Morice (1708-1710), trading accounts, personal and business papers, and documents relating to British trade with Africa, America, and the West Indies. More information and a detailed research guide are available online.

The records include seven volumes compiled for publication by the Colored Troops Division of the Adjutant General’s Office. Material includes published and unpublished primary source documents. Originals at the National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C.

James Henry Hammond was a senator, governor, and plantation owner. His papers include correspondence, diaries, speeches, plantation manuals, account books, and scrapbooks pertaining chiefly to South Carolina and national politics in the three decades preceding the Civil War. There are 15 reels, accompanied by a printed guide.

The papers consist of the personal correspondence, financial and legal papers, plantation and slave records, and writings of the Allston, Blythe, and Pringle families of Georgetown County, South Carolina. The bulk of the material relates to the Allston family and, in particular, to Robert F. W. Allston, planter and governor of South Carolina from 1856-1858. Among the subjects discussed are plantations, slaves, rice planting, politics, and the Civil War.

The American Colonization Society was formed in Washington, DC, in 1817 to establish a colony in Africa for free people of color residing in the US. Most of the documents found here are letters between Liberia and representatives of the Society. Many cover fundraising issues relating to support and education in the newly-formed country. The collection consists of 324 microfilm reels. A majority of these documents are now available online at Fold3.

Freeborn Garrettson (1752-1827) became a Methodist minister due to the influence of Bishop Francis Asbury. He opposed slavery and freed his own slaves when he began his ministry. He was instrumental, along with Asbury, in organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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The Freedmen’s Aid Society was founded in 1866 as an agency of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Society established and maintained schools and colleges for former slaves in the postbellum South. This collection consists of 120 microfilm reels, based on the originals housed at the Woodruff Library at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Society originated in a bequest by Robert Boyle in 1691 for advancing religion amongst infidels. In 1794, the charity was reconstituted as “The Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands,” and in 1836, after the abolition of slavery, as “The Society for Advancing the Christian Faith in the British West-India Islands, and elsewhere, in the Dioceses of Jamaica, and of the Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, and in the Mauritius.” The papers document the Society’s activities from the 17th through the 20th centuries.

Established in Philadelphia in the 1700s by Richard Allen, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was the first black church to expand on a national level in the United States. These extensive records of the first AME church detail the establishment and daily operation of the church. The collection also contains committee meeting minutes, records of marriages and baptisms, financial records, receipts, lists of church officers, class roll books, records of committee activities, and other items. More information is available online.

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Correspondence, diaries, writings and other papers of John Pitkin Norton, professor of agricultural chemistry at Yale from 1846-1852. Norton’s diaries contain observations on slavery and abolition, the Amistad case, the Liberty Party, religion, and temperance, among other topics. Professor Norton was also closely associated with the early days of the Sheffield Scientific School and was a pioneer in the application of scientific principles and methods to agriculture.