Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation

From Slavery to Freedom

The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas : A Visual Record	http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/ "The thousand of images in this collection have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery. This collection is envisioned as a tool and a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers, students, and the general public." This site is searchable by keywords or by categories, for instance: "Military Activities & U.S. Civil War" and "Emancipation & Post-Slavery Life."
History of Slavery Chronology Eddie Becker, compiler	http://innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html This is a detailed annotated chronology, with extensive documentation.
Africans in America Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)	http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html This website complements the PBS series Africans in America . The journey through slavery is presented in four parts. For each era, users are provided with a historical narrative, a collection of images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries, and a teacher's guide. The series is held by the University Libraries.
American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography	http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/asbio.html This resource is available to University faculty, staff, and students and onsite visitors. It is commonly known as the WPA Slave Narratives . Over 2,000 autobiographical narratives from former slaves in 17 states are included as part of this project, which was conducted under the auspices of the Work Projects Administration (WPA) and sponsored by the Library of Congress. Fully searchable by name, state, county and age, the collection and its index are complemented by public discussion forums, links to virtual syllabi, teaching resources, and curriculum guides. Web resources are also listed.
Slavery and the Making of America : The WPA Slave Narratives Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)	http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/resources/wpa.html This useful site leads to other sites that offer image and audio files. Some of the sites to which links are provided follow. The African-American Experience in Ohio , 1850-1920 features 27 interviews . "Been Here So Long": Selections from the WPA Slave Narratives includes lesson plans as does Slave Narratives: Black Autobiography in Nineteenth Century America . Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives offers readings by actors and personalities accompanied by photographs from the period.
American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology	http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.html This site offer some sample narratives and photographs taken at the time of the interviews. It offers advice on how to read the narratives and lists books that provide context. A list of related sites is provided. The site has not been revised since 1997. One sound file with text is provided.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 Library of Congress	http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html This collection "contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves ." The collection may be searched by keywords. Narratives may be browsed by narrator and volume. Photographs may be browsed by subject (individual interviewed and place) and all materials may be browsed by state.
Documenting the American South	http://docsouth.unc.edu/index.html The University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sponsors this site which archives texts and images. Among its components: North American Slave Narratives documents the story of the enslaved and their struggle for freedom and human rights across the centuries The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865 presents materials related to Southern life during the Civil War and the challenge of creating a nation state while waging war. This collection includes government documents, personal diaries, religious pamphlets, and many other materials. The Church in the Southern Black Community traces the way African Americans adopted and transformed Protestant Christianity in their struggle for freedom, power, and human dignity.
Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 Library of Congress	http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sthtml/sthome.html " Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States . The documents, most from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, comprise an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance. Of the cases presented here, most took place in America and a few in Great Britain . Among the voices heard are those of some of the defendants and plaintiffs themselves as well as those of abolitionists, presidents, politicians, slave owners, fugitive and free territory slaves, lawyers and judges, and justices of the U.S. Supreme Court." The collection is searchable by keywords and accessible through author, title, and subject indexes.
From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 Library of Congress	http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aapchtml/aapchome.html " From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 presents 396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics. The materials range from personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches." The collection may be searched by keywords and may be browsed by author, title, and subject.
Frederick Douglass Papers Library of Congress	http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/doughome.html " The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher. The release of the Douglass Papers, from the Library of Congress's Manuscript Division, contains approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images) relating to Douglass' life as an escaped slave, abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant. The papers span the years 1841 to 1964, with the bulk of the material from 1862 to 1895." The collection may be searched by keywords and may be browsed by series.
Freedmen's Bureau Online	http://www.freedmensbureau.com/ " The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands , often referred to as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, 1865 . The Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States , border states , District of Columbia , and Indian Territory ." This site may be searched by state and by keywords.
Freedmen and Southern Society Project	http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/fssphome.htm This resource includes sample documents from Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867 and a detailed emancipation chronology which includes hyperlinks to pertinent documents. The University Libraries hold the volumes in the series. Search under the series title.