What Are Primary Sources?
Primary sources are documents or objects created by participants or witnesses at the time of an event.
Examples of primary sources: diaries, interviews, autobiographies, government documents, speeches, photographs, and artifacts, such as pottery.
Online Sources for Primary Documents
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new windowOver 8,000 articles by top scholars that focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American history and culture. Also includes images and primary sources. (NVCC)
- African Americans and Reconstruction: Hope and Struggle, 1865-1883 (Readex) This link opens in a new windowThis collection offers roughly 1,400 fully searchable printed works, books, pamphlets, and speeches from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow. It includes documents related to African Americans and citizenship, voting rights, literacy, land rights, employment, and more, including the gaps between written law and practice. (VIVA)
- African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest, 1883-1922 (Readex) This link opens in a new windowThis collection offers +1,000 fully searchable books, pamphlets, and speeches from the beginning of Jim Crow to post-World War I that provide insights into African American culture and life during this period of segregation and disenfranchisement. Topics include African American identity, relationships with peoples of other nations, and literature. (VIVA)
- U.S. History (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new windowIncludes U.S. History reference articles, periodical articles, images, and primary documents. (NVCC)
- National African American Museum of History and CultureDigitized online collections
- Digital Public Library of AmericaSearch by subject, time period, or type in keywords.
Virginia
- Virginia Untold: The African American NarrativeSelect "Search the narrative" to access primary sources; includes scanned original documents and transcriptions. From the Library of Virginia
- Virginia Memory: Collections By TopicFrom the Library of Virginia
- History of Alexandria's African American CommunityIncludes explanatory text and links to primary sources. From the City of Alexandria.
- Conducting Your Own Historic Research in AlexandriaLocal places with additional information and primary sources.
Books with Primary Documents
Use the Library Catalog.
Type in primary sources and your topic.
Search for Primary Documents Online
In Google, search for "primary sources" and your topic.
You could also try "primary documents" or "digital collection" or "digital library" in addition to "primary sources".
Search Tip:
Use words that would have been used during the time period you're researching. For example, African American was not always used. The language in documents in previous times may have included Negro or black.