HIS 4225: Antebellum Era: Primary Sources

• DPLA Digital Public Library of America  (Best Bet)

  DPLA a non-profit online portal providing free access to millions of items from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. It is a one-stop experience for discovering content like historical documents, photos, and books from partner institutions

1. Be sure to explore the Primary Source Sets. Scroll down to Primary Source Sets>Browse All Sets.

2. From the Subject drop down box select US History and from the Time Period drop down box select Expansion and Reform (1801-1861).

3. Choose from 22 topic areas, each filled with carefully selected resources related to the source set.

Click here to watch a video tutorial on using DPLA

• National Archives 

  The National Archives is an essential resource for historical research, providing access to millions of original U.S. government documents, photographs, maps, and records. These primary sources offer firsthand evidence of events, policies, and decisions that shaped the nation.

1. Check out the primary sources in the DocsTeach section under Educator Resources.

2. For Antebellum materials, use the “Expansion and Reform (1801–1861)” collection which also allows you to fine tune your search by document type and record groups or collections.

• Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers 

Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

Click here to watch a video tutorial on using Chronicling America

• Purdue University's Free Historic US Newspapers by State List

Newspapers are listed alphabetically by state and organized by region.

• Library of Congress (LOC)

The de facto national library for the U.S., open to the public and houses over 170 million items, including books, manuscripts, photos, maps, and more. Many digitized collections serve as ideal primary sources.

1.  Not the same as searching on Google -The LOC uses the names that the item(s) had when they came to the Library e.g. World War I was initially known as the Great War. A bit more complicated than other platforms.

2.  Need to play around with search tools and filters in order to reach a deeper dive on the materials that will be most useful.

• Think of your topic broadly when starting with the Everything search
• Use the Available Online filter to reach digital resources
• Select one of the "Original Format" filters to begin finding resources for your paper
• Continue to use filters to explore the resources that make the most sense to support your topic.

Click here to watch a video tutorial on using LOC 

LOC pre-selected topics related to the Antebellum era 

Abolition, The African-American Mosaic

Anti-Slavery and Abolitionist Collections Anti-Slavery and Abolitionist Collections 

Books That Shaped America, 1800-1850

Born in slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938

Cotton 1800-1899

Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864

German Awakening in U.S. 1800-1899

Immigrations 1800-1899

Indian Removal 1800 to 1899

Indian Treaties 1800 to 1899

Lutheranism in United States 1800-1899

Manifest Destiny 1800-1899

Second Great Awakening 1800-1899

Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860

• Digital History website, Pre-Civil War Era by the University of Texas

Educational and non-commercial site designed for history teachers and their students. Includes timelines, documents and resources focused on the pre-Civil War era and reform movements of the time.

Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2018). Digital History. Retrieved December 8, 2025 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

• Digital Library on American Slavery (DLAS) by the University of North Carolina Greensboro

A searchable database with names of enslaved individuals from court petitions and deed records.

• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Collection

Provides primary documents and exhibits a special focus on the Antebellum period.

• Primary Sources for United States History

 A guide from RUSA (Reference and User Services Association) for Librarians of curated primary sources for the Revolution to Antebellum period of American History.

• Purdue University's Free Historic US Newspapers by State List

• The Texas Slavery Project

A digital history project mapping the expansion of slavery in Texas between 1837 and 1845.

Google and other search engines can be powerful tools for finding primary sources. While many libraries, archives, museums, and even private organizations host these materials online, locating them often requires knowing the right keywords and having strong web navigation skills. This video from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee demonstrates strategies for using Google effectively to uncover primary sources across these platforms.