LibGuides: Land Acknowledgment, First Nations of New York, Native American Histories: Anti-Slavery and Reform 1800-1860

Anti-Slavery and Abolitionist Papers and Collections

Anti-Slavery and Abolitionist Newspapers at Lavery Library
A collection of 8 different newspapers of the time. Each item is able to be viewed in high resolution, printable, and text is transcribed. Copyright held by St. John Fisher College.
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The North Star (8)
Frederick Douglass' Paper (113)
Douglass Monthly (7)
The Liberator (29)
African Repository and Colonial Journal (5)
The Anti-Slavery Record (9)
The New National Era (27)
Fay Scrapbooks (434)
The Friend of Man
283 issues, published from 1836 - 1842 from the Cornell University Digital Collections.
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Friend of Man is one of the most significant and little studied newspapers documenting early anti-slavery and other reform movements. The periodical is of special significance because with the exception of religion, scholars know little about the resources of social movements in rural areas such as Central New York, where Friend of Man was published.
A brief sketch of the schools for Black people, and their descendants, established by the Religious Society of Friends in 1770.
You can "view entire text" for the complete monograph describing the Society of Friends and their place in the anti-slavery movement.
The May Anti-Slavery Collection
The Cornell University Library May Anti-Slavery Manuscript Collection consists mainly of correspondence among American abolitionists, including many letters to Samuel Joseph May...
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Also included are May's diaries from 1859-1861 and 1865-1870; correspondence among members of May's family and the family of James Miller McKim; and some correspondence with Daniel Willard Fiske and George William Harris concerning the building of the May Anti-Slavery Collection at Cornell University. Correspondents include Lyman Abbott, John Brown, Henry Grafton Chapman, Maria Weston Chapman, David Lee Child, Lydia Maria Child, Daniel Willard Fiske, William Lloyd Garrison, D.C. Haynes, George William Harris, H.B. Holmes, Oliver Otis Howard, Oliver Johnson, Joseph May, Lucretia F. May, Samuel May Jr., Samuel Joseph May, James Miller McKim, William Forster Mitchell, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Wendell Phillips, Reuben Tomlinson, George Cabot Ward, and Theodore G. Wright.
The May Anti-Slavery Pamphlet Collection
Numbering over 10,000 titles, May's pamphlets and leaflets document the anti-slavery struggle at the local, regional, and national levels.
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Much of the May Anti-Slavery Collection was considered ephemeral or fugitive, and today many of these pamphlets are scarce. Sermons, position papers, offprints, local Anti-Slavery Society newsletters, poetry anthologies, freedmen's testimonies, broadsides, and Anti-Slavery Fair keepsakes all document the social and political implications of the abolitionist movement.
The Abolition of the Slave Trade
An online exhibit from the New York Public Library. Tips for use: for best navigation and access to incredibly rich primary sources for research, use top navigation ribbon in "Texts", "Images", and "Maps".

Library books from the catalog:

Frederick Douglass : a biography by C. James Trotman
Call Number: E449 .D75 T76 2011
ISBN: 9780313350368
Publication Date: 2011
This biography of Frederick Douglass covers the life of the most famous black abolitionist and intellectual of the 19th century. It covers the major developments of Douglass's life from his birth in 1818 through his time as a slave and his rise to prominence as a black voice for freedom. Frederick Douglass was a champion of freedom who stood up for what he believed. He attended the Seneca Falls Convention and became an early supporter of women's right to vote. He led the recruiting effort for the 54th Massachusetts, the first all-black Union combat unit in the Civil War, and he founded The North Star, the second black newspaper published in America. The biography discusses Douglass's relationships with such figures as John Brown, the feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and five presidents of the United States, including Abraham Lincoln. It analyzes his role in national politics before, during, and after the Civil War, and examines the way his life is tied to significant local, regional, and national events. By focusing on the importance of spirituality in Douglass's life, this work adds to our understanding of the man, the way he saw himself, and the many things he accomplished.

