Research Guides: HIST 4823: Black Freedom in the Age of Emancipation: Government Documents

Government Documents

Before Dred Scott: Freedom Suits in Antebellum Missouri
An educational site with several court documents related to manumisison.
Black Congressmen During Reconstruction: A Documentary Sourcebook
Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
Main E185.6 .B623 2002
British Parliamentary Papers: Slave Trade
An index to volumes published by the Irish Universities Press related to the slave trade and its abolition. Although the Libraries do not own these volumes, we can borrow them for you on ILL.
Eccelsiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies
This Vanderbilt University project identifies, collects, and catalogs materials related to slavery in the colonies of Spain and Portugal. Includes sample documents, such as manumission lists or plantation ledgers, by country or region. Fantastic source if you read Spanish or Portuguese.
Freedmen's Bureau Online
Digitized records selected by genealogist Christine Charity; with an emphasis on those records useful in family history research.
Freedmen's Bureau Records
The Freedmen's Bureau (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands) was established in March 1865 and was responsible for the welfare of newly freed citizens of the formerly Confederate states. It replaced and served as an office within the War Department. The Freedmen's Bureau documents, all from National Archives Record Group 105, provide detailed evidence from each southern state of the conditions of African Americans during the Reconstruction period.
Gallica
The catalog and digital collections of the National Library of France. Includes many government documents and other materials related to the Francophone Caribbean.
Slavery and the Courts, 1740 – 1860 / Library of Congress
Approximately 100 books and pamphlets presenting an assortment of trials and cases, reports, arguments, accounts, examinations of cases and decisions, proceedings, journals, a letter, and other works of historical importance.
The Abolition of Slavery: National Archives (UK)
Offers a research guide to National Archives materials on the history of slavery, as well as some digitized documents.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1817-1980. The 'Serial Set' refers to the bound, sequentially numbered volumes of all the Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

Voices of Emancipation: Understanding Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction Through the U.S. Pension Bureau Files
New York: New York University Press, 2008.
MAIN E185.2 .V65 2008
Nelson Hackett Project
Sometime in the middle of July 1841, Nelson Hackett fled both Arkansas and slavery, setting off an international dispute that would ensure that Canada remained a safe refuge for those escaping bondage in the United States. The Nelson Hackett Project presents Hackett’s story not only to document a single man’s incredible struggle but also to explore how that one man activated a trans-Atlantic and biracial network of activists working to undermine the institution of slavery.

U.S. Government Publications and Collections

A Guide to Countries
These guide brings together information from diverse documentary and archival sources on aspects of the United States' diplomatic relations with a variety of countries.
Human Rights Reports
(U.S. Department of State)
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series
The Foreign Relations of the United States series represents the official documentary record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Browse this series by volume or by presidential administration.

U.S. Congressional Serial Set This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1817-1980. The 'Serial Set' refers to the bound, sequentially numbered volumes of all the Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
govinfo This link opens in a new window
A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office that provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government, including the Congressional Record, Hearings and Reports, the US Code and CFR, and the Budget. Use the advanced search page to select specific government publications or government offices. Most documents date back to the 1990s.

The American Presidency Project- University of California-Santa Barbara
This digital archive contains thousands of documents on the presidency including party platforms, candidates' remarks, Statements of Administration Policy, documents released by the Office of the Press Secretary, and election debates.