Full text resources online (WUSTL Key may be required when off campus):
- Hathi Trust: WashU and Slavery Project Relevant items from the expansive Hathi Trust digital collection useful for research, teaching, creative projects, and more.
- The revised Dred Scott Case Collection Scans of original documents and transcriptions show the Scotts' early struggle to gain their freedom through litigation and are the only extant records of this significant case as it was heard in the St. Louis Circuit Court. The original Dred Scott case file is located in the Office of the St. Louis Circuit Clerk.
- St. Louis Freedom Suit Project Scans of original documents and some transcriptions from the Missouri State Archives. This project pulls together resources contributed from many partners. It includes documents such as court cases, city directories (select years between 1821-1877), freedom bonds, record books, and other material. At the center of the collection are the “freedom suits” where enslaved African Americans challenged the legality of their captivity long before the Emancipation Proclamation. The documents have been digitized and are made available via Washington University Libraries website.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the massive, international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings and publications of the activists themselves. The approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of almost 300 Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany.
- Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection This link opens in a new window The Black Women's Suffrage Digital Collection is a collaborative project to provide digital access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women's Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women's rights, voting rights, and civic activism between the 1850s and 1960. The materials in this collection include photographs, correspondence, speeches, event programs, publications, oral histories, and other artifacts.
- African American Newspapers: The 19th Century This link opens in a new window The complete text of the major African-American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and early 1900s. First-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and Congressional addresses, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion. The collection also provides a great number of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience. Dates covered: 1827 - 1919.
- African American Perspectives: materials selected from the Rare Book Collection This link opens in a new window "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.