Resources
Additional Historical Resources
No historical project stands alone. Those who find SLP useful are encouraged to browse this list for other historical databases, projects, and works that could be useful for them.
Resource Collections
American Revolution
American Archives | 1774 – 1776
Northern Illinois University Digital Library – Digitization of Peter Force’s American Archives, collection of pamphlets, booklets, and newspaper articles pertaining to the “Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America” from the Revolutionary Era.
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American Revolutionary War | 1775 – 1783 | 1725 – 1911
New York State Library – Troop rosters and other details extracted from muster and pay rolls, Loyalist records, colonial New York State history documents, military bounty land records, diaries, orderly books, personal papers of participants and broadsides.
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Founders Online
National Archives – Correspondence and other writings of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. Searchable documents, fully annotated, from the authoritative Founding Fathers Papers projects.
Learn MoreColonial Lives Record
Avalon Project
Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library – Colonial charters, grants and related documents.
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Belgique, Congo, Rwanda et Burundi : Guide des sources de l'histoire de la colonisation
Resource Guide for the History of Belgian Colonization of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Descriptions and contextualization of colonial archives kept in Belgium and their links with other collections.
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Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region | 1600 – 1925
Library of Congress – First-person narratives, early histories, historical biographies, promotional brochures, and books of photographs in an attempt to capture in words and pictures a distinctive region as it developed between the onset of European settlement and the first quarter of the twentieth century.
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Colonial and Revolutionary Boston | 1631 – 1805
Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library – The collection documents the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as well as the ensuing political, social, and financial crises that led to the American Revolution and the formation of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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Diary of Samuel Sewall | 1674 – 1729
Merchant, colonial magistrate, member of the Governor's Council, and diarist, Samuel Sewall (1652-1730) played a major role in the activities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for 56 years.
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DoHistory – Martha Ballard's Diary | 1785 – 1812
Explore the process of piecing together the lives of ordinary people in the past. It is an experimental, interactive case study based on the research that went into the book and film A Midwife's Tale, which were both based upon the remarkable 200-year-old diary of midwife/healer Martha Ballard.
Learn More
Early Caribbean Digital Archive
Northeastern University – pre-twentieth-century Caribbean texts, maps, and images. Texts include travel narratives, novels, poetry, natural histories, and diaries that have not been brought together before as a single collection focused on the Caribbean. The texts and images collected here tell the story of European imperial domination, and of the enslaved African and Indigenous American people whose lives, labor, and land shaped the culture and development of the Atlantic world.
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The Elizabeth Murray Project: A Resource Site for Early American History
Biographical resource site exploring themes in early American history, including letters, portraits, newspaper articles, and maps examining the documentary record of Elizabeth Murray.
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Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade
Browse datasets and interconnected data, generate visualizations, and explore short biographies of enslaved and freed peoples.
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French and Indian Wars Manuscripts
American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society – Diaries, letters, military records, and other materials that provide details about the experiences of men from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, England, and other locations who fought in the French and Indian Wars in North America. Most of these collections focus on the Crown Point Expedition, the Québec Campaign, and the Battle of Ticonderoga.
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Friendly Association Papers
TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections – Accounts of behind-the-scenes treaty negotiations; historical documents dating back to the early years of Pennsylvania related to work with Indigenous groups; the correspondence of Pemberton and others relating to fund-raising and the exigencies of Pennsylvania politics; and missives from Indian leaders, transcribed or otherwise transmitted by an intricate network of Indian "go-betweens" who maintained almost constant contact with the Association.
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Georgia Archives
Colonial Will Books
- Wills recorded in the Royal Colony of Georgia. These records are
from Record Group 049-01-005, Colony of Georgia – Will Books.
After Georgia became a royal colony in 1754, the governor acted as
ordinary or appointed an official to carry out such duties. The
ordinary probated wills, provided instructions to administrators
for the inventory and appraisal of an estate, and ensured that
administrators followed all legal requirements in settling the
estate. These wills are the official record copy transcribed into
volumes by the Ordinary.
Colonial Wills
- Wills probated in the Colony of Georgia. These records are from
Record Group 049-01-002, Colony of Georgia — Wills.
People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North
Historic Hudson Valley – Interactive documentary about the history of Northern colonial enslavement, cross-section of human stories emblematic of the lived experience of slavery in colonial America.
