American Studies

19th Century American History

Economic and Social Analyses

New America, by Williams Hepworth Dixon (1867)
Plotting Social Variables in the 19th Century (maps, statistics, etc.: part of the American Studies web at Georgetown U)
19th century America: demographics (courtesy of Harvard U)
19th century America at war (links to the War of 1812; the Civil War; Mexican-American War; Black Hills Treaty with the Sioux; primary documents by John Henry Asendorf, Mark Twain, and many more . . .)
Talk before the Economic History Association, by J. Bradford De Long (discusses the effect of tariffs on American social and economic life in the 19th century)
Godey's Lady's Book Online (the popular 19th century lady's book containing engravings, poetry, articles, etc.)
"A Larger Motherhood is Required:" The Development of a Female Reform Tradition in Nineteenth Century America, by Elizabeth Clapp
American/Canadian history (numerous links on all periods of American history)
America in the Gilded Age 1877-1901 (traces the growing inclination toward modernism in America from Thomas J. Schlereth to Jane Addams)

The Western Frontier: Pioneer Spirit, Native American Encounters, and the Law of the West

Click here to see more photographs of the American West.

Native Americans and the Western Frontier (100 plus links to images, atlases, narratives, and critical essays)
Native American history (General information regarding Native American culture, conquistadores, the Cherokee National Historical Society, California Indian Library Collections, some primary texts)
Native American History and Studies (online journal articles, institutes, museums, images, and bibliographies)
Pioneer Day in Kansas, by Richard Cordley, D.D. (an online version of the text)
Chickasaw Historical Research (letters, treaties, and other documents)
Woman on the American frontier, by William Worthington Fowler (1877)
Belden, the White Chief; or, Twelve Years Among the Wild Indians of the Plains, by George P. Belden (1870)
The Indians of southern California in 1852, by B.D. Wilson (1852) accompanied by contemporary comment
An Account of Sitting Bull's Death, by James McLaughlin (1891)
The Indians of Los Angeles County: Hugo Reid's Letters of 1852
Aboriginal America, by Jacab Abbott (1860)
Gallery of the Open Frontier (photos, paintings, etc.)
The Indian races of North and South America, by Charles De Wolf Brownell (1864)
The Indian miscellany, by William Wallace Beach (1877)
The Frontier in American History, by Frederick Jackson Turner

The Rise and Fall of Slavery

African-American Women (Elizabeth Johnson Harris: Life Story, Vilet Lester Letter, Hannah Valentine and Lethe Jackson slave letters; links to manuscripts and general African-American history)
Slave Voices from the Special Collections Library, Duke University (forced migration, plantation work, the slave community, etc.)
Slave Narratives: an online anthology (13 hypertexts with brief biographical notes)
Documenting the American South: Narratives of Slavery (more of the above)
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Ex-slave narratives (Emma Crockett, Nathan Beauchamp, Simon Walker, and more)
Abolition page (courtesy of the African-American mosaic: a brief history of the movement accompanied by images, biographies, and links to other sites pertaining to this historical period)
Influence of Prominent Abolitionists (Susan B. Anthony, Lydia Mott, et. al.)
Buffalo Soldiers on the Western Frontier
Conflict of Abolition and Slavery (statistical analysis of free and slave states)
Post-emancipation migrations (maps, statistics, images, and more)
Freemen homesteading (more maps, social descriptions, photographs, etc.)
The Emancipation Act (images, text, and synopsis)
"A Hard Shove for a 'Nation on the Brink': The Impact of Dred Scott," by Lisa Cozzens
An Address to the Negroes in the State of New York, by Jupiter Hammon
Speech of Hon. Thomas L. Clingman, of North Carolina, against the revolutionary movement of the anti-slavery party (1860)
The Fire and Hammer of God's Word Against the Sin of Slavery, George Barrell (1858) (controversial literature on the issue of slavery)
The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Dubois
David Walker: Pioneer of Black Nationalist Thought (1785-1830: an early argument against the ethics of slavery)
Domestic life of the female slave (marriage patterns, infanticide, sexual exploitation, etc.)
Slaves fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War
Articles on American slavery, edited by Paul Finkelman (Slavery and historiography, fugitive slaves, ideology, religion, medicine, etc.)

The Civil War

The Civil War Homepage (General Resources, images, primary sources, military information, state/local studies, etc.)
Causes of the Civil War (numerous links regarding party platforms, secession, political speeches, resolutions, and other documents)
Civil War Women (Rose O'Neal Greenhow Papers, Alice Williamson Diary, Sarah E. Thompson Papers; links to photographs, primary sources, online manuscripts, special collections, and more . . .)
General Officers of the Civil War (a gallery of pictures of famous military men)
U.S. Civil War Center (a comprehensive index of information on the Civil War: images, art, museums, virtual tours, maps, poetry, diaries, documents, and so on)
Civil War Documents and Letters
Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War
Images of the Civil War (prisoners, railroads, women, Lincoln's assassination, and more: arranged by subject and location)
Civil War Poetry and Music page (from both sides of the Mason-Dixon . . .)
Antietam: A Photographic Tour
Sectional Conflict (a series of synopses describing the origins and aftermath of the Civil War)

The Rise of Industry and Imperialism

African Americans in the Anti-Imperialist Movement, by Jim Zwick
The Age of Imperialism (images and texts covering the Spanish-American War, expansion in the Pacific, Boxer Rebellion, and more)
"Who Will Crush the Copperhead? I Will!" (anti-imperialist political cartoon, 1899)
The Rise of American Imperialism (an outline of motives and strategies)
The Era of Expansion and Reform (a series of synopses describing the growth of cities, industrial progress, Populism, social criticism, etc.)
Laborers (an article on anti-Chinese sentiments during the American Industrial Revolution)
"Anti-Carnegie: Scraps and Comments," by M.F. and J.C. Campbell, 1899 (claims to be a "veritable history of the anti-imperial craze)
Who's Who in the Early American Industrial Revolution (a short index of the big names; concise descriptions of major players of the movement)

Libraries, Archives, and Research Tools

Repositories of Primary Sources (over 2100 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, photographs, etc . . .)
The Library of Congress (go directly to Special Collections or to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections)
Nineteenth century text index (Thomas Jefferson's first inaugural address; cases of John Marshall; the Monroe Doctrine; The Confessions of Nat Turner; Excerpts from "The Fugitive Slave Act"; from the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass; The opinions of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case; The Gettysburg Address: The Emancipation Declaration; Wade-Davis Manifesto; Abraham Lincoln's last speech; and much more . . .)
Nineteenth century chronology of texts (Works of Jefferson and Madison, inaugural addresses, the Constitution, Emancipation Proclamation, general Civil War info)