Library Resources for "Slavery in the Americas"

"Slavery in the Americas"
(History Resources > Web pages for history courses > Library Resources for "Slavery in the Americas")

I. IUCAT: Indiana University Libraries Catalog

Keyword-keyword anywhere searches are a good way to get a quick idea of what is available on your topic.

Terms in keyword searches should be connected with and

slavery and history and latin america

Tip: to find newspapers by the city of publication, use the code {752} in a keyword search:

atlanta {752}
buenos aires {752}

Keyword-subject searches often produce better results, but you need to know which Library of Congress subject headings to use. Some helpful subject headings:

african american dance
african americans music
african diaspora
blacks music history and criticism
latin america history wars of independence
latin american music history and criticism
slave insurrections
slave trade 
slavery and the church
slavery economic aspects
slavery law and legislation

Use Advanced Keyword Search to limit results by date, language or format .

II. Journal, Magazine, and Newspaper Indexes

Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life - World and American history from 1450 to the present. Historical Abstracts indexes about 2,000 journals; includes some books and dissertations. America: History and Life also indexes about 2,000 journals, and includes book reviews from about 100 journals. (Citations and abstracts)

Note: Latin America is covered by both America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts, with more in Historical Abstracts. If your topic involves both the United States and Latin America, be sure to search in both databases.
Advanced Search provides more search options. Select subject terms from the browsable index for best results.

Academic Search Premier - searchable database of journal and magazine articles in many subject areas. (Mostly full text; some images, but not always of good quality. Most sources are available in print in the IU Libraries: follow the search IUCAT for availability link at the end of the citation.)

JSTOR - a collection of digitized journals, including important journals for History and Latin American Studies. Search by author, title, keyword, etc or browse by journal title. View/print digital images of original full text of articles.

Handbook of Latin American Studies - searchable index to books, journals and conference proceedings in Latin American Studies. 1990-present. (Citations and abstracts)

HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index - Similar to the Handbook but covers journal articles only; 1970-present. (Citations only)

International Index to Black Periodicals - searchable index of a selection of journals, newspapers and newsletters for African American studies. Coverage includes the U.S., the Caribbean and Africa, and goes back to the early 20th century. (Full text for some more recent articles)

Poole's Plus - searchable index to major British and American journals and newspapers of the 19th century. (Citations only)

19th Century Reader's Guide (1890-1899) and Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-present) - Complete index of 150-200 most widely circulated American periodicals. (Citations only; most of the sources are available in the IU Libraries. Reader's Guide is shelved across from Reference Desk, AI3 .R21).

Periodicals Contents Index (PCI) - Searchable index of nearly 2,500 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues (the earliest is 1780) through 1990/1991.(Citations only)

Search can be limited to a specific time period, using the year of publication limit field

Historical Newspapers Online and The New York Times, 1851-1985 - Electronic indexes to the New York Times, 1851-1985, and the London Times, 1790-1945. (Citations only for London Times, but text is available in Microforms, AN4.L8 T5; full text for New York Times.)

Tip: use these searchable indexes to find significant dates to guide your reading of other newspapers that are not indexed. (See tip above to find newspapers in IUCAT.

III. Selected Web Resources

Library of Congress: American Memory - Digitized, searchable, collections of primary sources on many U.S. historical topics. See especially African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907 (includes some materials relevant to Latin America).

Africans in America - collection of primary and secondary sources

LANIC (Latin American Network Information Center) - web directory for Latin American Studies resources. See African Diaspora.

Internet Resources for Latin America - comprehensive web guide, similar to LANIC

Selected Internet Sources of Information on Africa and the African Diaspora - links to useful background information

American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology and Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 - Transcripts of interviews with former slaves in the U.S. Selections from a 19-volume printed work available at the Main Library (The American slave: a composite autobiography, Research Collections, E444 .E45)

African-American Poetry, 1760-1900 - Searchable full-text database of English-language African American poetry.

Making of America - A digital library of primary sources in U.S. social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Currently contains approximately 1,600 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.

Long-run Growth and Decline in Latin America and the Caribbean - web page for a course taught at Columbia University. You might find it helpful to look at the seminar papers for examples of advanced students' papers on slavery in Latin America. (Remember, if you quote from a paper on a web page, it has to be cited like any other source.)

How to cite electronic sources

Updated September 17, 2002
Celestina Wroth ( cewroth@indiana.edu)
Librarian for History, Religious Studies,
and History & Philosophy of Science
Main Library E560, Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405, (812) 855-1336