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Indian Converts
Experience Mayhew's history of the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard provides a rare look at the lives and culture of four generations of Native Americans in colonial America. Dividing his treatment into four sections—Indian Ministers, Good Men, Religious Women, and Pious Children—Mayhew details the books that different age groups were reading, provides insights into early New England pedagogy and childrearing practices, and describes each individual in terms of genealogy, religious practice, way of life, and place of residence.
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Investigating Indentured Servitude: Visualizing Experiences of Colonial America | 1771 – 1773
Details of indenture contracts, information about working people and immigrants who came to Philadelphia in the lead-up to the American Revolution. Interactive visualizations of data to examine indentured servitude in Colonial British North America through three themes: distance, gender, time. Personal stories of individual apprentices who entered into contracts to work as servants and apprentices.
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James Glen Papers | 1738 – 1777
University of South Carolina – The papers of colonial governor James Glen (1701-1777), who served as Governor of South Carolina from 1738 to 1756, include official government documents, papers concerning relations with Native American Indians, business papers relating to his ownership of a South Carolina rice plantation, and correspondence between Glen and South Carolina planter, John Drayton (1713-1779).
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North Carolina
>State Archives - Historically significant archival materials relating to North Carolina; of note is their transcription project on African American Education before 1950. >Colonial and State Records | 1886 – 1907 - Documents and materials from throughout the country and from several European repositories covering the earliest days of North Carolina's settlement by Europeans through the ratification of the United States Constitution.
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Slavery in New Netherland
New Netherland Institute – Digital exhibition of records on New Netherland's enslaved population and New York's history.
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Worlds of Change: Colonial North America
Harvard Library – Archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th- and 18th-century North America.
Learn MoreEmpire
Avalon Project
Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Law Library – Colonial charters, grants and related documents.
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Belgique, Congo, Rwanda et Burundi : Guide des sources de l'histoire de la colonisation
Resource Guide for the History of Belgian Colonization of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Descriptions and contextualization of colonial archives kept in Belgium and their links with other collections.
Learn More
Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region | 1600 – 1925
Library of Congress – First-person narratives, early histories, historical biographies, promotional brochures, and books of photographs in an attempt to capture in words and pictures a distinctive region as it developed between the onset of European settlement and the first quarter of the twentieth century.
Learn More
Colonial and Revolutionary Boston | 1631 – 1805
Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library – The collection documents the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as well as the ensuing political, social, and financial crises that led to the American Revolution and the formation of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Learn More
Diary of Samuel Sewall | 1674 – 1729
Merchant, colonial magistrate, member of the Governor's Council, and diarist, Samuel Sewall (1652-1730) played a major role in the activities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for 56 years.
Learn More
DoHistory – Martha Ballard's Diary | 1785 – 1812
Explore the process of piecing together the lives of ordinary people in the past. It is an experimental, interactive case study based on the research that went into the book and film A Midwife's Tale, which were both based upon the remarkable 200-year-old diary of midwife/healer Martha Ballard.
Learn More
Early Caribbean Digital Archive
Northeastern University – pre-twentieth-century Caribbean texts, maps, and images. Texts include travel narratives, novels, poetry, natural histories, and diaries that have not been brought together before as a single collection focused on the Caribbean. The texts and images collected here tell the story of European imperial domination, and of the enslaved African and Indigenous American people whose lives, labor, and land shaped the culture and development of the Atlantic world.
Learn More
The Elizabeth Murray Project: A Resource Site for Early American History
Biographical resource site exploring themes in early American history, including letters, portraits, newspaper articles, and maps examining the documentary record of Elizabeth Murray.
Learn More
Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade
Browse datasets and interconnected data, generate visualizations, and explore short biographies of enslaved and freed peoples.
Learn More
French and Indian Wars Manuscripts
American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society – Diaries, letters, military records, and other materials that provide details about the experiences of men from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, England, and other locations who fought in the French and Indian Wars in North America. Most of these collections focus on the Crown Point Expedition, the Québec Campaign, and the Battle of Ticonderoga.
Learn More
Friendly Association Papers
TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections – Accounts of behind-the-scenes treaty negotiations; historical documents dating back to the early years of Pennsylvania related to work with Indigenous groups; the correspondence of Pemberton and others relating to fund-raising and the exigencies of Pennsylvania politics; and missives from Indian leaders, transcribed or otherwise transmitted by an intricate network of Indian "go-betweens" who maintained almost constant contact with the Association.
