Introduction to History - American Civil War

| Background Sources | Secondary Sources: Books | Secondary Sources: Articles | Published Primary Sources | Web Sites |

Background Sources

Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history Suzzallo Reference, OUGL Reference -- E185 .E54 1996 Dictionary of Afro-American slavery Suzzallo Reference -- E441 .D53 1997 Encyclopedia of the American Civil War : a political, social, and military history Suzzallo Reference, OUGL Reference, online -- E468 .H47 2000 Encyclopedia of the antebellum South Suzzallo Reference -- F213 .V65 2000 Encyclopedia of the Confederacy Suzzallo Reference, OUGL Reference -- E487 .E55 1993 Encyclopedia of the United States in the nineteenth century Suzzallo Reference -- E169.1 .E626 2001

Secondary Sources - Books

UW Libraries Catalog A listing of the books, journal subscriptions and other material available at the University of Washington Libraries. Summit Group catalog of more than 25 Oregon & Washington libraries. Books can be requested online and sent to the UW.

Once you identify articles you need make sure you have the complete citation (author, title, journal name, volume, pages and year), then look in the UW Libraries Catalog for the journal name (do a title search for the journal name to see if the UW subscribes) to see if and where the journal is kept (library location and call number).

Databases marked UW Only require that you access these from computers on campus or from home using UWICK or the libraries proxy server. Articles from journals which the UW does not own can be requested through the UWorld Express (interlibrary loan).

America History and Life [UW only] Major index to journals articles plus selected books and dissertations in the field of U.S. and Canadian history. Expanded Academic Index [UW only] General index to articles. Good starting place for finding articles for all topics. Includes some full-text. A similar general database is Research Library [UW only]. JSTOR [UW only] Searchable collection of back issues of moer than 20 history journals including the Journal of Military History and the Journal of Southern History. For another collection of searchable electronic journals related to history see Project Muse.

Finding Published Primary Sources

Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources

Secondary sources, scholarly journal articles and books, are a great source for identifying potential primary sources. Find a few articles, books or dissertations related to your topic and then mine the footnotes and bibliography. You will have the best luck finding published primary sources such as books, government reports, newspapers and magazines within the UW Libraries. Use the UW Libraries Catalog to determine if we have the primary source.

Finding Primary Sources -- Books

Limit your search by publication date. Search for books written by key participants and organizations. Browse the shelves in the appropriate subject area. Use special subject terms that designate primary sources: sources, personal narratives, diaries, correspondence Examples: slavery and united states and sources women and civil war and (diaries or correspondence) slaves and (personal narratives or interviews)

Finding Primary Sources -- Magazine Articles

American Periodicals Series Online [UW only] Full text database of 18th and 19th century American magazines. Magazines include The Liberator, Saturday Evening Post and Vanity Fair. 19th Century Masterfile [UW only] Electronic version of Poole's Index, indexes articles from 19th century American and British magazines . Some abolitionist magazines from the period include: American Jubilee, 1854-1855 [Periodicals - E449 .A52372] Douglass' Monthly, 1859-1863 [Microforms - M356] The Liberty bell, 1839-1858 [Microforms A444 reel 491-492] The National era, 1847-1860 [Microforms - A444 reel 899-903] National anti-slavery standard, 1840-1870 [Microforms A4572]

Finding Primary Sources -- Newspaper Articles

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century [UW only] Full-text of 7 African American newspapers from the 19th century including Freedom's Journal and The National Era. New York Times Historical Index [UW only] Index to the New York Times that currently only covers 1863-1905 and 1913-1922. Other years available in print in Suzzallo Reference AI21 .N44. NOTE: The King County Library System and Seattle Public Library subscribe to the full-image New York Times Historical Backfile. To use this database you will need either a KCLS or SPL library card. Some newspapers from the period include: Charleston Mercury, 1822-1868 [A7437] Knoxville Whig, 1849-1864 [A8510] The Liberator, 1831-1865 [A2107] National Intelligencer, 1800-1869 [A998] New York Evening Post, 1801-1900 [A3574] New York Times, 1851- [A195] New York Tribune, 1841-1906 [A2252] Non-Slaveholder, 1846-1854 [M357] North Carolina Whig, 1858-1863 [A8511] Richmond Enquirer, 1841-1861 [A8488]

Finding Primary Sources -- Government Reports

Congressional Universe [UW only] Includes an index to Congressional hearings and reports dating back to 1789. The hearings and reports themselves are on microfilm. From the menu choose "Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation American Memory collection that provides digital access to "records and acts of Congress from the Journals of the Continental Congress through The Congressional Globe, 1774-1873. Also includes the Journals of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865.

Web Sites

• American Memory
  The premiere collection of primary sources created by the Library of Congress. There are over 100 multimedia digital collections dealing with American history including:
  • Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project 1936-1938
  • From Slavery to Freedom: The African American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
  • African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1818-1907
  • Civil War Treasures from the New York Historical Society
  • Frederick Douglass Papers
  • Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860
  • Abraham Lincoln Papers
  • Selected Civil War Photographs
  • Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft
• Documenting the American South
  Collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Includes:
  • North American Slave Narratives
  • The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865
  • First Person Narratives of the American South
• Civil War Letters of the Christie Family
• Making of America
• Secession Era Editorials
• Valley of the Shadow
• Virginia Runaways Project

Image: "Sheridan's Campaign, Battle of Winchester." Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 15 Oct. 1864. Courtesy of Civil War Images of Northern Virginia, George Mason University.

10 July 2004
mudrock@u.washington.edu