Primary Source Library
The documents themselves — transcribed from public-domain editions, with context, discussion questions, and links to the lives behind them.
Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
David Walker. The Preamble and Article I of the Appeal by David Walker, third edition of 1830: the Boston pamphlet that called on enslaved Americans to resist.
Sojourner Truth at the Akron Convention, 1851
Sojourner Truth. The earliest full report of the 1851 Akron speech by Sojourner Truth, printed by Marius Robinson in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, not the later 1863 Gage version.
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass at Corinthian Hall, Rochester, 5 July 1852: the heart of his indictment of slavery, the slave trade, the churches, and the nation.
The Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln. Full text of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1 January 1863, which declared free all people enslaved in areas in rebellion against the United States.
The Reconstruction Amendments
Congress of the United States. Full text of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, which abolished slavery, defined citizenship, and banned racial discrimination in voting.
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases
Ida B. Wells. Full text of the 1892 pamphlet in which Ida B. Wells documented that lynching was a tool of racial terror, not a response to crime.
A Voice from the South
Anna Julia Cooper. The opening essay of A Voice from the South (1892), in which Anna Julia Cooper argues that the progress of the race depends on Black women.
Atlanta Exposition Address
Booker T. Washington. Full text of the 1895 Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington, the cast down your bucket speech later called the Atlanta Compromise.
The Souls of Black Folk
W. E. B. Du Bois. The Forethought and two chapters of The Souls of Black Folk (1903), where W. E. B. Du Bois defines double consciousness and answers Booker T. Washington.
Every text here is in the public domain in the United States. Transcriptions follow the cited edition, including its original spelling.