UCF Research Guides: Africana Studies: Databases

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Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)
This multi-disciplinary database provides active full text for more than 8,500 journals, including active full text for over 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.
America: History & Life (EBSCOhost)
America: History and Life is the definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from as far back as 1910, this database is without question the most important bibliographic reference tool for students and scholars of U.S. and Canadian history.
Historical Abstracts (EBSCOhost)
Historical Abstracts is an exceptional resource that covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more - essential for libraries supporting upper-division and graduate research. This authoritative database provides indexing of more than 2,300 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955. History and social science researchers have used Historical Abstracts to discover significant and groundbreaking work for more than 50 years.
JSTOR
Full text of research journals and eBooks from numerous publishers. For most of the journal content, we can access all but the 3 to 5 most recent years of the journal.
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCOhost) (1926+)
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations, with links to full text in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other resources. The database also includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus, a proprietary, searchable collection of thousands of subject terms, and personal names used in indexing the bibliography.
Project MUSE (Johns Hopkins University)
a unique collaboration between libraries and publishers providing 100% full-text, affordable and user-friendly online access to over 300+ high quality humanities and social sciences journals from over 60 scholarly publishers.

Research Areas:
- Area & Ethnic Studies
- Art & Architecture
- Creative Writing
- Education
- Film, Theater, & Performing Arts
- History
- Language & Linguistics
- Library Science & Publishing
- Literature
- Medicine & Health
- Music
- Philosophy
- Religion
- Science, Technology, & Mathematics
- Social Sciences
- Studies by Time Period
- Women's Studies, Gender, & Sexuality

Primary Sources -- African

Apartheid South Africa 1948-1980 (Adam Matthew)
"makes available British government files from the Foreign, Colonial, Dominion and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices spanning the period 1948 to 1980.

The launch of apartheid policies by the National Party in 1948 heralded 40 years of legally entrenched white dominance over South African politics, society and business. Punitive restrictions placed on travel, education, work and political activism instigated the formation of organisations such as the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), saw support increase for the Communist Party and fuelled the growth of international anti-apartheid organisations.

These previously restricted letters, diplomatic dispatches, reports, trial papers, activists’ biographies and first-hand accounts of events give unprecedented access to the history of South Africa’s apartheid regime. The files explore the relationship of the international community with South Africa and chart increasing civil unrest against a backdrop of waning colonialism in Africa and mounting world condemnation."

Includes:
-British diplomatic dispatches between London and Pretoria and between London and British posts across Africa
-Biographies of prominent political figures, activists, detainees and victims of apartheid
-Cuttings, transcriptions and translations of press reports, including many from Afrikaans newspapers
-Reports detailing visits to South Africa from UK and US politicians and vice versa
-Letters and telegrams from government departments and officials and from private individuals
-Minutes of ministerial meetings
-Annual reports detailing events in South Africa and neighboring countries during the previous year
-Political, economic and military analyses
-Statistical tables
-Police and embassy investigation reports
-Published booklets, leaflets, propaganda etc.
-Maps, including regional and tribal authority areas, mineral-production areas (including gold) and Bantustans
Confidential Print: Africa, 1834-1966 (Adam Matthew)
"The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research.

The series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad.

The documents in Confidential Print: Africa begin with coastal trading in the early nineteenth century and the Conference of Berlin of 1884 and the subsequent Scramble for Africa. They then follow the abuses of the Congo Free State, fights against tropical disease, Italy’s defeat by the Abyssinians, World War II, apartheid in South Africa and colonial moves towards independence. Together they cover the whole of the modern period of European colonisation of the continent from the British Government’s perspective."

Primary Sources -- Cultural

African American Communities (Adam Matthew)
"Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity."
Black Drama: Third Edition (Alexander Street)
"Black Drama, now in its expanded third edition, contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print. More than 40 percent of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others."
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century (ProQuest)
Collections include: Federal Government Records & Supplement; and Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Parts 1 and 2, and NAACP papers.

The focus of the Federal Government Records & Supplements modules is on the political side of the freedom movement, the role of civil rights organizations in pushing for civil rights legislation, and the interaction between African Americans and the federal government in the 20th century. Major collections include the FBI Files and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, detailing the interaction between civil rights leaders and organizations and the highest levels of the federal government.

The Organizational Records and Personal Papers parts 1 and 2 bring a new perspective to the Black Freedom Struggle via the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle.
Black Life in America Series I and II (Readex)
"From the early days of slavery to modern times, people of African descent have had a profound impact on American history. This primary source collection offers an expansive window into centuries of African American history, culture and daily life—as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent."

