| Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Slavery
Slavery has been a cross-cultural social and legal insititution in many human socities. Throughout the Internet History Sourcebooks Project, there
are a number of primary source documents related to slavery and the goal of this page is simply to bring them
together.
Contents
Ancient Slavery
Greek World
Rome
- Slavery in the Roman Republic excerpts from Plautus, Pseudolus, Act. I, Sc. 2; Cato the Elder, Agriculture, chs. 56-59; Plautus, Menaechmi, Act V, Sc. 4.; and Plutarch, Life of Crassus, viii-xi (on the Spartacus revolt). [At this Site]
- Texts on Three Roman Slave Revolts
A. Sicily 136-132 BCE - Diodorus Siculus (wrote 60-30 BCE), Bibliotheke Books 34/35. 2. 1-48; Strabo (64/3 BC- c.21 CE), Geography Book 6. 2. 6-7; Florus, Epitome of Roman History 2. 7. 1-8; Orosius, Histories Book 5. 6
B. Sicily 104-100 BCE - Diodorus Siculus (wrote 60-30 BCE), Bibliotheke Book 36. 1-11; Florus, Epitome 2. 7. 9-12; Dio Cassius (c.155-235 CE), Roman History Book 27 fragment 101
C. The War with Spartacus 73-71 CE - Plutarch, Crassus 8-11; Florus, Epitome 2. 8. 20; Appian, The Civil Wars 1. 111-121; Orosius, Histories 5. 24. 1-8
- Tacitus (b.56/57-after 117 CE): The Murder of Pedanius Secundus (Annals 14) [Was At Michigan, now Internet Archive]
On the murder of a slave-owner by his slave, possibly because of homosexual jealousy. The Senate addresses whether all the slaves in the house should be killed.
- 2ND John Madden: Slavery in the Roman Empire Numbers and Origins [Was At Classics Ireland, now Internet Archive]
Medieval
Islam
Early Modern Europe
Africa
The Slave Trade
Enslaved People
- Oladuah Equiano: The Life of Gustavus Vassa [At this Site]
- Oladuah Equiano: The Life of Gustavus Vassa [At Internet Archive, from Northpark]
- Oladuah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African London, 1789 [At Brycchan Carey]
- Oladuah Equiano: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African London, 1789 [At newsreel.com]
- WEB American Slave Narratives: An
Online Anthology [At Virginia] [Internet Archive backup here]
- WEB North American Slave Narratives [At UNC] [Internet Archive backup here]
- WEB Excerpts from Slave Narratives [At UHouston] [Internet Archive backup here]
Edited by Steven Mintz. Includes accounts from enslavement to the end of slavery in the US. All texts below are links to the Houston site]
- A European slave trader, John Barbot, describes the African slave trade (1682)
- A Muslim merchant, Ayubah Suleiman Diallo, recalls his capture and enslavement (1733)
- Olaudah Equiano, an 11-year old Ibo from Nigeria remembers his kidnapping into slavery (1789)
- Venture Smith relates the story of his kidnapping at the age of six (1798)
- A European slave trader, James Bardot, Jr., describes a shipboard revolt by enslaved Africans (1700)
- Olaudah Equiano describes the horrors of the Middle Passage (1789)
- A doctor, Alexander Falconbridge, describes conditions on an English slaver (1788)
- Olaudah Equiano describes his arrival in the New World (1789)
- An English physician, Alexander Falconbridge, describes the treatment of newly arrived slaves in the West Indies (1788)
- Olaudah Equiano describes West African religious beliefs and practices (1789)
- Charles Ball remembers a slave funeral, which incorporated traditional African customs (1837)
- Peter Randolph describes the religious gathers slaves held outside of their master's supervision (1893)
- Henry Bibb discusses "conjuration" (1849)
The Ending of Slavery
The Americas
- WEB The First Africans (Virginian 1619) [At Historic Jamestown] [Internet Archive version here]
- WEB Statutes of the United States Concerning Slavery 1794-1850 [At Yale] [Internet Archive backup here]
- WEB Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture [At Virginia] [Internet Archive backup here]
- WEB Slavery and Abolition: Primary Source Collections Online [At SHSU] [Internet Archive backup here]
- WEB Slavery: Primary Sources [At LoneStar] [Internet Archive backup here]
- John Pory, Secretary of Virginia: Letter to Sir Dudley Carleton 1619 [At Virtual Jamestown] [Internet Archive version here]
Documents the arrival of enslaved people in Jamestown in 1619
- The Confessions of Nat Turner (1800-1831) [At American Revolution] [Internet Archive version here]
- Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903): A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States 1856 [At American Revolution] [Internet Archive backup here]
- American Anti-Slavery Society: Declaration of Sentiments 1833 [At Virginia] [Internet Archive backup here]
- Angelina E. Grimké: Appeal To The Christian Women of the South 1836, full text [Was At Furman, now Internet Archive]
Text of one of the few abolitionist treatises published by a Southern
white woman.
- Rev. Dr. Richard Furman: Exposition of the Views of the Baptists, Relative to the Coloured Population in the United States 2nd ed, 1838 [Was At Furman, now Internet Archive]
A defence of slavery on Biblical principles.
- American Methodist Episcopal Church Conference: Motions on Slavery and Temperance 1840 [Was At CSUSM, now Internet Arrchive]
- Frederick Douglass (1817-1895): From The Autobiography 1845 [At
American Revolution] [Internet Archive backup here]
- Frederick Douglass (1817-1895): Autobiography 1845 [At this
Site][Full Text]
- Frederick Douglass (1817-1895): The Hypocrisy of American
Slavery July 4, 1852 [At this Site]
-
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895): The Anti-Slavery Movement in 1855 [Was At Then Again, now Internet Archive]
- James Stirling: The Life of Plantation Field Hands 1857
[At this Site]
- The Fugitive Slave Act September 18, 1850 [At this
Site] or excerpts here [At American
Revolution] [Internet Archive backup here]
- Henry Carey: Excerpts from: The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign 1853 [At American Revolution]
[Internet Archive backup here]
- John C. Calhoun: The Southern Address 1849 [Was At Furman, now Internet Archive]
- William Henry Seward: "Higher Law" Speech 1850 [Was At Furman, now Internet Archive]
- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): A Plea for Captain John Brown 1853 [At Yale] [Internet Archive backup here]
- Massachusetts Personal Liberty Act 1855 [At USInfo] [Internet Archive backup here]
Aimed at hleping runaway slaves.
- The Opinions of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case full texts, [At American Revolution] [Internet Archive backup here]
Brazil
- Slavery in Brazil PDF File [Was at Utexas, now Internet Archive]
Contains a number of primary sources on slavery in Brazil.
- WEB Brazilian Slavery [At HistClo] [Internet Archive version here]
- Charles Darwin: “I shall never again visit a slave-country” passage from near the end of the Voyage of the Beagle [At Victorian Web] [Internet Archive version here]
- Thomas Ewbank: On Slavery in Brazil 1856 [At Modern Latin America] [Internet Archive version here]
- Pope Leo XIII: Encyclical In Plurimus (On the Abolition of Slavery in Brazil), 1888. [At the Vatican]
The pope gives a history of slavery in the modern period, condemns Muslim slavery and
condones anti-slavery activity by popes. He neglects to mention the permission for the
onset of the African slave trade provide by Pope Nicholas V.
China and East Asia
Secondary Literature
General
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet
Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at
the Fordham University Center
for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the
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© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 15 November 2024 [CV]
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