LibGuides: Africana &amp; Black Studies: Slavery

Introduction

There is no doubt that slavery was the foundation of United States. We are still dealing with the legacy of it. In this section, you'll find resources for your studies on enslaved persons, both in the United States and abroad.

Specific Topics

The Atlantic Slave Trade by Herbert S. Klein
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780511900280
Publication Date: 2010-04-26
Dreams of Africa in Alabama : the Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America by Sylviane A. Diouf
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780195345544
Publication Date: 2007-02-01
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9781775416197
Publication Date: 2009-07-01
"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, written in 1789, details its writer's life in slavery, his time spent serving on galleys, the eventual attainment of his own freedom and later success in business. Including a look at how slavery stood in West Africa, the book received favorable reviews and was one of the first slave narratives to be read widely."
The slave trade : the history of the Atlantic slave trade, 1440-1870 by Hugh Thomas 1931-2017.
Call Number: HT975 .T56 2006
ISBN: 9780753820568
Publication Date: 2006
The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America (the Oxford W. E. B. du Bois) by Henry Louis Gates (Editor); W. E. B. Du Bois; Saidya Hartman (Introduction by)
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780199384358
Publication Date: 2007-01-01

Diagram of a slave ship
This diagram of the 'Brookes' slave ship, which transported enslaved Africans to the Caribbean, is probably the most widely copied and powerful image used by those who campaigned to end the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Traders knew that many of the Africans would die on the voyage and would therefore pack as many people as possible on to their ships - in total there were 609 enslaved men, women and children on board this ship. The conditions would have been appalling. Each person occupied a tiny space in the hold. In this case they had to lie in spaces just 10 inches high and were often chained or shackled together in pairs, making movement even more difficult. The cramped conditions meant that there were high incidences of diseases such as smallpox, measles, scurvy and dysentery. Because of the long distances involved food and water was rationed and always in short supply or ran out completely.
Documenting Slave Voyages
Led by Emory, a massive digital memorial shines new light on one of the most harrowing chapters of human history
Slave ships
Primary sources on slave ships from the British National Library.

African American Slave Narratives: An Anthology by Sterling Lecater Bland
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780313317187
Publication Date: 2001-06-30
The First Reconstruction by Van Gosse
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9781469660127
Publication Date: 2021
The Forgotten Fifth by Gary B. Nash
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780674041349
Publication Date: 2009-06-30
Servants of Allah by Sylviane A. Diouf
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780585317540
Publication Date: 1998-01-01
Slavery in the City by Clifton Ellis (Editor); Rebecca Ginsburg (Editor)
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780813940069
Publication Date: 2017-07-24

The Founding Fathers Views of Slavery
The institution of slavery – protected by law in all 13 American colonies when they declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776 – proved to be a difficult issue for the Founding Fathers
Freedom Narratives
Testimonies of West Africans from the Era of Slavery
The Slave Experience: Men, Women, and Gender
For black men and women, slavery was an equally devastating experience. Both were torn from homeland and family. Both were forced to perform grueling labor, subjected to mental and physical degradation, and denied their most basic rights. Enslaved men and women were beaten mercilessly, separated from loved ones arbitrarily, and, regardless of sex, treated as property in the eyes of the law.
Slavery in America
Slavery was deeply woven into the fabric of the United States and challenged the meaning of democracy. Enslaved people’s work formed an economic engine producing half of all U.S. exports and providing much of the financial capital and raw materials to spark industrialization. Bought and sold as property, enslaved people were valued at an estimated $2.7 billion in 1860.

Slavery in America and the World This link opens in a new window
This collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. It includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
Click here for support.

The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism by Julie Roy Jeffrey
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780807866849
Publication Date: 2000-11-09
Of One Blood by Paul Goodman
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780520926165
Publication Date: 1998-09-01
The Tragic Mulatta Revisited by Eve Raimon
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780813534824
Publication Date: 2004-11-30
Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a bondswoman of olden time : with a history of her labors and correspondence drawn from her "Book of Life" by Sojourner Truth; Jeffrey Stewart (Other)
Call Number: E185.97.T8 G55 1991
ISBN: 0195066383
Publication Date: 1991-04-18
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself by Frederick Douglass; Robert B. Stepto (Introduction by)
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780674034013
Publication Date: 2009-04-15

The Long History of Abolition in America
Slavery didn’t end in an instant, and it didn’t end in a vacuum. Emancipation was a long, protracted, painful process, built on over eight decades of debates, activism, and armed rebellion. It wasn’t a straight path – it was built on as much, if not more, grief and disappointment as it was on successful action. It was the very definition of people creating a foundation for a future that they would not see.

