| 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
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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 12 April 2024 [CV]
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