Learn More
Georgia Archives
Colonial Will Books
- Wills recorded in the Royal Colony of Georgia. These records are
from Record Group 049-01-005, Colony of Georgia – Will Books.
After Georgia became a royal colony in 1754, the governor acted as
ordinary or appointed an official to carry out such duties. The
ordinary probated wills, provided instructions to administrators
for the inventory and appraisal of an estate, and ensured that
administrators followed all legal requirements in settling the
estate. These wills are the official record copy transcribed into
volumes by the Ordinary.
Colonial Wills
- Wills probated in the Colony of Georgia. These records are from
Record Group 049-01-002, Colony of Georgia — Wills.
People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North
Historic Hudson Valley – Interactive documentary about the history of Northern colonial enslavement, cross-section of human stories emblematic of the lived experience of slavery in colonial America.
Learn More
Indian Converts
Experience Mayhew's history of the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard provides a rare look at the lives and culture of four generations of Native Americans in colonial America. Dividing his treatment into four sections—Indian Ministers, Good Men, Religious Women, and Pious Children—Mayhew details the books that different age groups were reading, provides insights into early New England pedagogy and childrearing practices, and describes each individual in terms of genealogy, religious practice, way of life, and place of residence.
Learn More
Investigating Indentured Servitude: Visualizing Experiences of Colonial America | 1771 – 1773
Details of indenture contracts, information about working people and immigrants who came to Philadelphia in the lead-up to the American Revolution. Interactive visualizations of data to examine indentured servitude in Colonial British North America through three themes: distance, gender, time. Personal stories of individual apprentices who entered into contracts to work as servants and apprentices.
Learn More
James Glen Papers | 1738 – 1777
University of South Carolina – The papers of colonial governor James Glen (1701-1777), who served as Governor of South Carolina from 1738 to 1756, include official government documents, papers concerning relations with Native American Indians, business papers relating to his ownership of a South Carolina rice plantation, and correspondence between Glen and South Carolina planter, John Drayton (1713-1779).
Learn More
North Carolina
>State Archives - Historically significant archival materials relating to North Carolina; of note is their transcription project on African American Education before 1950. >Colonial and State Records | 1886 – 1907 - Documents and materials from throughout the country and from several European repositories covering the earliest days of North Carolina's settlement by Europeans through the ratification of the United States Constitution.
Learn More
Slavery in New Netherland
New Netherland Institute – Digital exhibition of records on New Netherland's enslaved population and New York's history.
Learn More
Worlds of Change: Colonial North America
Harvard Library – Archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th- and 18th-century North America.
Learn MoreInterdisciplinary Digital Humanities
European Association for Digital Humanities
Brings together and represents the Digital Humanities in Europe across the entire spectrum of disciplines that research, develop, and apply digital humanities methods and technology.
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Gateway to Early Modern Manuscript Sermons (GEMMS)| 1530-1715 | 1725 – 1911
A bibliographic database of early modern sermon manuscripts from the British Isles and North America; a finding aid for all types of manuscripts related to sermons, including complete sermons, sermon notes and reports of sermons, held in numerous repositories in the UK, Ireland, the USA and Canada.
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Georgian Papers Programme | 1714 – 1837
Interdisciplinary project to digitize, conserve, catalog, transcribe, interpret and disseminate 425,000 pages or 65,000 items in the Royal Archives and Royal Library relating to the Georgian period.
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Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS)
Bringing manuscript culture, modern technology and people together to bring access to and understanding of our intellectual heritage locally and around the world. A think-tank for manuscript studies in the digital age.
Learn MoreMedia
American Antiquarian Society Collection | 1750 – 1830
Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library – A selection of 140 rare maps from the American Antiquarian Society collection, covering eastern North America and the West Indies, with a focus on Massachusetts. These maps offer a unique glimpse into colonial geography and cartography.
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America in Caricature | 1765 – 1865
Indiana University – A unique collection of caricatures that highlight key moments of political and social tension in American history, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaigns.
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American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts | 1750 – 1789
Library of Congress – A detailed record of maps from the American Revolutionary era, documenting North America and the Caribbean, providing an invaluable resource for exploring the geographic and political landscapes of the period.
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American Revolutionary War-Era Maps | 1720 – 1973
Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library – Historical maps providing a geographical basis for understanding the colonial identity and landscapes of North America leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
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The John Carter Brown Library
Archive of early American images, books, maps, and political cartoons documenting America’s development and cultural heritage.