Black, Blue and Gray by James Haskins
ISBN: 9780689806551
Publication Date: 1998-02-01
Freedom's Journey by Donald Yacovone (Editor); Charles Fuller (Foreword by)
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9781569769935
Publication Date: 2004-02-01
Harriet Tubman by Jean M. Humez
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780299191238
Publication Date: 2006-02-06
Make Way for Liberty by Jeff Kannel
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780870209475
Publication Date: 2020-10-09

African-American Soldiers During the Civil War
In 1862, President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation opened the door for African Americans to enlist in the Union Army. Although many had wanted to join the war effort earlier, they were prohibited from enlisting by a federal law dating back to 1792. President Lincoln had also feared that if he authorized their recruitment, border states would secede from the Union. By the end of the war, approximately 180,000 African-American soldiers had joined the fight.
Black Soldiers in the American Civil War
Learn more about black soldiers in the American Civil War.
Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War
By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease.
Civil War “Contraband”
We think we know the story of the end of slavery in the United States: Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery with a stroke of his pen, and millions of enslaved men, women and children went forward happily into their new lives as freedpeople. But the reality wasn’t quite so sunny. From the moment the Union Army entered slaveholding territories, enslaved people “voted with their feet,” and fled to the perceived safety of the Union army. These men, women and children came to be known as “contraband,” and the army’s treatment of them reveals a more realistic – but perhaps gloomier – story of emancipation.

All Different Now by Angela Johnson; E. B. Lewis (Illustrator)
Call Number: E JOH
ISBN: 9780689873768
Publication Date: 2014-05-06
Juneteenth Jamboree by Carole Weatherford
Call Number: E WEA
ISBN: 9781880000182
Publication Date: 1995-10-01
Juneteenth Texas by Francis Edward Abernethy (Editor); Alan Govenar (Editor); Patrick B. Mullen (Editor)
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9781574410181
Publication Date: 1996-10-01

The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth
On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.
Juneteenth World Wide Celebrations
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
New York Times: What is Juneteenth?
On June 19, 1865, enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, were told they were free. A century and a half later, people in cities and towns across the U.S. continue to celebrate the occasion.
PBS: What Is Juneteenth?
While national black leaders continued to debate the importance of remembering other milestone anniversaries, the freed people of Texas went about the business of celebrating their local version of Emancipation Day. For them, Juneteenth was, from its earliest incarnations, as Hayes Turner and others have recorded, a past that was “usable” as an occasion for gathering lost family members, measuring progress against freedom and inculcating rising generations with the values of self-improvement and racial uplift. This was accomplished through readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, religious sermons and spirituals, the preservation of slave food delicacies (always at the center: the almighty barbecue pit), as well as the incorporation of new games and traditions, from baseball to rodeos and, later, stock car races and overhead flights.
A Proclamation on Juneteenth Day of Observance, 2021
On June 19, 1865 — nearly nine decades after our Nation’s founding, and more than 2 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation — enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally received word that they were free from bondage. As those who were formerly enslaved were recognized for the first time as citizens, Black Americans came to commemorate Juneteenth with celebrations across the country, building new lives and a new tradition that we honor today. In its celebration of freedom, Juneteenth is a day that should be recognized by all Americans. And that is why I am proud to have consecrated Juneteenth as our newest national holiday.

Inhuman Bondage by David Brion Davis
Call Number: E441 .D2495 2006
ISBN: 9780195140736
Publication Date: 2006-04-01
The Cultural Politics of Sugar by Keith A. Sandiford
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780521642330
Publication Date: 2000-07-10
Understanding Global Slavery by Kevin Bales
Call Number: EBOOK
ISBN: 9780520932074
Publication Date: 2005-11-07

Beyond 1619: Slavery and the Cultures of America
The Europeans who set up trade and settlements in the Americas beginning with Columbus’s voyage in 1492 saw slavery as an indispensable source of labor. African slavery was already part of the social construct and economy of Spain and Portugal and spreading to other parts of Europe. In Columbus’s trading center on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, it was the native Arawak Indians who were enslaved. Enslavement of native peoples in North and South America became common, not only in the case of Spanish merchants and settlers, but for other European settlers who learned the practice from the Spanish.
Bittersweet: Sugar, Slavery, Empire and Consumerism in the Atlantic World
What happens when you build an empire on sugar? Since the 18th century, sugar has been one of the most demanded commodities in the West. By the 1700s, technological advancements and production made sugar accessible to even some of the poorest Americans and Europeans, and imperial governments poured millions of dollars into the shaping of sugar colonies around the world. From the Caribbean to southeastern Africa to the Indian Ocean, sugar was king. But just as few today think on where their granulated white sugar comes from, those who consumed the White Gold between the 17th and 20th centuries knew little of the back-breaking, harsh, and unfree labor that went into producing that glorious sweetness, or the lengths to which their own governments went to float those potentially profitable sugar colonies. Empires built on sugar rotted away like teeth too long exposed to that sweetness.
Slavery in the Americas
The first Africans taken to the Americas went in small numbers, not directly from Africa, but via Spain and Portugal and the Atlantic sea islands. The development of Brazilian sugar plantations, however, created a growing demand for African slaves. Other Europeans settling their own colonies in the Caribbean and North America followed the Brazilian pattern and became slaveholders, creating profitable plantations that produced commodities for international markets.