Atlantic Studies

"The remarkably diverse subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, theater and music programs, stock certificates, menus and invitations documenting civic, political and private celebrations."

"Pamphlets represent a genre of printed materials written by authors from an unusually large socio-economic range. Few Americans in the 19th century could afford to publish bound books; however, many more had the means to print pamphlets. As with broadsides and other ephemeral items, pamphlets are a hard-to-find class of primary source materials, rarely collected and catalogued. More so than the heavily researched more traditional print genres, they offer scholars and students in American history, culture and contemporary life fresh opportunities for insight into a wide spectrum of American society."

"Covering the period 1606 to 1822, CO 5 constitutes the original correspondence of the the colonial governments with the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, together holding responsibility for the British possessions in mainland North America and the Caribbean."

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 has been hailed as one of the most important collections ever produced on microform. Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans and enhanced by Roger Bristol's Supplement to Evans' American Bibliography, the collection was first published by Readex in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society (AAS).
Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819) provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century. The continuation of Readex's Early American Imprints: Series I, this rich primary source database, based on the authoritative bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker and now supplemented by thousands of new items, allows students and scholars to explore the development of the American nation as never before.
Supplements to Series I and Series II
"From the acclaimed holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia comes a broad range of recently uncovered books, pamphlets and broadsides, most of which were not included in Charles Evans' monumental work, Roger Bristol's supplement, or Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker's American Bibliography. Printed during a 130-year period spanning the colonial era and the formation of the new nation, these nearly 2,000 rare and unique items represent a remarkable enrichment of the Readex digital edition of Early American Imprints.
Among these are guide books to the perplexities of life, which served to shape individual and community identities. The pamphlets, often containing writing of considerable significance, present sermons, religious tracts, political arguments, reports of organized bodies and other influential items. The broadsides- which capture a slice of life, unedited for posterity-include doggerel ballads, advertisements, official decrees, news extras, amateur elegies and more."

"British Periodicals Collection I consists of more than 160 journals that comprise the UMI microfilm collection Early British Periodicals, the equivalent of 5,238 printed volumes containing approximately 3.1 million pages. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences."
"British Periodicals Collection II consists of more than 300 journals from the UMI microfilm collections English Literary Periodicals and British Periodicals in the Creative Arts together with additional titles, amounting to almost 3 million pages. Topics covered include literature, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture."

"Long awaited in fully searchable form, The American Slavery Collection addresses every facet of American slavery—one of the most important and controversial topics in U.S. history. These diverse materials, all filmed in full-resolution color, include books, pamphlets, graphic materials, and ephemera; among them are a large number of invaluable Southern imprints.
Coverage spans the Missouri Compromise and the founding of Liberia as a colony for blacks fleeing America; the rise and suppression of abolitionist activities; the first National Anti-Slavery Society Convention in 1837 and the Compromise of 1850; the Emancipation Proclamation and the establishment of “Redeemer” state governments; the birth of “Jim Crow” and the expansion of segregation through the early 1920s. Subjects covered include religion, freedmen, suffrage, insurrections, the slave trade and many others. Genres range from personal narratives to children’s literature to black authors, including Denmark Vesey, Olaudah Equiano, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles Ball, and dozens more."

"Included in the collection are such types of primary documents as:

-- Correspondence of major African American leaders
-- Speeches, sermons, and lectures
-- Articles, essays, editorials, and other major writings from more than 200 newspapers: African American, abolitionist, and reform newspapers
--Receipts, poems, and other miscellaneous documents"


Available on the ProQuest platform. The Chadwyck Healey platform is no longer available.

formerly called "LexisNexis Congressional"
Contents include:
- Legislative Histories, 1969+
- Bills & Laws, 1987+
- Committee Prints & Misc. Publications, 1789+
- Congressional Record & Predecessors, 1789+
- CRS Reports, 1916+
- Hearings, 1824+
- House & Senate Documents, 1789+
- House & Senate Reports, 1789+
- Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1939

"This database contains:
-- 5.4 million cross-searchable pages: 12049 books, 170 serials, 71 manuscript collections, 377 supreme court records and briefs and 194 reference articles from Macmillan, Charles Scribner's Sons and Gale encyclopedias.
-- Links to websites, biographies, chronology, bibliographies, and information on key collections, to give users background and context for further research.
-- Collections published through partnerships with the Amistad Research Center, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library, the National Archives in Kew, Oberlin College, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the University of Miami, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and many other institutions."

Collections include:
-- Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery & The Negro, Edited By Helen Tunnicliff Catterall
-- Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States by John Codman Hurd
-- Race, Slavery, And Free Blacks Series I: Petitions to Southern Legislatures, 1777–1867
-- Race, Slavery, And Free Blacks Series II: Petitions to Southern County Courts, 1777–1867. Part A: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Part B: Delaware, District of Columbia, and Maryland. Part C: Virginia and Kentucky. Part D: North Carolina and South Carolina. Part E: Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. Part F: Louisiana (1775–1867)
-- State Slavery Statutes (1789–1865)

"...a digital collection of over 600 documents in 75,000 pages selected by Vernon Burton and Troy Smith from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and drawn from the Sabin collection and other Gale sources. This project documents key aspects of the history of slavery in America from its origins in Africa to its abolition, including materials on the slave trade, plantation life, emancipation, pro-slavery and anti-slavery arguments, the religious views on slavery, etc."

Search the Voyages Database - Look for particular voyages in this database of documented slaving expeditions. Create listings, tables, charts, and maps using information from the database.
Examine Estimates of the Slave Trade - Slaves on documented voyages represent four-fifths of the number who were actually transported. Use the interactive estimates page to analyze the full volume and multiple routes of the slave trade.
Explore the African Names Database - This database identifies 91,491 Africans taken from captured slave ships or from African trading sites. It displays the African name, age, gender, origin, country, and places of embarkation and disembarkation of each individual.