This page includes selected resources available at the Library and elsewhere. The resources below are intended to be a representative collection of resources.
Primary sources are first-hand accounts that were created during the time period being researched or were written at a later date by someone who was a witness to the events.
Some examples of primary sources include journals, diaries, autobiographies, interviews, speeches, news footage, photographs, and articles published during the time period being researched.
In addition to the databases below, the other databases recommended in this guide often contain primary source materials along with secondary sources.
Collection of approximately 1,600 primary source documents focusing on the African American experience from pre-Civil War to contemporary times.
Chronicling America provides access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages.
A portal to the collections of America's archives, libraries, and museums. Millions of digitized images, documents, and objects from throughout the country's history. An exhaustive collection of primary source materials.
This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. The library has hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery—defending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it, including an expansive slavery collection from Buffalo Erie County Public Library.
Additional web resources
For historical topics about Hawaii search the following
A "Database of Databases” consisting of varied collections of data pertaining to historically and culturally significant places, events, and documents in Hawai'i’s history." (OHA)