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Using Records about Slavery in the Southern Historical Collection: Popular Topics by Collection

This tutorial is meant to orient and direct users to materials that document the history of slavery in the Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Special Collections Library.

Topics

Topical Searching

Below we have attempted to list three to five collections that are content heavy for certain topics related to the subject of American slavery. As with Selected Collections, it is not meant to be a full representation of all the collections about slavery in the SHC, but rather is meant to be a starting point for research. You can use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) or keywords that are hyperlinked in the finding aids to discover more collections tagged under your topic of interest. We've also suggested a few keywords under each topic to get your search started. See the Searching in the SHC page for instructions on using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) or keywords to search the Library catalog.

Abolition​. Suggested keywords: Abolitionists. Quakers. Antislavery movements.

American Indians and Enslaved People. Suggested keywords: Indians of North America > Mixed descent.

Colonization Society. Suggested keywords: African Americans > Colonization.

Disease and Sickness. Suggested keywords: Slaves > Medical care.

Free People of Color. Suggested keywords: Slaves > Emancipation. Slaves > Employment.

Infanticide.

Insurrections. Suggested keywords: Slave insurrections > [limit by state].

Manumission. Suggested keywords: Abolitionists. Quakers. Antislavery movements.

Plantation Management. Suggested keywords: Plantations > [limit by state]. Slave records. Agriculture.

Rape and Sexual Assault. Suggested keywords: Miscegenation.

Reconstruction and Sharecropping: Suggested keywords: Freedmen. Reconstruction (U.S. History, 1865-1877). Slaves > Employment. Tenant farming. Sharecropping.

Resistance and Punishment. Suggested keywords: Slave insurrections.

Religiosity and Churches. Suggested keywords: Slaves > Religious life.

Slave Trade. Suggested keywords: Slave Trade.

Views and Perceptions of Slavery. 

Violence.