U.S. Historical Documents Regarding Slavery

US Government Documents

The Constitution of the United States of America (via CSU Chico)

With particular attention to Article 23, and Amendments 13, 14 and 15.

Supreme Court Decision in Dredd Scott vs. Illinois (via Cornell Law School)

Regards escaped slaves as property, even in non-slaveholding territory.

The Emancipation Proclamation (via the Library of Congress)

Issued by Abraham Lincoln, made slavery a principal focus of the Civil War.

Discussions of Slavery

My Bondage and My Freedom (from Project Gutenberg)

by Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (via Carnegie Mellon University)

by Frederick Douglass

A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, a Negro Man (from theUniversity ofVirginia)

by Briton Hammon

The Confessions of Nat Turner (HTML files from Holland)

by Nat Turner

Later Documents Regarding Slavery and African American Identity

Up from Slavery (via Wiretap)

by Booker T. Washington

The Souls of Black Folk (from Project Gutenberg)

by William E. B. Du Bois)

An Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York (from theUniversity ofVirginia)

by Jupiter Hammon

The University of Oklahoma Law Center

A Chronology of United States Historical Documents, including all the Presidential inaugural addresses.

Mississippi State University Historical Archives

US Collections of Mississippi State's substantial archive of historical documents.