ENG 246: African American Literature I

Narratives by enslaved people became an important form of literary expression before the Civil War when about 65 such memoirs were published as books or pamphlets. The stories helped to stir public opinion against the institution by Robert McNamara.

Important works of African American writers and scholars.

Search the Library of Congress' massive rare book collection dedicated to African American literature.

"African American Perspectives" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909. Most were written by African-American authors, though some were written by others on topics of particular importance in African-American history. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, Emanuel Love, Lydia Maria Child, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, among others from the Library of Congress.

Africana studies is a tradition of intellectual inquiry and study of African peoples. Using a transdisciplinarian approach, Africana scholars document the global migrations and reconstruction of African peoples, as well as patterns of linkages to the African continent (and among the peoples of the African Diaspora).

The Amistad Research Center is the nation's oldest, largest and most comprehensive independent archive specializing in the history of African Americans.

At the AAAMC, you will find materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions primarily from the post-World War II era. Our collections highlight popular, religious, and classical music, with genres ranging from blues and gospel to R&B and contemporary hip hop. The AAAMC also houses extensive materials related to the documentation of black radio.

This collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.

Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films. In its current iteration, it showcases Black films made from 1898 to 1989 currently streaming.

The Black History & Culture Collection is a not‑for‑profit initiative created to provide access to historical and cultural images of the African/Black Diaspora in the US and UK, gathered from content owned by Getty Images

This is a living collection of books, articles, documentaries, series, podcasts and more about the Black origins of traditional and popular music dating from the 18th century to present day. Resources are organized chronologically and by genre for ease of browsing. For more information about that decision and the curation process, please visit the about page.

BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.

"The Center for Africana Studies is a space for the critical examination of the human, cultural, social, political, economic and historical factors that have created and shaped the African American and African Diaspora experiences throughout the world."

The Colored Conventions Project (CCP) is an interdisciplinary research hub that uses digital tools to bring the buried history of nineteenth-century Black organizing to life. Mirroring the collective nature of the nineteenth-century Colored Conventions, CCP uses inclusive partnerships to locate, transcribe, and archive the documentary record related to this nearly forgotten history and to curate engaging digital exhibits that highlight its significant events and themes.

Produced by the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, this website highlights the achievements of Dudley Randall, (1914-), who created the Broadside Press in 1965 in Detroit, Michigan. Broadside Press published the major African-American poetry of the time.

The Digital Library on American Slavery (DLAS) is an expanding resource compiling independent collections focused upon race and slavery in the American South, made searchable through a single, simple interface. DLAS houses tens of thousands of records relating to all 15 slave states and Washington, D.C. as well as a number of northern states. DLAS contains detailed personal information about over 100 thousand individuals, including enslaved people, enslavers, free people of color, and more.

From Williams L. Clements Library (University of Michigan) The camera allows us to define and control our self-representation. We utilize this technology to create an image of the person we want to be instead of the assumptions which society projects onto us. The concept of identity is not a single reality that defines us, but a series of personal experiences, traditions, and innovations which contribute to cultural advancements. The lectures of Frederick Douglass embody this concept.

Primary Source Set: Black Voices and Activism: primary source sets highlight personal stories and diverse activism within the LGBTQ community. They explore topics including the intersections of race and sexuality, building solidarity within queer community, the need to preserve and teach LGBTQ history related to people of color, and moments of joy and love. The sources selected here document the lives of Black queer people.

The Moorland Spingarn Research Center is devoted to "the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world."

This project explores the world of the enslaved and highlights the freedom-seekers of North Carolina. This project can be approached through three central units: Interactive Maps, Story Maps, and the No Longer Yours: Aspects of Slavery and Freedom-Seeking in North Carolina Study Book. Each of the three blends together while simultaneously serving as independent projects. Thus, one does not have to view all of the units to learn about slavery in North Carolina, although exploring each unit is encouraged.

The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

Digital collection of African American Women Writers from the 19th Century.

Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. As a research division of The New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections spanning over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global black history, arts, and culture.

Search Temple University's massive digital collections on African Americans in Philadelphia and other historic papers.

Umbra Search African American History makes African American history more broadly accessible through a freely available widget and search tool, umbrasearch.org; digitization of African American materials across University of Minnesota collections; and support of students, educators, artists, and the public through residencies, workshops, and events locally and around the country.

