Research Guides: American Literature: Primary Sources

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What's a 'primary source'? Primary sources are materials that contain first-hand information. Some examples of primary source documents from this Resource Guide include: our country's founding documents (the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence), Hamilton, Jay, Madison, and Monroe's The Federalist Papers, and Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon.

The Library of Congress
Everything from books, pamphlets, and journals, to special collections of maps, manuscripts, and sound files.
Many Pasts
Contains primary source documents in text, image, and audio about the experiences of ordinary Americans throughout U.S. history.
Primary Sources at Yale
Collections include: archives and manuscripts, books and pamphlets, dissertations, maps, and more examples of primary resources.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Contains information on almost 35,000 slave voyages that forcibly embarked over 10 million Africans for transport to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.