Research Guides: HIST 2600: The New South, 1865-1929: Primary Sources

Edited Collections

You can find some primary sources in books. Below is a list of relevant subject headings. When searching for these in the catalog, try adding "sources", "documents", "correspondence" or "letters" to your search.

African Americans -- History -- 1863-1877 -- Sources.

Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Sources.

Historical Newspapers - Print

Atkins Library has a number of old newspapers on microfilm. These may be challenging to use because they do not have an index. However, if you have a specific date or narrow date range, this will help you in using the newspapers on microfilm.

Early American Newspapers on Microfilm
Early American Newspapers owned by the J. Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte.
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Newspapers
List of historical and current local newspapers owned by Atkins Library.

Databases and Websites

City and Business Directories: North Carolina, 1886-1929 Digital Archive
Historical, personal, and professional information about the inhabitants of a city and city organizations.

Documenting the American South
Primary source materials relating to Southern history. Open access.

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A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Includes: First-Person Narratives of the American South; Library of Southern Literature; North American Slave Narratives; The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865; The Church in the Southern Black Community.

Mountain People: Life and Culture in Appalachia
Diaries, journals and narratives of explorers, emigrants, military men, Native Americans and travelers to Appalachia.

Nineteenth Century in Print
From The Making of America in Prints and Periodicals

North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Colonial to 1950 - includes the experiences of 632 women as revealed in diaries and letters.

North Carolina Digital Collections
contain historic and recent photographs, state government publications, manuscripts, and other resources on topics related to North Carolina

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Collections bring together content from the Archives and Library of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

Newspapers and other Periodicals

African American Communities (Adam Matthew)
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories.
African American Newspapers
Contains information about cultural life and history during the 1800's and includes first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and Congressional addresses, the humanities, world travel and religion.
African American Newspapers Series 1: 1827-1998
Provides access to U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African-American experience. This collection includes historically significant papers and features many rare 19th-century titles.
African American Newspapers in the South, 1870-1926
Provides access to a collection of newspapers reporting on the African American experience in segregated southern America from 1870 to 1926. The collection contains editorial pieces that expose the racial discrimination and violence that many suffered through, and also includes light-hearted pieces that focused on other civil affairs, events, local gossip, and more throughout the local community.
American History, 1493-1945 (Adam Matthew)
Documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. Sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Atlanta Constitution (1868-1942)
Newspaper includes obituaries, stocks and editorials.
Charlotte Observer (1886-present)
Charlotte Observer online from 1886 to the present.
Charlotte Observer Historical Archive, 1886-2018 (via Readex)
Includes obituaries, stocks, editorials and first-hand accounts of events.
Chicago Defender (1910-1975)
A leading African-American newspaper, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside of Chicago.

Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers 1789-1963
Newspaper digitization project from the Library of Congress

Eight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile)
Eight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile) is a database covering primary source materials from 1106 until 1960. Provides access to articles, newspapers, books, U.S. patents, government documents, and images.
Harper's Weekly: 1857-1912
A 19th century illustrated newspaper from 1857-1912. Includes news stories, illustrations, cartoons, editorials, biographies, literature and advertisements.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980
Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during 19th and 20th centuries. Many of these newspapers were published bilingually in Spanish and English.
Historic North Carolina Digital Newspaper Collection
Newspapers.com North Carolina Collection includes digitized content from over 1,000 NC county newspapers.
History Commons - North America
19th Century African American newspapers, American County Histories to 1900, American Civil War Primary Sources, and more.
New York Times Historical Archives (1851-2021)
Major global newspaper including news, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, as well as photos and advertisements.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO)
A comprehensive primary source collection focusing on the nineteenth century. This resource features collections on a variety of topics including children's literature, photography, European and African commerce, and more.

North Carolina Newspapers (1824-2012)
Collection includes a selection of student and community newspapers from schools and towns around North Carolina

Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (H.W. Wilson)
Index for general-interest, news, and opinion magazines published primarily in the United States.
Times Picayune (1923-1988)
News Orleans-based newspaper covering 1923-1988

Government Documents

HeinOnline

Legal history and government documents. Contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and entire databases of treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, international trade, foreign relations, and more.
ProQuest Congressional Hearings
Access congressional publications dealing with the wide variety of topics addressed by Congress.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set
Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 1817-1962.

Living Charlotte

Living Charlotte: The Postwar Development of a New South City, 1944-1987
Partnering with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, J. Murrey Atkins Library is leading Living Charlotte, a project to digitize audio oral history recordings, municipal city planning and development documents, and the personal and legal papers of key individuals in the civil rights and desegregation movements.

DigitalNC

DPLA

DPLA
A portal to digitized content made available by libraries, archives and museums

HathiTrust

A repository for digital collections. Items in the public domain (works published before 1923) are freely accessible online.