Your Librarian
General Searching
When starting your research, it is helpful to begin by looking for a background source using CREDO Reference.
To locate secondary sources, head to the main library database. This database searches across all library holdings.
- Make sure to use AND/OR when searching with your keywords to combine or expand search terms.
You can also access USC's Digital Library for primary sources that the library has digitized.
Subject Specific Databases
- African American Newspapers (1827-1998) This link opens in a new windowProvides online access to 316 U.S. newspapers from 38 states and the District of Columbia chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new windowThis collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.
Over 15,000 items are available for searching. - Black Freedom Struggle in the United States This link opens in a new windowThis website contains approximately 1,600 documents focused on six different phases of Black Freedom:
Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860)
The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877)
Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932)
The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945)
The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975)
The Contemporary Era (1976-2000) - CQ Researcher Plus Archive This link opens in a new windowCQ Researcher is noted for its in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.
- History Vault: Japanese American Incarceration: Records of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946 This link opens in a new window
- History Vault: Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Law and Order in 19th Century America, 1636-1880 This link opens in a new window
- Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life This link opens in a new windowOver 24,000 pages from twenty-five titles of relocation camp newspapers, from 1942-1945.
- Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies This link opens in a new windowPart of the Global Issues Library, this curated database provides a rare breadth of study for students to investigate both crucial global trends in mass incarceration, and the detailed prison infrastructure of specific countries. Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies is organized around a selection of key historical and contemporary events and themes, bringing together archival and reference materials, court cases, first-hand accounts, videos, Supreme Court audio files, research on rehabilitation, training materials and artistic works.
- ProQuest History Vault: Slavery and the Law This link opens in a new windowDocuments in Series I: Petitions to State Legislatures, 1777-1867 include primary source materials digitized from the state archives of Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
- ProQuest History Vault: Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records, Parts 1 & 2 This link opens in a new windowPrimary sources included are from the papers (business and financial records, diaries, letterbooks, correspondence, etc.) of dozens (both prominent and average) slaveholding families from plantations in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia.
- Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new windowIncludes primary source documents and collections from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world. The resource is provided by Adam Matthew.
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new windowWe have access to Part II-IV: (2) Slave Trade in the Atlantic World, (3)The Institution of Slavery (1492-1888), (4) The Age of Emancipation. Provided by Gale-Cengage.
