Primary Sources
Primary Sources for African History
Primary sources are contemporary documents that are associated with the historical event. Examples of primary sources include diaries, letters, magazine and newspaper articles, court hearings, and government documents. A guide to finding and using primary and secondary sources is eiu.libguides.com/primsec
To find primary sources in print or electronic formats, search the EIU Library Catalog.
Here are examples of primary sources for African history in the Booth Library collection:
Africa and the West : a documentary history from the slave trade to independence by
Primary source documents are valuable learning resources preferred by many teachers because they give student the chance to decipher and interpret the history themselves. Africa and the West presents a range of hard-to-find primary source documents on Africa from the slave trade that started in the early part of the fifteenth century to independence and the problems of the post-colonial period.
Call Number: DT353.5.E9 A34 2001 REFISBN: 1573562475Publication Date: 2001
Crosscurrents in the Black Atlantic, 1770-1965 : a brief history with documents by
Africans’ influence in the Atlantic world before 1960 was not confined to their roles as victims in the one-way forced migration of the Atlantic slave trade and their labor on New World plantations. From the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, black people in the divided communities of the four Atlantic continents struggled to overcome geographical and cultural separations and build a broad coalition against discrimination and exploitation. David Northrup offers a collection of primary sources that presents the social, political, and intellectual interactions of black people around the Atlantic in their quests for advancement, liberation, and emancipation. His thoughtful introduction explores the themes woven through the history of the black Atlantic, in particular black people’s search for security and self-fulfillment and their effort to find their place in a common humanity. Document headnotes, a chronology of key events, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography offer additional pedagogical support.
Call Number: DT16.5 .C76 2008 REFISBN: 9780312442446Publication Date: 2007
Booth Library also has several historical newspaper and magazine databases that provide access to primary sources. Here are full lists of both types of resources
- History DatabasesLists all databases relevant to doing research in History available at Booth Library
- Newspaper DatabasesLists all newspaper databases accessible from Booth Library
Here are examples of the library's historical and magazine databases
- New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new windowFull text articles and scanned image page-views for this national newspaper | 1851-2019
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowFull text and images from historical magazines | Topics include American independence, general interest, children's publications, journal articles for women, and the Civil War | 1740s - early 1900s
- Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new windowPrimary source articles from 19th-century British periodicals | Events, lives, values, and themes that shaped the British Empire and the 19th-century world | Includes Series I (New Readerships) and Series II (Empire)
- Chicago Tribune (Historical) This link opens in a new windowFull text and images for the Chicago Tribune | 1849-1997
- Times (London) Digital Archive, 1785-1985 This link opens in a new windowFull-text Articles | 1785-1985
