Research Guides: AFS 365W|HIST 365W: Slavery and Abolition in Africa: Find Primary Sources (Newspapers and Digital Archives)

Primary Sources

Primary sources are firsthand accounts of events, recorded or produced by witnesses or recorders who were present at the time of the event or experienced the conditions being documented. Primary sources are characterized by their content, not their format. A primary source can be in a database, on microfilm, in print, etc.

Secondary sources are works that interpret or analyze an event or phenomenon. It is generally at least one-step removed from the event. Examples include scholarly or popular books and articles, reference books, and textbooks.

Digital Archives (Emory-Licensed)

African History and Culture Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia (1540-1921) This link opens in a new window
Contains books, pamphlets, almanacs, broadsides and ephemera related to the history of Africa. This collection is a subset of the database Afro-Americana Imprints.
British Online Archives This link opens in a new window
Contains documents related to British and world history across a wide variety of themes and periods.
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 This link opens in a new window
Access the UK’s correspondence relating to Africa between 1834 and 1966. Contains official documents on colonization, imperial expansion, indigenous resistance, and more.
Empire Online This link opens in a new window
Access primary documents relating to Empire Studies. The images are sourced from libraries and archives around the world, including the British Library.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Contains documents and collections covering the period 1490-2007 on the topics of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social justice perspective, and the continued existence of slavery today.
Slavery and Anti-slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new window
Contains archival documents related to slavery in the Atlantic World.
Voyages: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database This link opens in a new window
Provides comprehensive data on the Atlantic slave trade, including information on ships, crew, slave cargo, and routes along with maps and other resources.
Colonial Law in Africa, 1808-1919 This link opens in a new window
Colonial Law in Africa, 1808-1919: These African laws cover the abolition of slavery and World War 1. Originally known as the 'Government Gazettes', each item contains the colonial laws for the year they were published.
The legal records also include property for sale, probate records and bankruptcy notices. This is the first part of the three part series 'Colonial Law in Africa'. These items cover the Napoleonic Wars, the Boer War and the First World War. They also cover the abolition of the legal status of slavery. These gazettes were published alongside the African Blue Books of Statistics during the 19th and 20th centuries. The territories covered by the collection include Kenya, Nigeria (Lagos), Zambia (Northern Rhodesia), Malawi (Nyasaland), Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), The Gambia, Ghana (Gold Coast), Uganda, Tanzania (Zanzibar).

Non-Emory Digital Archives

The Abolition of Slavery (The UK National Archives)

Endangered Archives Programme: History of Bolama, the first capital of Portuguese Guinea (1879-1941), as reflected in the Guinean National Historical Archives (EAP266)

In Motion: The TransAtlantic Slave Trade

National Library of France

Recovered Histories: "Recovered Histories captures the narratives of the enslaved, enslavers, slave ship surgeons, abolitionists, parliamentarians, clergy, planters and rebels."

Slavery and Manumission Manuscripts of Timbuktu: "Digitized versions of approximately 200 19th-century manuscripts (in Arabic) relating to slavery and manumission in Timbuktu. These provide documentation on Africans in slavery in Muslim societies."

The Slave Route: UNESCO : "Since its launch in 1994, the UNESCO "Routes of Enslaved Peoples: Resistance, Liberty and Heritage" Project has contributed to the production of innovative knowledge, the development of high-level scientific networks and the support of memory initiatives on the theme of slavery, its abolition and the resistance it generated."

Digitized Images and Other Primary Resources (Non-Emory)

Africa Focus Digital Collection
"Africa Focus Digital Collections is the largest collection of Africa images and sound clips freely available on the web. The collection contains more than 3000 images, 50 hours of sounds from forty-five different countries, and rare texts."
Africana Historic Postcard Collection
"The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 2000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960."
Africa Online Digital Library
"AODL is an open access digital library of African cultural heritage materials created by Michigan State University in collaboration with museums, archives, scholars, and communities around the world."
Africa Through a Lens:
"Explore incredible photographs spanning over 100 years of African history, from the 1860s onwards, taken from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office photographic collection (CO 1069). The full collection can be seen on Flickr, where you can add comments and tags."
Archive of Malian Photography
"Archive of Malian Photography provides access to preserved & digitized collections of five important photographers in Mali."
Basel Mission Archives
"Provides access to a large selection of digitised visual and cartographic material as well as comprehensive catalogue data from the Basel Mission Archives: some 30’000 images, 6’700 maps, sketches and plans, and detailed references to our manifold written records. The website is an interactive search tool for the public at large and the international scientific community, opening up avenues into a major resource base for 19th and 20th century history. "
British Library Images Online
"Images Online is the picture library of the British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom."
Digital Collections, National Library of South Africa
Materials from the National Library of South Africa.
Kolonialbibliothek (Goethe Universitat)
"During the second half of the 19th century numerous societies arose that concerned themselves with caring for German emigrants, and spreading of colonial ideas. The colonial library consists of the libraries of several colonial societies. The most important was the "German Colonial Society" (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft, DKG) founded in 1887. For their propaganda activities its members collected not only books (ca. 15 000) and journals, but also more than 50 000 photographs, which were used to illustrate their publicity lectures in Germany."
Philip Curtin Collection
Provides access to photographs from Senegambia (Prof. Philip Curti). This collection is part of the African Online Digital Library.
Reparto Africa Orientale Italiana (1935-1938)
Provides access to materials related to Italy's colonial enterprise in Ethiopia.
Winterton Collection of East African Photographs
"The Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs: 1860-1960 documents the African colonial era to the dawn of independence."