"This collection covers many topical categories such as slavery and flights to freedom, voting rights and voter suppression and disenfranchisement, segregation and civil rights, prejudice and discrimination and activism and protest movements."

"The content in this database is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications.

What time period does it cover?
From the early 18th century to the early 21st – from pre-Revolution America to the modern era."
Black Thought and Culture (Alexander Street)
"Black Thought and Culture provides approximately 100,000 pages of monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to the present. The collection is intended for research in black studies, political science, American history, music, literature, and art. The collection begins with the works of Frederick Douglass and is targeted to include the works of W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Alain Locke, Mary McLeod Bethune, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Bunche, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis,Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, Jesse Jackson, Ida B. Wells, Bobby Seale, Cornel West, Michael Eric Dysonand many others. When complete, the collection will include the first-ever complete full run of the Black Panther newspaper."
Race Relations in America (Adam Matthew)
"Explore three pivotal decades in the struggle for civil rights in America through the eyes and work of sociologists, activists, psychologists, teachers, ministers, students and housewives...Sourced from the records of the Race Relations Department of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, housed at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, this resource provides access to a wealth of documents highlighting different responses to the challenges of overcoming prejudice, segregation and racial tensions. These range from survey material, including interviews and statistics, to educational pamphlets, administrative correspondence, and photographs and speeches from the Annual Race Relations Institutes"

Includes audio, video, primary source documents and photographs, maps, and more.

Key themes covered include:
-Desegregation of schools, industries and public transport
-Migration of African Americans from the rural South to urban centers
-The role of the Church in the Civil Rights Movement
-Race riots and other racial tensions
-Activities of the Civil Rights Movement

Primary Sources -- Early American

American Pamphlets, Series 1, 1820-1922
"Created in partnership with the New-York Historical Society, this invaluable collection of digitized pamphlets from one of the world’s leading historical societies opens up a new world of research materials for scholars and students in such disciplines as history, communications, political science, literature, sociology, gender and ethnic studies."

"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."
American Periodicals (ProQuest) (1741-1940)
This database contains full text copies of periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.
Evans Digital: Early American Imprints, Series I, 1639-1800
consists of more than 37,000 books, pamphlets and broadsides.
See also America's Historical Imprints which includes Shaw-Shoemaker and two other supplements to the Evans Collection.

"For decades, the collection has served as a foundation set for research involving early American history, literature, philosophy, religion, and more. Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 is the definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable."
HarpWeek: The Civil War Era Reconstruction I & II (1857-1912)
The 56 years of Harper’s Weekly provide a continuous record of what happened on a weekly basis from 1857 through 1912.
- Civil War Era: 1857-1865
- Reconstruction: 1866-1871 & 1872-1877
- Gilded Age: 1878-1912
Historical Statistics of the United States (Cambridge) (1600-2000)
a compendium of statistics from over 1000 sources includes over 37,000 data series.

Population: Population Characteristics, Vital Statistics, Internal Migration, International Migration, Family & Household Composition, Cohorts, American Indians
Work & Welfare: Labor, Slavery, Education, Health, Economic Inequality & Poverty, Social Insurance & Public Assistance, Nonprofit, Voluntary & Religious Entities
Economic Structure & Performance: National Income & Product, Business Fluctuations & Cycles, Prices, Consumer Expenditures, Saving, Capital & Wealth, Geography & the Environment, Science, Technology & Productivity, Business Organization, Financial Markets & Institutions
Economic Sectors: Agriculture, Natural Resource Industries, Construction, Housing & Mortgages, Manufacturing, Distribution, Transportation, Communications, Services & Utilities
Governance & International Relations: Government Finance & Employment, Elections & Politics, Crime, Law Enforcement & Justice, National Defense, Wars, Armed Forces & Veterans, International Trade & Exchange Rates, Outlying Areas, Colonial Statistics, Confederate States of America
Shaw-Shoemaker: 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.
From Aaron Burr to Zebulon Pike, from abolitionism to Tippecanoe, this unique Web-based collection thoroughly chronicles the people, ideas and events behind the early political, social, cultural and geographic growth of the United States. Researchers can study the emergence of American arts and literature, follow the progression of American economic, religious and scientific thought, track the westward expansion, and much more. Specific topics covered include the Adams-Onis Treaty, Bible societies, canals, the Embargo Act, fur trade, Hartford Convention, Lewis & Clark expedition, Louisiana Purchase, nationalism, Panic of 1819, romanticism, Seminole War, Treaty of Ghent, 12th Amendment, U.S. Military Academy, War of 1812, widows and wives, and thousands of others. Also included are the works of many European authors reprinted for the American public.
In addition to its books, pamphlets and broadsides, this comprehensive collection features many state papers and government materials, including published reports; presidential letters and messages; congressional, state and territorial resolutions.

