LibGuides: United States History: Civil War/Reconstruction

Civil War History

[R] Reference Sources

Comprehensive

[R] The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research. Greenwood, 1996. E 456 .A47 Fl. 1 Reference

[R] Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO, 2000. E 468 .E53 2000 Fl. 1 Reference

[R] American National Biography. 26 vols. Oxford, 1999. CT213 .A68 Fl.1 Reference

[R] The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
(see 43.269-43.319; 44.418-44.483) D 20 .A55 1995 Fl. 1 Reference

[R] Reconstruction in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography. E668 .L56 2000 Reference Fl.1

State and Local

[R] Alabama Bibliography: Books, Articles, Theses, Dissertations. Ralph N. Brannen, 1996. F 326 .B72 1996 Fl. 1 Reference

[R] A Bibliography of Mobile, Alabama. University of Alabama, 1956. F 334 .M6 B45 1956 Fl. 1 Reference

Topics

[R] Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2007.

[R] Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Gale, 2007.

Sample: Compromise of 1850

[R] Encyclopedia of Free Blacks and Persons of Color. Facts-on-file, 2012.

Sample: Amistad Case

[R] Rodriguez, Junius P, and Wayne Ackerson. Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic
World. Routledge, 2015.

Sample: "American Colonization Society and the Founding of Liberia." In Encyclopedia of Race and Racism,
edited by Patrick L. Mason. 2nd ed. Gale, 2013.

Sample: Matibag, Eugenio. "Haitian Revolution." In Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World,
edited by Junius Rodriguez. Routledge, 2007.

Library of Congress

Helper, Hinton Rowan. The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It. New York, A.B. Burdick, 1859.

Abolition, Anti-Slavery Movements, and the Rise of the Sectional Controversy

Encyclopedia of Alabama
From the EOA, "The Encyclopedia of Alabama is a free, online reference resource on Alabama’s history, culture, geography, and natural environment. It was developed by the Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University with generous financial support from across the state. Auburn University hosts EOA's editorial office through the Office of University Outreach, in partnership with University Libraries and the Office of Information Technology."

Black Life in America, Series 1 & 2 This link opens in a new window
Series 1: 1704-1877: Arrival in America through Reconstruction
Series 2: 1878-1975: Jim Crow through the Civil Rights Movement
From Readex, "From the early days of slavery to modern times, people of African descent have had a profound impact on American history. While many Black achievements are not covered in most textbooks, Black Life in America—a unique digital archive of news media—presents the broad sweep of African American history in ways no other online resource can match. ...From Black-owned newspapers to mainstream publications, this primary source collection offers an expansive window into centuries of African American history, culture and daily life—as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent. Packed with information unavailable elsewhere, Black Life in America is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 African American publications.
Civil War: Antebellum Period to Reconstruction Collection This link opens in a new window
A unique historical database, the Civil War contains historical newspapers, broadsides, ephemera, and US Congressional Documents from 1843 - 1930 that are part of the US Congressional Serial Set. The collection covers the Antebellum Period through Reconstruction.
History Commons from Coherent Digital (formerly Accessible Archives) This link opens in a new window
A rich collection of primary source material as it relates to American History. Collections of historical newspapers, cultural pamphlets, and primary source collections of materials are available to researchers.

College & Research Library News list of online primary sources

Colored Conventions

University of North Carolina Documenting the American South Collections (First-person narratives, oral history)

Library of Congress collections of African American sources (such as the WPA Slave Narratives)

Samuel May Antislavery collection (Cornell University)

Yale Avalon Project documents

Freedman and Southern Society Project (University of Maryland)

Free People of Color in Louisiana (Louisiana State University)

Secession Era Editorials Project (Furman University)

Civil War Letters Collection (University of Washington)

Civil War Archive, Letters Home

Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America

Alabama Department of Archives and History Digital Collections

Military Archives from Library of Congress

State and Federal Archives

A robust listing of archives, military records, papers, battles, monuments, soldier/sailor databases, etc.

Local History

Mobile Municipal Archives

Mobile Public Library - Local History and Geneology

History Museum of Mobile

Dora Franklin Finley African American Heritage Trail

National African-American Archives and Museum (Collection scope and contact information)

Historic Mobile Preservation Society (digital collection from Alabama Mosaic)

Historic Mobile Preservation Society

Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library (University of South Alabama)

Digital photos from the McCall Library (from Alabama Mosaic)

Nineteenth Century US Newspapers This link opens in a new window
This full text collection features US newspapers from the nineteenth century. Over 500 newspapers come together to allow researchers access to primary source material on life in the US during that time period. The full newspapers title list is available online from Gale.
London Times Digital Archive: 1785-Onwards This link opens in a new window
The London Times is the old continuously produced newspaper and this full text edition of the paper features news from the eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-centuries.

Chronicling America: Library of Congress

Historic American Newspapers: 1785-1925 (digital)

List of Mobile, Ala. Newspapers during Civil War and Reconstruction

Baldwin County Newspapers

Blakely Newspapers

American Historical Review
Civil War History
Journal of American History
Journal of Southern History
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
Continued by Journal of American History
Presidential Studies Quarterly
A scholarly journal devoted exclusively to the U.S. presidency. Coverage includes individual presidents, White House operations, presidential decision-making, and relations between the Executive Office and Congress, the courts, bureaucracy, and the public
Journal of Black Studies
The Journal of Negro History (1916-2001)
Continued by The Journal of African American History
Journal of African American History
Journal of Negro Education

Search DeBow's Review

(Restrict to Journal) DeBow's Review

Lincoln, Abraham [click for full listing of sources]

AND Views on race and slavery

AND Political and social views

AND Relations with African Americans

AND Military leadership, generals

Jackson, Andrew

Abolitionists

Use also Antislavery movements

Secessionists, Alabama [Pattern applies for other states and places]

Douglass, Frederick

Whig Party

Freedmen

Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

African-American Education in the South (Reconstruction and following)

Vaughn, William Preston. Schools for All : The Blacks & Public Education in the South, 1865-1877.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1974.

Lovett, Bobby L. America's Historically Black Colleges & Universities: A Narrative History from the
Nineteenth Century into the Twenty-First Century. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2015.

search also on names of particular HBCUs - History

Battles, Places and Events

Civil War Battles, Battlefields, Monuments, and other Sources (U.S. National Park Service)

Military Campaigns

Gettysburg

Antietam

Vicksburg campaign

Election 1864

Railroads AND 19th century

States (Use with time periods)

Kansas

Alabama

Southern States

Civil War: Antebellum Period to Reconstruction Collection This link opens in a new window
A unique historical database, the Civil War contains historical newspapers, broadsides, ephemera, and US Congressional Documents from 1843 - 1930 that are part of the US Congressional Serial Set. The collection covers the Antebellum Period through Reconstruction.
Slavery And Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive, Parts 1- 4 This link opens in a new window
The Slavery And Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive contains 4 parts. The parts are, Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition, Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World, Part III: The Institution of Slavery, and Part IV: The Age of Emancipation. Books, manuscripts, journals, are more tell the story of the transatlantic slave trade, abolition, emancipation, and the societal factors that contributed to it.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is our most comprehensive interdisciplinary archive of scholarly journal articles. For each journal included in JSTOR, it includes the full-run of the journal, from its beginning up until the most recent 3-5 years. Covers a wide variety of subjects such as history, literature, biology, business, and African-American studies.