Slavery and Anti-Slavery Archive

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive has recently been added to the All Databases list.  It is offered in four parts. Each part contains between 1.1 and 1.5 million pages of primary source documents, with a total of approximately 5 million pages in the complete set, which together cover the topic from the late 15th through the early 20th century.

Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition

Part I sheds light on the abolitionist movement and the conflicts within it, the anti- and pro-slavery arguments of the period, and the debates on the subject of colonization. Also highlights the economic, gender, legal, religious, and government issues surrounding the debate. It covers the topic through 1888, when slavery was abolished in Brazil.

Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World

Part II charts the inception of slavery in Africa and its rise throughout the Atlantic world, with particular focus on the Caribbean, Latin America, and United States. More international in scope than Part I, this collection was developed by an international editorial board with scholars specializing in European, African, Latin American/Caribbean, and the United States aspects of the slave trade.

Part III: The Institution of Slavery

Part III continues this series by examining the institution of slavery from 1492-1888 through legal documents, plantation records, personal accounts, newspapers, and government documents, opening up opportunities for in-depth research on how enslaved people struggled to loosen the chains of slavery by whatever means necessary. This unique grouping of primary source materials explores slavery as a labor and legal system, the relationship between master and slave, slavery and religion, free labor, and the lives of free African Americans. The Institution of Slavery is particularly strong in its significant coverage of Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean.

Part IV: The Age of Emancipation

Part IV: The Age of Emancipation, the fourth installment in the Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive series, includes a range of rare documents related to emancipation in the United States, as well as Latin America, the Caribbean, and other areas of the world. From the time of the American Revolution, when northern states freed relatively small numbers of slaves, to later periods when an increasingly large free black community was developing, emancipation was a long-sought dream, and ultimately a political and moral expectation.

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