Primary Sources for United States History

More than 50,000 items including images, newspapers and more primarily covering the colonial through antebellum period

Collections include Adams Family papers, diary of John Quincy Adams, revolutionary era newspapers & more

Selection of digitized newspapers covering a period ranging from 1836 to 1922

Digitized version of the rare anti-slavery newspaper.

Collection of editorials dealing with the Nebraska Bill (1854), the Charles Sumner incident (1856), Dred Scott (1857) and Harper's Ferry (1859)

Thousands of letters, manuscripts and documents from the first Chief Justice of the United States

Correspondence and other papers dating from 1723 to 1859

"Correspondence, letterbooks, commonplace books, diaries, journals, financial account books, military records, reports, and notes accumulated by Washington from 1741 through 1799."

"Correspondence, commonplace books, financial account books, and manuscript volumes... ranging in date from 1606 to 1827."

Standard collection of his complete writings.

"Correspondence and other writings of six major shapers of the United States": George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.

Digitized collection of 55,000 documents of the early War Department.

Congressional records from the Continental Congress through the 43rd Congress, 1774-1875

This is a collection of government documents related to the treaties with various Native American tribes.

Numerous drawings, printed book illustrations, and other visual primary source materials from the period of American Revolution to the early U.S. history.

New York State Archives' "collection of Major John André spy papers, bills presented to the state by veterans, land deeds, and political correspondence during the Revolutionary War period"

Printed broadsides that supplement the Journals of the Continental Congress

Transcriptions of the Federalist Papers

Digitized version of the multi-volume collection of letters

Collection of 149 books, pamphlets and prints dealing with the Revolutionary period

Collection of letters and documents related "chiefly to the period prior to, during, and following the American Revolution"

This resource offers access to important primary documents in American history from 1775 to 1815.

Letters, journal entries, and other documentation of the expansion into the Louisiana Territory.

The website provides full-text of Lewis and Clark's journals.

Volume I covers laws until 1902 and Volume II covers treaties from 1778-1883. Subsequent volumes cover later eras.

More than 2,300 first person accounts of slavery plus 500 photographs

Database of detailed personal information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color

Collection of Freedom Suit cases from the St. Louis area.

Digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers

more than 2000 runaway ads published in North Carolina newspapers from 1751 to 1840

111 documents detailing the 1846 case

Over 100 pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) dealing with the legal status of slavery

Narrative with accompanying documents including manifests, letters and contracts

Records of more than 35,000 slaving expeditions/ voyages undertaken between 1514 and 1866.

Collection of narrative essays and supporting documents and images dealing with abolition.

Collection of more than 1000 black abolitionist speeches and editorials.

Letters and records of William Lloyd Garrison, Maria Weston Chapman and others active in the abolitionist movement

Manumission documents, pamphlets, letters and more documenting the abolition cause within the Quaker community

Digitized collection of thousands of anti-slavery and abolitionist material.

Transcriptions of English language newspaper articles, images and documents dealing with the Mexican American War