NYC's Early African American Settlements

The Land of the Blacks (also Negro Frontier or Free Negro Lots) was a village settled by people of African descent north of the wall of New Amsterdam from about 1643 to 1716. It represented an economic, legal and military modus vivendi reached with the Dutch West India Company in the wake of Kieft's War. This buffer area with the native Lenape is sometimes considered the first free African settlement in North America, although the landowners had half-free status. (from "Land of the Blacks (Manhattan)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Jul. 2021. Web. 10 Aug. 2021.)

See: NYPL LibGuide - https://libguides.nypl.org/nyc_early_africanamerican_settlements:

The Missing Chapter: Untold Stories of the African American Presence in the Mid-Hudson Valley

HRVH Slavery primary source set
Primary source set from Hudson River Valley Heritage as part of The Missing Chapter exhibition.

New Paltz Register of Slaves
Primary source set from Hudson River Valley Heritage as part of The Missing Chapter exhibition.
Missing Chapter Digital Exhibition
Guided tour through the lives and personal stories of African Americans in the Mid-Hudson Valley during the first half of the 19th Century.

New York Central College

New York Central College Collection
A collection of the McGraw Historical Society.
New York Central College
"New-York Central College." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Jul. 2021. Web. 10 Aug. 2021.

American Colonization Society

"The American Colonization Society (ACS; in full, "The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America"), ...was the primary vehicle to support the return of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa." (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Colonization_Society)

The African Repository and Colonial Journal
5 issues from 1837 with high resolution image of each page and full text transcription.
Liberian Law at Cornell University Law Library
Much of the collection consists of primary resources collected during the Codification Project and rare manuscripts dealing with Liberia's early history.

Hidden Heritage - the story of Reverend James Murphy

Hidden Heritage Lesson and Primary Source Set
Born into slavery as the illegitimate child of Jane, the bi-racial slave of David Johnston, James Murphy was condemned to a life of secrecy during an age when being of African descent meant a life of persecution and discrimination. When James Murphy was eventually manumitted at the death of his master David Johnston at the age of 21, he sought to change his destiny and leave his meager beginnings for a life of service to God. Although he became Reverend Murphy after attending the New Brunswick Seminary, Anne DeWitt Bevier, along with two other members of the congregation began to suspect Murphy's parentage, and how that may have effected his connection with Christian values. Armed with the eye of Christian examination, Anne Bevier began to uncover the Reverend Murphy's secret, eventually forcing him to seek a community of people who didn't know of his Hidden Heritage.
From: The Missing Chapter: Untold Stories of the African American Presence in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

Suffrage

Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote
This interactive website from the Rochester Regional Libraries has bio pages on dozens of suffragists as well as images of the movement.

Courtesy of the Cornell University Law Library.

Women's Suffrage Library of Congress primary source set
Highlights from the Library's collection which feature Women's Suffragists, as well as links to related resources.
Women's Suffrage Teacher's Guide from the Library of Congress
This teacher's guide utilizes the 21 resources in the Library's set to guide instruction on the topic.
Abbey Smith and Her Cows trial pamphlet
A written defense after the conviction of two female suffragists in 1876.

"I will be heard!": Abolitionism in America online exhibition

"I will be heard!" online exhibition
An exhibition of the Cornell University Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts.

A History of Social Welfare collection
Primary sources used in the building of the exhibition.
The Abolition of the Slave Trade
An online exhibit from the New York Public Library. Tips for use: for best navigation and access to incredibly rich primary sources for research, use top navigation ribbon in "Texts", "Images", and "Maps".

Harriet Tubman Resources

Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Harriet_Tubman_c1868-69.jpg; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harriet_Tubmap_Location_Map.svg

American Authors in the Nineteenth Century: Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, Stowe, and Poe Teacher's Guide

American Authors in the Nineteenth Century: Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, Stowe, and Poe LOC primary source set link