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North Carolina Maps | late 1500s – 2000
A comprehensive collection of over 3,000 maps of North Carolina, detailing the state’s geographic evolution from the late 1500s to the year 2000.
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Old Maps Online
An index of over 400,000 historic maps from various archives and libraries, allowing users to search maps by location and era.
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Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America | 1520 – 1820
Paintings, sculptures, architectural monuments, and objects from Spanish America, illustrating daily life and cultural traditions from the 16th to the early 19th century.
Learn MorePaleography
Anglo-American Legal Tradition Paleography Resources
University of Houston – A rich collection of documents from Medieval and Early Modern England, sourced from the National Archives in London. This resource is valuable for those interested in historical legal documents and early English paleography.
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English Paleography: Learn to Read Secretary Hand | late 15th – mid-17th century
This guide provides the basics of English secretary hand, aimed at making early modern English manuscripts accessible. It includes alphabet guides, letter forms, abbreviations, and practice exercises, formatted as a seven-day introductory course.
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Folgerpedia
Folger Shakespeare Library – A comprehensive resource for understanding early English handwriting. It includes tutorials, manuscript images, and guides for interpreting literary and historical documents from the early modern period.
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Paleography Tutorial
UK National Archives – An online tutorial designed to teach users how to read English handwriting from 1500 to 1800. This resource is ideal for those interested in historical research and paleography.
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Common abbreviation
Sometimes something looks like an abbreviation, but actually isn’t. Sometimes a word is abbreviated, but not according to any of the rules.
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Lesser Antilles
In the Same Sea: The Lesser Antilles as a Common World of Slavery and Freedom | 1650s – 1850s
University of Copenhagen – A study of the shared history of the Lesser Antilles, examining how inter-island connections from the 1650s to the 1850s unified the islands into a world shaped by both slavery and freedom.
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American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration
Comprehensive insights into the exploration of North America, covering six regions with information on cultural, geographical, and chronological aspects of early encounters between Europeans, Americans, and indigenous peoples.
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Barbary Wars at the Clements | 1783 – 1830
University of Michigan William L. Clements Library – Manuscripts, maps, books, and engravings documenting the United States’ early interactions with the Arab world and the growth of the U.S. Navy.
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On the Water: Stories from Maritime America | 1450 – 2000s
Smithsonian National Museum of American History – An exploration of America's maritime history, covering Atlantic trade, inland waterways, seafaring, fishing, and merchant activities across centuries.
Learn MoreSlavery & Abolition
Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy
Database of enslaved brought to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries. Includes documents from archives in France, Spain, and Texas. Information includes African slave names, genders, ages, occupations, illnesses, family relationships, ethnicity, places of origin, prices paid by slave owners, and slaves' testimony and emancipations.
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Antislavery Pamphlet Collection | 1725 – 1911
University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries – Printed pamphlets and books pertaining to slavery and antislavery in New England, 1725-1911. Includes speeches, sermons, proceedings and other publications of organizations such as the American Anti-Slavery Society and the American Colonization Society, and a small number of pro-slavery tracts.
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Black Abolitionist Archive
University of Detroit Mercy – Collection of speeches by antebellum blacks and editorials from the 1820s – Civil War, providing a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement.
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Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery
Database on research and analysis of slave owners to understand slavery’s role in shaping British history and present, research on the lives of enslaved people in the Caribbean.
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Charles F. Heartman Manuscripts of Slavery Collection | 1724 – 1897
Xavier University of Louisiana Library – Pieces dating from 1724 to 1897 relating directly to the social, economic, civil, and legal status of enslaved Negroes and Free People of Color in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans.
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Colored Conventions Project | 1830s – 1890s
Primary sources from the long conventions movement. Includes minutes, proceedings, newspaper articles, speeches, letters, transcripts, and images.
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Documenting the American South: North American Slave Narratives
Digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture. Includes autobiographical narratives of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books up to 1920.
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Freedom on the Move
Database of “runaway ads” posted in American colonies with details of individual lives–their personality, appearance, and life story. The ads constitute a rare source of information about the experiences of enslaved people.
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The Free Womb Project
Multilingual digital collection of laws legislating the gradual abolition of slavery through “Free Womb” decrees across the Atlantic World. Each law is translated and accompanied by a historical essay and reading list.