Primary Sources -- Newspapers

Baltimore Afro-American (ProQuest Historical) (1893-2010)
"Founded by former slave John Henry Murphy, Sr. when he merged three church publications, The Baltimore Afro-American became one of the most widely circulated African-American newspapers on the Atlantic Coast. In addition to featuring the first black female reporter (Murphy’s daughter) and female sportswriters, the paper’s contributors have included writer Langston Hughes, intellectual J. Saunders Redding, artist Romare Bearden, and sports editor Sam Lacy, whose column influenced the desegregation of professional sports. Through the decades, the newspaper fought for equal employment rights, urged African-American participation in politics, and advocated state-funded higher education for blacks. In the 1930s, The Afro-American launched “The Clean Block” campaign, which is still in existence today, to clean up inner-city neighborhoods and fight crime. It stationed correspondents in Europe and the Pacific during World War II, providing first-hand reports to readers. In the 1950s, working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the newspaper’s efforts contributed to the outlawing of public school segregation."
Chicago Defender (ProQuest Historical) (1909-2010)
"The Chicago Defender has been a leading voice of the black community well beyond the Windy City, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside Chicago. The newspaper was a proponent of The Great Migration, the move of over 1.5 million African Americans from the segregated South to the industrial North from 1915 to 1925. It reported on the Red Summer race riots of 1919 and editorialized for anti-lynching legislation and the integration of blacks into the U.S. military. This newspaper also supported the aviation career of Bessie Coleman, the first African American female pilot, and promoted the writing of Langston Hughes, a poet and leader of the Harlem Renaissance, and Gwendolyn Brooks, poet laureate of Illinois."

Primary Sources -- Slavery & Abolition

American Slavery Collection, 1820-1922
"This digital edition of the American Antiquarian Society’s extraordinary holdings of slavery and abolition materials delivers more than 3,500 works published over the course of more than 100 years."

"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."
Black Abolitionist Papers (ProQuest)
"comprehensively detail(s) the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the massive, international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings and publications of the activists themselves. The approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of almost 300 Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany."

"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.
Slavery & Anti-slavery : A Transnational Archive (Gale)
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive is devoted to the study and understanding of the history of slavery in America and the rest of the world from the 17th century to the late 19th century. Archival collections were sourced from more than 60 libraries at institutions such as the Amistad Research Center, Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Archives, Oberlin College, Oxford University, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Yale University; these collections allow for unparalleled depth and breadth of content.

In its entirety, Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive consists of more than five million cross-searchable pages sourced from books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, legal documents, court records, monographs, manuscripts, and maps from many different countries covering the history of the slave trade. The archive is not just valuable to researchers in African history, but the wider scope of African studies and African-American studies

"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."
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice (Adam Matthew) (1490-2007)
"This resource is designed as an important portal for slavery and abolition studies, bringing together documents and collections covering an extensive time period, between 1490 and 2007, from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. Close attention is given to the varieties of slavery, the legacy of slavery, the social-justice perspective and the continued existence of slavery today."

"There is extensive coverage of topics such as the African coast; the Middle Passage; the varieties of slave experience (urban, domestic, industrial, farm, ranch and plantation); spiritualism and religion; resistance and revolts; the Underground Railroad; the abolition movement; legislation; education; the legacy of slavery and slavery today."
Slavery and the Law (ProQuest) (1775-1867)
"Slavery and the Law features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. These petitions were collected by Loren Schweninger over a four year period from hundreds of courthouses and historical societies in 10 states and the District of Columbia. The petitions document the realities of slavery at the most immediate local level and with amazing candor. Slavery and the Law also includes the important State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865."

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)
Slavery in America (Gale)
Introduction to U.S. History: Slavery in America is 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.

In addition to contextual essays and highlighted documents regarding the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad, the Secession, and the Fifteenth Amendment, this digital archive provides access to a wide variety of documents: personal narratives, pamphlets, addresses, political speeches, monographs, sermons, plays, songs, as well as poetic and fictional works published between the 17th and late 19th centuries.

"...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."