The era of slavery in the United States is the subject of this scholarly 3-volume reference set. Covering some 250 years in the nation's history, Milestone Documents of U.S. Slavery includes 100 critical primary sources, from essays, speeches, and letters to government documents such as legislation and court opinions. In each case, the primary source is paired with in-depth commentary from numerous scholars and historians. Edited by acclaimed slavery scholar Paul Finkelman, Milestone Documents of U.S. Slavery is an essential resource for anyone researching the development, features, and eventual abolition of slavery in the United States.
John Rolfe: Letter to Sir Edwin Sandys (1619)Virginia's Act XII: Negro Women's Children to Serve according to the Condition of the Mother (1662)Virginia's Act III: Baptism Does Not Exempt Slaves from Bondage (1667)"A Minute against Slavery, Addressed to Germantown Monthly Meeting" (1688)Samuel Sewell: "The Selling of Joseph" (1700)James Oglethorpe: “An Account of the Negroe Insurrection in South Carolina” (1739)Daniel Horsmanden: The New-York Conspiracy (1744)Dockside at Virginia Tobacco Warehouse Illustration (1751)John Woolman: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes (1754)Slaves for Sale Advertisement (1760)Thomas Jefferson: Advertisement for a Runaway Slave (1769)Lord Dunmore's Proclamation (1775)Petition of Prince Hall and Other African Americans to the Massachusetts General Court (1777)Pennsylvania: An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery (1780) Commonwealth v. Jennison (1781)Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) The Old Plantation Painting (1785)Constitutional Convention: Debates on Slavery (1786)Slavery Clauses in the U.S. Constitution (1787)Alexander Falconbridge: An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (1788) The Brooks drawing of a slave ship (1781)Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 (1793)Richard Allen: “An Address to Those Who Keep Slaves, and Approve the Practice" (1794)Prince Hall: A Charge Delivered to the African Lodge (1797)Venture Smith: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa (1798)Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves (1807)Peter Williams, Jr.: “Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade" (1808)Missouri Compromise (1820)Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm: First Freedom's Journal Editorial (1827)David Walker: Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829) State v. Mann (1829) The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831)William Lloyd Garrison: First Liberator Editorial (1831)“Jim Crow” (song) (1832)Joseph Story: “Privileges of Citizens—Fugitives—Slaves” (1833)Lydia Maria Child: Thoughts on Slavery and Emancipation (1833)James Buchanan: Remarks to Congress on Slavery (1836)William Drayton: The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Northern Abolitionists (1836)Wendell Phillips Speech on the Killing of Elijah Lovejoy (1837)John C. Calhoun: "Slavery a Positive Good" (1837) United States v. Amistad (1841) Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)Henry Highland Garnet: "An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America" (1843)William Lloyd Garrison: "Address to the Friends of Freedom and Emancipation in the United States" (1844) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)Richard Doyle: “The Land of Liberty” Cartoon (1847)Salmon P. Chase: Reclamation of Fugitives from Service (1847)William Wells Brown: "Slavery As It Is" (1847)Frederick Douglass: Letter "To My Old Master" (1848)Currier & Ives: “Congressional Scales: A True Balance” Cartoon (1850)Compromise of 1850 (1850)Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (1850)John C. Calhoun: "On the Slavery Question" (1850)Narrative of the Life of Henry "Box" Brown, Written by Himself (1851)Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, Report on the Diseases of the Negro (1851) Souther v.Commonwealth (1851)Charles Sumner: "Freedom National" Speech (1851)Frederick Douglass: "Fourth of July" Speech" (1852)Martin Delany: The Condition, Elevation, ... and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852) Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup (1853)Wendell Phillips: "The Philosophy of the Abolition Movement" (1853)Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)William J. Grayson: "The Hireling and the Slave" Poem (1854)Thomas Garrett Describes Harriet Tubman (1855)“Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler” Cartoon (1856)P. C. Weston: Rules on the Rice Estate (1856)Hinton Rowan Helper: The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It (1857)James Stirling: Letters from the Slave States (1857) Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)"Picking Cotton, Georgia, 1858" Illustration (1858)James Henry Hammond: "Cotton Is King" Speech (1858)Abraham Lincoln: "House Divided" Speech" (1858)Thomas R.R. Cobb: "An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery" (1858)John Brown: Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States (1858) Ableman v. Booth (1859)Wendell Phillips: "The Puritan Principle and John Brown" (1859)Brigham Young: Sermon on Race and Slavery (1859)Charles Langston Speech in Oberlin-Wellington Trial (1859)Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Speech for the Anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1860)Virginia Slave Code (1860)Lydia Marie Child Correspondence with Mrs. Mason on John Brown (1860)Confederate Constitution (1861)Frederick Law Olmsted: Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom (1861)South Carolina Declaration of the Causes of Secession (1860)Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)Alexander Stevens: Cornerstone Speech (1861)"Rev. Thornton Stringfellow, Slavery … Considered in the Light of Bible Teachings" (1861)Rabbi David Einhorn: Response to "A Biblical View of Slavery" (1861)District of Columbia Emancipation Law and Law Ending Slavery in the Territories (1862)Emancipation Proclamation (1863)Frederick Douglass: "The Reasons for Our Troubles" (1862)Treaty between United States and Great Britain for the Suppression of the Slave Trade (1862)Frances Anne Kemble: Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (1863)Picture of Slave "Gordon" also known as Peter (1863)Frederick Douglass: "Men of Color, To Arms!" (1863)U.S. War Department General Order 143 Establishing the Bureau of U.S. Colored Troops (1863)Thomas Morris Chester's Civil War Dispatches (1864)Guard House and Guard, 107th U.S. Colored Infantry, Fort Corcoran Photograph (1865)Black Code of Mississippi (1865)William Lloyd Garrison: Valedictory Editorial of the Liberator (1865)William T. Sherman: Special Field Order No. 15 (1865)Major General Gordon Granger: General Order No,.3 June 19, 1865 (1865)Thirteenth Amendment (1865)Fourteenth Amendment (1868)Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
"The first broad collocation of sources [about the history of slavery] since Willie Lee Rose’s A Documentary History of Slavery in North America (1976, rev. ed. 1999).... The set is impressive.... Recommended."
Paul Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor, Emeritus at Albany Law School. He has been the Fulbright Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Ottawa College of Law. As a visiting professor he held the John Hope Franklin Chair in Legal History at Duke Law School, the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights Law at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law, and John E. Murray Chair at Pittsburgh Law School. He was scholar-in-residence at the National Constitution Center. He is the author of more than 200 scholarly articles and the author or editor of more than fifty books. His most recent major book is Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation's Highest Court, published by Harvard University Press.
