- Getting Started
- Literature of Slavery & Freedom: 1746-1865
- Literature of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance: 1865-1919
- The Harlem Renaissance: 1919-1940
- Contemporary Authors
Reference Sources
A reference source is a great place to start your research. Reference sources give us a general overview of the subject and provide more context before exploring additional sources.
Britannica Academic Encyclopedia content plus multimedia, timelines, world data analyst, country comparison, and the Britannica blog.
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
A reference source is a great place to start your research. Reference sources give us a general overview of the subject and provide more context before exploring additional sources.
Britannica Academic Encyclopedia content plus multimedia, timelines, world data analyst, country comparison, and the Britannica blog.
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Primo OneSearch
Search the library catalog to find physical books, eBooks, periodicals and more.
Select Keywords and Subject Headings
You can use these recommended keyword/subject terms to help guide your research:
- African Americans
- African American literature
- Harlem Renaissance
- slave narratives
Select Keywords and Subject Headings
You can use these recommended keyword/subject terms to help guide your research:
- African Americans
- African American literature
- Harlem Renaissance
- slave narratives
You can browse the A-Z Database List to see a full list of library databases available through the Ruth A. Myers Library.
Recommended Databases
Academic Journals
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) Provides full text articles from over 4,600 publications, covering a wide range of academic subjects.
Primary Sources
Britannica Original Sources A compilation of more than 420,000 primary source documents, complete books, and authentic images across a variety of subject areas.
Films Media Group Archival Films & Newsreels Collection Provides over 13,000 video clips and over 5,000 full-length videos of archival and historical films from historic newsreels, recorded public events, wars, cultural phenomena, and government programs.
News Sources
New York Times Website Full access to nytimes.com and the NYT mobile app for all current FDLTCC students, staff and faculty. Follow the library’s New York Times guide to create your account.
ProQuest U.S. Newsstream U.S. news content as well as archives that stretch back into the 1980s from national and regional news sources including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, Chicago Tribune and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Recommended Databases
Academic Journals
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) Provides full text articles from over 4,600 publications, covering a wide range of academic subjects.
Primary Sources
Britannica Original Sources A compilation of more than 420,000 primary source documents, complete books, and authentic images across a variety of subject areas.
Films Media Group Archival Films & Newsreels Collection Provides over 13,000 video clips and over 5,000 full-length videos of archival and historical films from historic newsreels, recorded public events, wars, cultural phenomena, and government programs.
News Sources
New York Times Website Full access to nytimes.com and the NYT mobile app for all current FDLTCC students, staff and faculty. Follow the library’s New York Times guide to create your account.
ProQuest U.S. Newsstream U.S. news content as well as archives that stretch back into the 1980s from national and regional news sources including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, Chicago Tribune and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
African American Writers of the 19th Century / New York Public Library: includes a digital collection of published works by 19th-century black women writers, biographies for each author, citations and much more.
North American Slave Narratives / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of Black people struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
North American Slave Narratives / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of Black people struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
Keith Cich
Primary Sources
William L. Andrews, and Henry Louis Gates. Slave Narratives (LOA #114) : James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw / Olaudah Equiano / Nat Turner / Frederick Douglass / William Wells Brown / Henry Bibb / Sojourner Truth / William and Ell. Library of America, 2000.
Secondary Sources
Escott, Paul D. Slavery Remembered : A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives. The University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
Neary, Janet. Fugitive Testimony: On the Visual Logic of Slave Narratives. Fordham University Press, 2017.
William L. Andrews, and Henry Louis Gates. Slave Narratives (LOA #114) : James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw / Olaudah Equiano / Nat Turner / Frederick Douglass / William Wells Brown / Henry Bibb / Sojourner Truth / William and Ell. Library of America, 2000.
Secondary Sources
Escott, Paul D. Slavery Remembered : A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives. The University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
Neary, Janet. Fugitive Testimony: On the Visual Logic of Slave Narratives. Fordham University Press, 2017.
Works
Selected Speeches and Writings. Lawrence Hill Books, 1999.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom. G&D Media, 2019.
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Dover Publications, 2003.
Secondary Sources
Dilbeck, D. H. Frederick Douglass: America’s Prophet. University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
Leigh Fought. Women in the World of Frederick Douglass. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Martin, Waldo E. The Mind of Frederick Douglass. The University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
Selected Speeches and Writings. Lawrence Hill Books, 1999.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom. G&D Media, 2019.
