Historical Research
Primary sources are documents that were created during a particular time in history that described events as they were happening. Letters, memoirs, newspapers, bills, and accounting books are some many types of sources that historians used to study the past. On this page, check out the different web resources available to find primary sources that document the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Caption: Fete de Ste Rosalie Patrone des Negres. Artist: Johann Moritz Rugendas. Source: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. (1835).
Newspaper articles are considered a type of primary source. Check out these newspaper databases:
- Black Studies Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowIIBP Full Text includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations & abstracts from over 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers and newsletters from the United States, Africa and the Caribbean, as well as full-text coverage of 90 core Black Studies periodicals from 1998 forward.
Archival Resources
Today, the web contains many archival and rare books materials that have been digitized and are freely available online. Below is a list of some of the best site to search for primary sources online related to the Black Diaspora in the Americas and worldwide!
- Collaborative Archive from the African Diaspora (CAAD)The Collaborative Archive from the African Diaspora (CAAD) is an online portal to the collective documentation of Black history and culture in Florida and the Caribbean.
- African Diaspora on the InternetAn Columbia University portal to sites that have archival collections or information related to the African Diaspora.
- First Blacks in the AmericasMain focus is to document the African presence in the Americas in the Dominican Republic.
- Digital SchomburgThe Photographs and Prints Division contains both documentary and fine art photographs, which document the history and culture of people of African descent worldwide as well as the work of photographers of African descent.
Archival Projects
- Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Data from published and archival information)A non-UConn Database that is free and allow to find documentation that track the ships that transported slaves to the Americas. Great place to find the names of the ships that transport the slaves, list of African names of the slaves transported in the ships, statistics of how many slaves were transported, etc...
Digital Collections (Images)
- Digital Images from the NYPL Digital Collection--African Diaspora in the CaribbeanThis digital compilation was developed in support of the NYPL website, "The African American Migration Experience," a sweeping 500-year historical narrative from the transatlantic slave trade to the Western migration, the colonization movement, the Great Migration, and the contemporary immigration of Caribbeans, Haitians, and sub-Saharan Africans.
- Digital Images from the NYPL Digital Collection--African Diaspora in South AmericaThis digital compilation was developed in support of the NYPL website, "The African American Migration Experience," a sweeping 500-year historical narrative from the transatlantic slave trade to the Western migration, the colonization movement, the Great Migration, and the contemporary immigration of Caribbeans, Haitians, and sub-Saharan Africans.
- Documents of Latin American and Latino ArtExplore over 8,000 Documents of 20th and 21st-century art in Latin America, the Caribbean, and among US Latino communities. You can search about the African Diaspora or Afro-Latino, e.g. Afro-brasileros and other Afro-Latinos.