Yale University Library Research Guides: African Studies Primary Source Guide: Slavery and the Slave Trade (16th-19th centuries)

Resources on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Archives at Yale
Search across all of Yale's special collections for archival materials relating to slavery.
Yale Slavery and Abolition Portal (Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition/Yale)
This site is designed to help researchers and students find primary sources related to slavery, abolition, and resistance within the university’s many libraries and galleries. It is meant as an introduction to the wealth of Yale's collections and is not a comprehensive listing. Select a repository from the list on the right to browse by location or use the search function to sort collections by topic. Consult the research and links pages for information about how to find additional source material.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 1501-1866 (Emory University)
Includes information on almost 36,000 slaving voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries. The database and the separate estimates interface offer researchers, students and the general public a chance to rediscover the reality of one of the largest forced movements of peoples in world history.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, 18th-19th centuries (Gale Cengage)
includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.

Specific enslaved persons' narratives, in print, electronic, and other formats, can be discovered in Orbis by using the name of the enslaved person as an author and as a subject heading.

Additional resources can be discovered in Orbis using subject headings such as the following:

Abolitionists--[name of a country or U.S. state]
African American abolitionists
African Americans--[name of a U.S. state]
Antislavery movements--[name of a U.S. state]
Fugitive slaves--[name of a country or U.S. state]
Plantation life--[name of a country or U.S. state]
Slavery--[name of a country or U.S. state]
Slaves--Biography
Slaves--[name of a country or U.S. state]--Biography
Slaves' writings
Underground Railroad

African Studies Primary Source Guide: Slavery and the Slave Trade (16th-19th centuries)

Resources on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

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