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Dover Publications, 2003.
Secondary Sources
Dilbeck, D. H. Frederick Douglass: America’s Prophet. University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
Leigh Fought. Women in the World of Frederick Douglass. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Martin, Waldo E. The Mind of Frederick Douglass. The University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
Works
Being Brought From Africa to America - The Best of Phillis Wheatley. Ragged Hand, 2020.
The Poems of Phillis Wheatley : With Letters and a Memoir. Dover Publications, 2010.
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Secondary Sources
Barker-Benfield, G.J. Phillis Wheatley Chooses Freedom : History, Poetry, and the Ideals of the American Revolution. NYU Press, 2018.
Carretta, Vincent. Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage. University of Georgia Press, 2011.
Decker, William Merrill. Geographies of Flight: Phillis Wheatley to Octavia Butler. Northwestern University Press, 2020.
Shields, John C. Phillis Wheatley and the Romantics. Univ Tennessee Press, 2010.
Being Brought From Africa to America - The Best of Phillis Wheatley. Ragged Hand, 2020.
The Poems of Phillis Wheatley : With Letters and a Memoir. Dover Publications, 2010.
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Secondary Sources
Barker-Benfield, G.J. Phillis Wheatley Chooses Freedom : History, Poetry, and the Ideals of the American Revolution. NYU Press, 2018.
Carretta, Vincent. Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage. University of Georgia Press, 2011.
Decker, William Merrill. Geographies of Flight: Phillis Wheatley to Octavia Butler. Northwestern University Press, 2020.
Shields, John C. Phillis Wheatley and the Romantics. Univ Tennessee Press, 2010.
Works
The Souls of Black Folk
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
Secondary Sources
Blum, Edward J. W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
Shaw, Stephanie J. W. E. B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk. University of North Carolina Press, 2013.
Gillman, Susan, and Alys Eve Weinbaum, editors. Next to the Color Line: Gender, Sexuality, and W. E. B. Du Bois. NED-New edition, University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
The Souls of Black Folk
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil
Secondary Sources
Blum, Edward J. W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
Shaw, Stephanie J. W. E. B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk. University of North Carolina Press, 2013.
Gillman, Susan, and Alys Eve Weinbaum, editors. Next to the Color Line: Gender, Sexuality, and W. E. B. Du Bois. NED-New edition, University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
Works
Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in all its Phases
The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and
Alleged Causes of Lynching
in the United States
Mob Rule in New Orleans: Robert Charles and His Fight to Death, the Story of His Life, Burning Human Beings Alive, Other Lynching Statistics
Secondary Sources
Davidson, James West. ’They Say’ : Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Schechter, Patricia Ann. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880-1930. The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in all its Phases
The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and
Alleged Causes of Lynching
in the United States
Mob Rule in New Orleans: Robert Charles and His Fight to Death, the Story of His Life, Burning Human Beings Alive, Other Lynching Statistics
Secondary Sources
Davidson, James West. ’They Say’ : Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Schechter, Patricia Ann. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and American Reform, 1880-1930. The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Houston A. Baker, Jr. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Kirschke, Amy Helene. Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance. University Press of Mississippi, 2014.
Christian, Shawn Anthony. The Harlem Renaissance and the Idea of a New Negro Reader. University of Massachusetts Press, 2016.
Kirschke, Amy Helene. Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance. University Press of Mississippi, 2014.
Christian, Shawn Anthony. The Harlem Renaissance and the Idea of a New Negro Reader. University of Massachusetts Press, 2016.
Works
The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison : Revised and Updated. Modern Library, 2003.
Secondary Sources
Bradley, Adam. Ralph Ellison in Progress : From Invisible Man to Three Days Before the Shooting--. Yale University Press, 2010.
Patrice D. Rankine. Ulysses in Black : Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature. University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.
Porter, Horace A. Jazz Country: Ralph Ellison in America. University of Iowa Press, 2001.
The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison : Revised and Updated. Modern Library, 2003.
Secondary Sources
Bradley, Adam. Ralph Ellison in Progress : From Invisible Man to Three Days Before the Shooting--. Yale University Press, 2010.
Patrice D. Rankine. Ulysses in Black : Ralph Ellison, Classicism, and African American Literature. University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.
Porter, Horace A. Jazz Country: Ralph Ellison in America. University of Iowa Press, 2001.
Primary Sources
Selected Poems
Selected Poems