LibGuides: American History Resources: Primary Sources

Finding Books that are Primary Sources

To identify books that are primary sources:

1) Look for books written by people who were involved in the event or activity you are researching. (Tip: When you look at secondary sources, write down the names of people and then look for them as authors.)

2) In the Moody Library Online catalog, books that have been assigned subjects with the subheadings in the list below might be primary sources. Not all books that include primary sources will include one of these words or phrases in a subject heading.

--Diaries
--Correspondence
--Biography
--Sources
--Anecdotes
--Personal narratives
--Interviews

Examples:

Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Correspondence

Pioneers -- Pennsylvania -- Correspondence

Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Sources

Society of Friends -- History -- 18th century -- Sources

United States -- History -- Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713 -- Personal narratives

Some Online Primary Sources

The primary souce materials listed below are all located in Ebsco E-Books a digital library of full-text e-books. HCU owns access to the books below and more than 50,000 more. Direct links to these books are provided in the online catalog record or you may go to the Ebsco site to search the content of our books.

Documenting American violence [electronic resource] : a sourcebook / by edited by Christopher Waldrep and Michael Bellesiles.
Call Number: Ebsco HN90 .V5 D66 2006 (also ebrary)
ISBN: 0195150031
Documenting American Violence brings together excerpts from a wide range of sources about incidents of violence in the United States. Each document is set into context, allowing readers to see the event through the viewpoints of contemporary participants and witnesses and to understand how these deeds have been excused, condemned, or vilified by society. Organized topically, this volume looks at such diverse topics as famous crimes, vigilantism, industrial violence, domestic abuse, and state-sanctioned violence. Among the primary sources that describe these events are: Benjamin Franklin's account of the Conestoga massacre, when an entire village of American Indians was killed by the Paxton Boys, a group of frontier settlers, militant abolitionist John Brown's attack on Harpers Ferry, Ida B. Wells's condemnation of lynchings in the South, the massacre of General Custer's 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn, as witnessed by Cheyenne war chief Two Moon, Nat Turner's confession about the slave revolt he led in Southampton County, Virginia, Oliver Wendell Holmes's diaries and letters from when he was a young infantry officer in the Civil War, a police officer's account of the Haymarket Trials, Harry Thaw's murder of the Gilded Age's most prominent architect, Stanford White, through his own published version of the events, the post-trial, public confessions of Ray Bryant and J. W. Milam for the murder of Emmett Till, the Los Angeles Police Department's investigation into the causes of the 1992 riot.
George Washington and slavery [computer file] : a documentary portrayal / by Fritz Hirschfeld.
Call Number: Ebsco E312.17.H648 1997
ISBN: 0826211356
An account of Washington's role in helping mold the racist cast of the new nation, tracing his transition from conventional slaveholder to lukewarm abolitionist. Relies on primary documents including correspondence, diaries, and other written records by Washington, family members, aides, colleagues, and visitors to Mount Vernon, as well as newspaper reports and official documents related to his relationships with African Americans.
Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan [electronic resource] : letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815 / by written & edited by Kerby A. Miller ... [et al.].
Call Number: ebrary E184 .I6 I683 2003 (also Ebsco)
ISBN: 0195045130
Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan is a monumental study of early Irish Protestant and Catholic immigration to America. Through exhaustive research and analysis of the migrants' letters and memoirs, the editors explore why the immigrants left Ireland, how they adapted to colonial and revolutionary America, and how their experiences and attitudes shaped society, culture and politics, and created modern Irish and Irish-American identities, in America and Ireland alike.
Presidents from Taylor through Grant, 1849-1877 [electronic resource] : debating the issues in pro and con primary documents / by [compiled by] Jeffrey W. Coker.
Call Number: ebrary E176.1 .P9227 2002
ISBN: 0313315515
Contents: Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) and Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) -- Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) -- James Buchanan (1857-1861) -- Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) -- Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) -- Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877).
With pen and saber [computer file] : the letters and diaries of J.E.B. Stuart's staff officers / by [edited by] Robert J. Trout.
Call Number: Ebsco E546.5.W66 1995
ISBN: 0811719308
First-person accounts provide chronological coverage of the Civil War from May 1861 to May 1864.

Historians: Primary Source Web Sites

Journal of American History (Open Access Journal)
The Journal of American History
*Established in 2013
*More than 5 million unique readers since the launch
*More than 8 million page views since launch
*More than 1400 articles published
*More than 250 expert authors
*Our historical research and writing has been featured or cited by CNN, Discovery Channel, History Channel, TIME, New York Times, Smithsonian, Bloomberg, Slate, AHA, Huffington Post, History News Network, MSNBC, NPR, Mental Floss, and many others
*Numerous books, Wikipedia entries, and other sites have cited research and writing that first appeared in Journal of the American Revolution
*Publishers, TV and film producers, conference organizers, speaker bureaus, and others approach us for guidance in their Revolutionary War-oriented endeavors

Primary Sources on the Web: Historians make their recommendations for useful web sites with online access.