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Guide to the Slavery in North America Collection | 1752 – 1864
University of Chicago Library – Sources documenting slavery and the treatment of enslaved persons in the 18th and 19th centuries, primarily in the U.S. Includes bills of sale, letters, wills, and more.
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Log Book of Slave Traders | 1757 – 1758
Museum of Connecticut History – Nine pages from the logbook of Samuel Gould, a first mate or supercargo on three slave ships. Full logbook available to researchers at the State Library.
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Massachusetts Historical Society
Historical manuscripts and rare published works that serve as a window into the lives of African Americans in Massachusetts from the late 17th century through the abolition of slavery under the Massachusetts Constitution in the 1780s.
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Medford Slave Trade Letters | 1759 – 1765
Medford Historical Society and Museum – Series of letters from 1759 – 1765 between Timothy Fitch, a merchant and Medford resident, and his employee Peter Gwinn. The letters reveal the realities and truths of the Atlantic Slave trade and remain a historic link and witness to eighteenth-century human trafficking.
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Middelburgse Commercie Compagnie | 1761 – 1763
Zeeland Archives – Reconstruction of one triangular or slave voyage using authentic archive documents. The voyage can be followed from day to day. The “pivotal characters” of 252 years ago “report” the events on board and sometimes ashore, through the records they have left behind.
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Native Bound Unbound Project
Transcription project on primary source documents related to indigenous slavery, aiming to reclaim the voice of the millions of enslaved Indigenous people of the Americas, telling the stories of their lives through surviving historical documents.
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People of the Wye House | 1770 – 1826
Searchable database of the enslaved people of the Wye House Plantation, historic home since the mid-seventeenth century in Maryland. Aims to bring the lives of the enslaved peoples on the plantation through archaeological remains.
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Runaway Slaves in Eighteenth-Century Britain project
A searchable database of newspaper advertisements placed by masters and owners seeking the capture and return of enslaved and bound people who had escaped. Many were of African descent, though a small number were from the Indian sub-continent and a few were Indigenous Americans.
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Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice | 1753 – 1835
Brown University – Digital archive of varying historical documents, from the records of slaving voyages to personal correspondence to student commencement orations. Focus on university’s region.
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Slaves and the Courts collection | 1740 – 1860
Library of Congress – Mostly legal documents from the 19th century, including materials associated with the Dred Scott case and the abolitionist activities of John Brown, John Quincy Adams, and William Lloyd Garrison. 18th-century cases include Somerset v. Stewart, decided in England a few years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
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Slave Revolt in Jamaica | Cartographic Narrative | 1760 – 1761
Animated thematic map narrating the spatial history of the greatest slave insurrection in the 18th century British Empire, offers an interpretation of the military campaign’s spatial dynamics. Spurs thought about the importance of the landscape to the course of the uprising and the difficulty of representing such events cartographically with available sources.
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Slave Societies Digital Archive
Vanderbilt University – Endangered ecclesiastical and secular documents related to Africans and African-descended peoples in slave societies. Extensive serial records for the history of Africans in the Atlantic World, and also includes information about the indigenous, European, and Asian populations who lived alongside them.
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Slave Voyages
Compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Database of origins and forced relocations in the trans-atlantic world and Americas. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators, and much more.
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(Un)Silencing Slavery
Aims to respectfully and lovingly remember and hold space for the enslaved Africans and their enslaved African-born and Caribbean-born descendants who lived and labored at Rose Hall Plantation in Jamaica.
Learn MoreUnited States Legal
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation | 1774 – 1875
Library of Congress – A comprehensive collection of congressional records from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, offering insights into the legislative foundations of the United States.
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Avalon Project | 1700 – 1799
Yale Law School – An essential collection of legal documents addressing challenges such as slavery and freedom, featuring digitized historical records from the 18th century.
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O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family | 1800 – 1862
University of Maryland – Examines freedom suits and family networks in Washington, D.C., through archival cases filed by enslaved individuals seeking freedom, digitized for analysis and public access.
Learn MoreVocabulary
Race and Ethnicity Keyword Thesaurus for Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities – Demonstrations and explanations of search terms related to race and ethnicity in Chronicling America, terms used in the time period as compared to common, contemporary terms.
Learn MoreWikipedia: Original site of The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. A premier institution devoted to African Diaspora materials.