African Newspapers

African Newspapers: The British Library Collection This link opens in a new window
African Newspapers: The British Library Collection features 64 newspapers from throughout Africa, all published before 1901.
African Newspapers: The British Library Collection includes publications from Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritius and Saint Helena, as well as deep new coverage of Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Africa produced comparatively few newspapers in the 19th century, each page in this collection is significant, offering invaluable insight into the people, issues and events that shaped the continent. Through eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements. obituaries and military reports, the newspapers in this one-of-a-kind collection chronicle African history and daily life as never before. Students and researchers will find news and analysis covering the European exploration of Africa, colonial exploitation, economics, Atlantic trade, the mapping of the continent, early moves towards self-governance, the growth of South Africa and much more.
World Newspaper Archive : African Newspapers, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Contains newspapers published between 1800 and 1922 in various countries in Africa, including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and more.
World Newspaper Archive : African Newspapers, Series 2 This link opens in a new window
Second series of African Newspapers includes 40 additional African newspapers published between 1835 and 1925. Titles from Algeria, Angola, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda are included.

European Newspapers

Gale Primary Sources: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
Collection Includes material on East India Company.of early English news media gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817). Includes newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, and books.
Gale Primary Sources: British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This database consists of full-text national and regional newspapers from Victorian Britain, digitized from the collection of the British Library. It is the sister product to 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers (1604-1800).
British Periodicals I: 17th-20th centuries This link opens in a new window
Contains journals, periodicals, and printed volumes. Featured topics include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences.
More than 160 journals. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences.
The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003) This link opens in a new window
The Guardian (1821-2003) and its sister paper, The Observer (1791-2003) give readers online access to facts, firsthand accounts, and opinions of the day about the most significant and fascinating political, business, sports, literary, and entertainment events from the past two centuries.
From Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo to the Russian Revolution to Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, these British historical newspapers bring history to life for researchers. Users can study the progression of issues over time by browsing issues of The Guardian and its sister paper, The Observer, which offer coverage of 1821-2003 and 1791-2003, respectively, including news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more.
Sunday Times Digital Archive, 1822-2021 This link opens in a new window
Contains issues of the Sunday Times newspaper starting from London, UK 1822.
**Advanced search by index types: Entire document, article title, author, page number, issue number, document number or keyword **Browse by issue
The Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Full page and article images of the Times (London) with searchable full text, including searchable advertisements and photographs, back to the first issue.
The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. This archive does not include the Sunday Times, a newspaper independent of the Times. Coverage: 1785-1985. (Use Nexis Uni for Times issues July 1, 1985 to present)

Caribbean Sources

Caribbean History and Culture, Imprints from the Library Company of Philadelphia (1535-1920) This link opens in a new window
Access documents related to the history of the Caribbean Islands, including books, pamphlets, almanacs, and more. This collection is a subset of Afro-Americana Imprints.
Caribbean Newspapers. Series 1, 1718-1876: From the American Antiquarian Society This link opens in a new window
Access newspapers from the Caribbean from 1718 to 1876 in full text.
Caribbean Colonial Statistics from the British Empire, 1824-1950 This link opens in a new window
Caribbean colonial statistics from the British Empire, 1824-1950: These Caribbean statistics cover the transition from slavery to World War 2.
For the most part these statistical records cover the years from 1839 to 1938, although some records commence from 1824 and others continue until 1950. The records for each colony are prefaced by a brief introduction to that colony. The population returns are published alongside education reports, while grants of land reveal who held the colonial wealth. Imports and exports are joined by prison records which reveal what the crimes were at that time. As these records are published together, the reader can compare the living conditions and access to services across colonies. The imperial statistics in this collection are listed by year for ease of reference. The territories covered by this resource include Antigua, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Guiana, British Honduras, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher (Kitts), St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, Tortola, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Virgin Islands (British).

Google Advanced Book Search

You can find entire books for download that are out of copyright.
A great resource for finding books written during the historical time period you are interested in.