Letters/Papers/Books - Colored Conventions Research Project - Occidental College

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Find information about African Americans by searching the full text of millions of books in Google Books and the HathiTrust Digital Library. Note the name of the library that provided the book as well as the book's title, author(s), publisher name and location, date, and the page(s) where the information can be found.

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Dictionaries

Letters and Papers

Researchers often find important information in the letters and papers of abolitionists. Black Boston activist William Cooper Nell's papers are particularly helpful, as are the Black Abolitionist Papers and the Letters of William Lloyd Garrison.

Black Abolitionist Papers (in print)
Call Number: E449 .B624 1985 (vols. 1-5)
The Black Abolitionist Papers includes primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States (1830-1865). The UD Library also offers the online version.
The Frederick Douglass Papers by Frederick Douglass; John W. Blassingame, ed.
Call Number: E449 .D733 (vols. 1-5)
Date: 1979-1992
The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers by Harriet Jacobs; Jean Fagan Yellin, ed.
Call Number: E444.J17 A4 2008 (vols. 1-2 & CD-ROM)
Date: 2008
The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison by William Lloyd Garrison; Walter M. Merrill, ed.
Call Number: E449 .G245 (vols. 1-6)
Date: 1971-1981
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass; Philip S. Foner, ed.
Call Number: Call Number: E449 .D736 (vols. 1-5)
Date: 1950-1975
Selected Letters of Lucretia Coffin Mott by Lucretia Mott; Beverly Wilson Palmer, ed.
Call Number: HQ1413.M68 S45 2002
Date: 2002
William Cooper Nell: Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist, Historian, Integrationist; Selected Writings 1832-1874 by Constance Porter Uzelac and Dorothy Porter Wesley, eds.
Call Number: E449 .N45 2002
Date: 2002

Biographical Directories

Black Biography, 1790-1950: A Cumulative Index by Randall K. Burkett, Nancy Hall Burkett and Henry Louis Gates Jr., eds.
Call Number: Reference E185.96 .B53x 1991; Supplement: Reference E185.96 .B532x 2000.
This is an index to 350 historical black biographical dictionaries. In addition to brief biographical information, the book includes geographical and occupational indexes. Additional dictionaries covered by this index are available on microfiche (Micro No. 1974) and some can also be found online at HathiTrust or Google Books.
Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders during Reconstruction by Eric Foner
Call Number: E185.96 .F64 1996 (rev. ed.)
Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising by William J. Simmons
Call Number: Ref E185.96 .S45 1968

African American Women

Black Women in America by Darlene Clark Hine, ed. in chief
Call Number: Ref E185.86 .B542 2005 (vols. 1-3)
Date: 2nd ed. 2005
Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life: Their Words, Their Thoughts, Their Feelings by Bert James Loewenberg and Ruth Bogin, eds.
Call Number: E185.96 .B54
Date: 1976
Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities by Monroe Alphus Majors
We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century by Dorothy Sterling
Call Number: E185.86 .S75 1984
The Work of the Afro-American Woman by Mrs. N. F. Mossell
Call Number: E185.86 .M65 1988 (orig. pub. 1894)

Guides to African American Newspapers

The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom by Patrick S. Washburn
Call Number: PN4882.5 .W37 2006

Geographic Places

Search for books in DELCAT Discovery. Type book titles surrounded by quotation marks (e.g.,"blacks in gold rush california") or topic keywords connected with Boolean operators AND or OR. Capitalize the operators (slavery AND tennessee).

The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930: Elites and Dilemmas by Bobby L. Lovett
Call Number: F 444 .N29 N45 1999
Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City by Carla L. Peterson
Call Number: F130.N4 P47 2011
Blacks in Gold Rush California by Rudolph M. Lapp
Call Number: E185.C2 L36
Date: 1977
The Negro Trail Blazers of California by Delilah Leontium Beasley
Call Number: E185.93 .C2 B4 and Google Books ebook
Date: 1919