Holt Library: Race Relations and Inclusivity: Historical Scholarly Information

Harriet Tubman

Harvey B. Lindsley, Portrait of Harriet Tubman, 1871-1876, photograph: matte collodion print sheet (13.7 x 8.7 cm.), The Library of Congress, The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Reference Databases to Search

General
The Civil War

American Rhetoric This link opens in a new window
Database of and index to 5000+ full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a declaration or two.
Black Past.org This link opens in a new window
Reference center dedicated to providing information to the general public on African American history and the history of more than one billion people of African ancestry around the world.
Black Past.org Primary Documents Search This link opens in a new window
Documents which have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These documents are a starting point for additional research and discussions that help further our understanding of the history of people of African ancestry in the United States.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938 This link opens in a new window
Includes more than 2,300 first-person accounts, and more than 500 photographs. The narratives were collected in the 1930s by the Federal Writer’s Project and the Works Progress Administration, and put into a seventeen volume set.
Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
Sponsored by the University Library of UNC Chapel Hill, this is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project This link opens in a new window
Published by Stanford University and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, the site provides access to the digitized version of the King Papers, as well as broad range of documents exploring Martin Luther Kings Life and the related historical movements. Includes lesson plans for teachers.

Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress This link opens in a new window
Approximately 20,000 documents, which include correspondence with enclosures of newspaper clippings, drafts of speeches, notes, pamphlets, and other printed material by Lincoln, are available. Most of the material dates from the presidential years. Lincoln had a lively correspondence with many people in his day, so this is a rich resource. Each piece is scanned, with accompanying transcription. Searchable by keyword or just browse the collection.
American Civil War Museum This link opens in a new window
The American Civil War Museum is home to one of the world’s most comprehensive and important collections of artifacts, documents and historic sites related to the Civil War and its legacies. It includes The Museum of the Confederacy Collection, which comprises in excess of 100,000 items including Confederate military artifacts, domestic items, photographs, documents, and more. The collection also features more than 3,000 items relating to African American history.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938 This link opens in a new window
Includes more than 2,300 first-person accounts, and more than 500 photographs. The narratives were collected in the 1930s by the Federal Writer’s Project and the Works Progress Administration, and put into a seventeen volume set.
Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
Sponsored by the University Library of UNC Chapel Hill, this is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Frederick Douglass Papers This link opens in a new window
A former slave and devout abolitionist, Douglass’s papers were digitized by the Library of Congress. They are searchable, and also can be browsed by date, and then narrowed by type, such as speeches or correspondence.
Making of America: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies This link opens in a new window
The Making of America site is an excellent source of primary documents, and this one features the orders, reports, and correspondence from the Union and Confederate navies. The scanned pages of the 30-volume set from the Government Printing Office are annotated and arranged chronologically. The collection is searchable. This is an essential resource for any study of naval operations in the war.
Slavery and Abolition in the U.S.: Select Publications of the 1800s This link opens in a new window
Reflecting both sides of the slavery question, these publications from the 1800s include speeches, tracts, pamphlets, books, legal proceedings, religious sermons, and personal accounts. This collection from a cooperative project by Millersville University and Dickinson College includes more than 24,000 individual pages.
Slaves and the Courts 1740–1860 This link opens in a new window
From the Library of Congress’s American Memory Project this site consists of trials and cases, arguments, proceedings, and other historical works of importance that relate to the prosecution and defense of slavery as an institution. The collection contains more than 100 pamphlets and books published between 1772 and 188
South Carolina and the Civil War This link opens in a new window
The site brings together primary sources by eyewitnesses from the holdings of the University of South Carolina. Included on the site are diaries, sheet music, maps, letters, and photographs. The collections are scanned and viewable, but with little transcription or description.
The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War This link opens in a new window
Thousands of documents are accessible that compare life in two towns during the war: one in Virginia (the South) and one in Pennsylvania (the North). These documents include letters, diaries, maps, newspaper accounts, and other sources.

Historical Books

Lies My Teacher Told Me : everything your American history textbook got wrong

Criticizes the way history is presented in current textbooks, and suggests a fresh and more accurate approach to teaching American history.

Race, War, and Remembrance in the Appalachian South

Among the most pervasive of stereotypes imposed upon southern highlanders is that they were white, opposed slavery, and supported the Union before and during the Civil War, but the historical record suggests far different realities. John C. Inscoe has spent much of his scholarly career exploring the social, economic and political significance of slavery and slaveholding in the mountain South and the complex nature of the region's wartime loyalties, and the brutal guerrilla warfare and home front traumas that stemmed from those divisions.

A Young People's History of the United States, Volume 1: Columbus to the Spanish-American War

A history of the United States from its beginnings to the early twenty-first century, as told from the point of view of ordinary people, including slaves and Native Americans, to reveal the violence, racism, and injustices which occurred during key events.

A Young People's History of the United States, Volume 2: Class Struggle to the War on Terror

Examines American involvement in the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century from the point of view of ordinary people as well as the policies and resistances that have characterized the war on terror and that shape the United States of America today. Includes a final chapter updating United States history to the present moment.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American.

The complete encyclopedia of African American history : 400 years of achievement

The Complete Encyclopedia of African American History 400 Years of Achievement

"My Mind Set on Freedom"

This is the story of the drive to free the American South from the shackles of legally sanctioned racial segregation. To chart the course of the American civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968 in fewer than 200 pages - and do it justice - is a remarkable accomplishment. This is what John Salmond has done, in a lively and compact narrative.

Enemies in Love: a German POW, a black nurse, and an unlikely romance

"This is the nonfiction love story of Elinor Powell, an African American army nurse, and Frederick Albert, a German prisoner of war. The two met when black army nurses were put in regular contact with German POWs who were detained in the United States during World War II, an unlikely and little-discussed circumstance during one of the most documented periods in history"-- Provided by publisher.

Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life

When you think of a map of the United States, what do you see? Now think of the Seattle that begot Jimi Hendrix. The Dallas that shaped Erykah Badu. The Holly Springs, Mississippi, that compelled Ida B. Wells to activism against lynching. The Birmingham where Martin Luther King, Jr., penned his most famous missive. Now how do you see the United States? Chocolate Cities offers a new cartography of the United States--a "Black Map" that more accurately reflects the lived experiences and the future of Black life in America. [publisher abstract]