For decades, there was speculation as to Boone County, Kentucky’s role in regional Underground Railroad (UGRR) activities, but little to no evidence. Resources such as the Wilber H. Siebert Collection at the Ohio Historical Society, provided clues as to the crossing points, possible routes and the key players in Boone County’s most controversial story. The research is an ongoing process. Although there is evidence of over 50 UGRR incidents between 1837 and 1863, much of the evidence is circumstantial and further research is necessary to confirm the content. BCPL will continue to make additional information available online and in future tours.

The Collection contains digitized correspondence, scrapbooks, personal papers, writings, photographs, printed material, ephemera, and other papers relating to Frederick Douglass. Also included in the collection are materials that document the personal and professional lives of multiple members of the Douglass family, including children Lewis Henry Douglass, Frederick Douglass, Jr., and Charles Remond Douglass, and daughter-in-law Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass. The scrapbooks, chiefly compiled by Douglass’s sons, contain newspaper clippings and ephemera about Douglass’s work as an orator, author, publisher, and statesman as well as everyday family life. Letters from Douglass include several sent from Haiti while he served as consul. Letters from Lewis Douglass to his fiancée and later wife Helen Amelia Loguen document his service in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the famous all-Black Union Army regiment. The collection also includes several photographs, manuscripts in Douglass’s hand, and typescripts of his addresses.

Thanks to a major gift from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library launched a five-year effort to add rare and unique items from the Library's vast African-American collections to the National Digital Library.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia is the first institution built by a major United States city to house and interpret the life and work of African Americans. Our doors are open for your enjoyment and enlightenment. Visit us and experience the richness and vibrancy of African American heritage and culture come alive in four magnificent exhibition galleries filled with exciting history and fascinating art.

The Black Writers Museum (BWM) is housed at the historic Vernon House in the middle of the beautiful Vernon Park, and sits along a corridor of a series of Philadelphia's National Landmarks in historic Germantown.

The Colored Girls Museum is a memoir museum, which honors the stories, experiences, and history of ordinary Colored Girls. This museum initiates the object—submitted by the colored girl herself, as representative of an aspect of her story and personal history, which she finds meaningful; her object embodies her experience and expression of being a Colored Girl. The Colored Girls Museum is headquartered in the historic neighborhood of Germantown in Philadelphia, an area renowned for its compliment of historic buildings and homes.

The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History also includes essays from various times in history. It provides concise background on history and artwork during multiple time periods.

These selected sites offer access to free, high-quality databases pertaining to the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery from the Lapidus Center which is a division of NYPL.

This program seeks to preserve and promote the vast universe of experiences that have shaped the lives of Maryland's African American population. From the day that Mathias de Sousa and Francisco landed in St. Mary's county aboard the Ark and the Dove in 1634, Black Marylanders have made significant contributions to both the state and nation in the political, economic, agricultural, legal, and domestic arenas. Despite what often seemed like insurmountable odds, Marylanders of Color have adapted, evolved, and prevailed. The Maryland State Archives' Study of the Legacy of Slavery Staff invites researchers to explore all of these elements and more within its numerous source documents, exhibits and interactive online presentations.

Explore Charleston history through the lens of the Morris Street Business District. Established just before the Civil War, the neighborhoods around the Morris Street Business District were home to free and enslaved Black people as well as multiple waves of immigrants from Europe and Asia. From 1850 to the present

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened to the public on April 26, 2018, is the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence.

Explore, learn and engage with the National Museum of African American History and Culture through our numerous digital resources.

In 1779, Phillis Wheatley Peters hoped to publish a second volume of poetry and letters, among which “Ocean” was listed. This 70-line dramatic poem departed from previous poetry, this time expressing abolitionist themes. Her description of the ocean—likely the Atlantic, over which she crossed several times—is stirring and powerful. There never was a second volume of Wheatley Peters’ work, and her published work remained limited to Poems on Various Subjects. The manuscript is remarkable for being written in Wheatley Peters’s hand and recovering after a century of absence.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, opened August 23, 2004. The Freedom Center features three pavilions, celebrating courage, cooperation and perseverance. The story of freedom is woven through the heroic legacy of the Underground Railroad and the American struggle to abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people.

The Paul Robeson House and Museum in Philadelphia is owned by the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

African American studies archival records.

The Xavier University of Louisiana Archives & Special Collections maintains and preserves a unique collection of manuscripts, university records, photographs, ephemera, and rare books. In support of Xavier University’s mission “to contribute to the promotion of a more just and humane society,” our collections are comprised of a wide range of formats, with a focus on African Americans, Black Catholics, New Orleans Communities, Louisiana History, and the Gulf Coast Region. Our finding aids and instructional services provide an entry to discover our holdings and we greatly encourage students, scholars, and the general public to explore the Gulf Coast Region through our unique collections.