Primary Sources

American Republic : primary sources / by edited by Bruce Frohnen.
Call Number: ebrary E173.A7535 2002
ISBN: 0865973334
This single volume collection of primary sources includes documents, speeches, and essays covering the time of European settlement to the era just before the Civil War.
Annals of America
Call Number: E173.A793 vol. 1-21
ISBN: 0852299605
Covering Columbus to the 21st century, it now includes more than 2,000 primary documents—proclamations, speeches, poems, songs, newspaper and magazine articles, sermons, letters and editorials by the people who made history. In addition to such widely available texts as the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address, it includes essential works by Jane Addams, Clarence Darrow, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Noah Webster, Walt Whitman and more than a thousand others.
Cold War presidency : a documentary history / by Thomas S. Langston.
Call Number: E176.1.L265 2007
ISBN: 1933116382
Langston has assembled speeches, position papers, bills and laws, reports, and other documents to illustrate the goals, accomplishments, and failures of nine US presidents from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan. A first section sets the context with documents from the end of World War II, and a final one looks at legacies of a 50-year war. He provides a series of introductory essays for each section explaining major issues and events. Biographical sketches and a chronology are appended.
Milestone documents of American leaders : exploring the primary sources of notable Americans / by Paul Finkelman, editor in chief.
Call Number: Ebsco E173.M623 2009
ISBN: 097977585X
Offers a unique biographical approach to the study of primary source documents. The 120 entries cover notable Americans from the Revolutionary era to the 21st century, including presidents, senators, diplomats, Supreme Court justices, labor leaders, social activists, first ladies, and religious figures.

Additional Examples of U.S. History Primary Sources

Moody Library has a number of sets of papers of important Americans including many presidents, such as Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, and Eisenhower. Also we have papers of other important Americans such as Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, and Adlai Stevenson. These papers are excellent primary sources to use in historical research. To find these sets of papers do a title search in the HCU online catalog for "Papers of ..." or "Public papers of ...".

Some other examples of primary source materials are presented below.

Debating the issues in colonial newspapers : primary documents on events of the period / by David A. Copeland.
Call Number: ebrary E187.C78 2000 (also Ebsco)
ISBN: 0313309825
With this unique collection of primary source documents from colonial newspapers, students will be able to debate the issues of colonial America. Pro and con opinion pieces, letters, essays and news reports that were printed in colonial newspapers will help the reader to understand the differing viewpoints of colonial Americans on the key issues from 1690 to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Nearly 300 documents, organized chronologically by event, will help readers step back in time to debate the issues faced by 18th-century Americans.
Eisenhower : the prewar diaries and selected papers, 1905-1941 / by Daniel D. Holt, editor ; James W. Leyerzapf, associate editor ; introduction by John S.D. Eisenhower.
Call Number: E742.5.E372 1998
ISBN: 0801856744
Holt introduces readers to Dwight Eisenhower's pre-WW II military career through the material gathered in this book. A compendium of Ike's private correspondence, formal memos, speeches he ghost-wrote for superiors, and perhaps most important, his diaries, the volume sheds new light on Eisenhower's work, family life, and worldview. The ebb and flow of life in the peacetime military are well represented here; so, too, are Eisenhower's assessments of associates in the armed forces, including some withering, acute criticisms of General Douglas MacArthur, for whom he worked both in Washington and the Philippines.
Lee's adjutant : the wartime letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862-1865 /
Call Number: E470.2.T28 1995
ISBN: 1570030219
Taylor served at General Lee's side during the entire Civil War, and his personal correspondence sheds light on everyday life at Lee's headquarters and on the general himself. Taylor's letters home recount the Army of Northern Virginia's early triumphs, invasions of the North, defeat at Gettysburg, the siege of Petersburg, and final surrender.
Let freedom ring : a documentary history of the modern civil rights movement / by edited by Peter B. Levy.
Call Number: E185.61.D64 1992b
ISBN: 0275934349
This book traces the story of the civil rights movement through the written and spoken words of those who participated in it. It includes both classic texts, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and lesser-known gems, such as Robert Moses' "Letter from a Mississippi Jail Cell" and James Lawson's address to SNCC's 1960 founding meeting.
Origins of the Dred Scott case : Jacksonian jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857 / by Austin Allen.
Call Number: ebrary KF4545.S5 A948 2006
ISBN: 0820326534
Allen examines the contexts of the US Supreme Court in the years leading to the 1857 decision at an intellectual as well as political level, a world that was deeply mired in the futile effort to be all things to all factions, ranging from slave-holders to states' rights advocates, federalists, economic developers expecting a new corporate order, and the remains of the Jacksonian democratic enthusiasts.