# Library Sources for the Study of Negro Life and History

DOROTHY B. PORTER

The exploration of fields of study on the Negro has reached a high peak of production during the past few years. It has suggested a survey of the extant organized collections of literature on the Negro available for research and literary projects. This survey attempts to point out some of the primary collections on the Negro and related subjects, especially those which consist of a representative number of books and pamphlets sufficient in number to aid a research worker with his problems and to supply background materials for literary works. The accompanying tables indicate the large number of libraries that have special collections on the Negro and related subjects and the extent of the materials to be found in them

Students of American literature and history often think only of the resources of the large college, university or public library. In the Eastern part of our country it is probably generally true that students of Negro life and history consult the well-known collections on the subject in New York and Washington, without seeking related and additional material shelved away in historical societies, state libraries, private collections, public and special libraries

Specific studies of the Negro often necessitate consultation of

topics in related fields, such as the great body of slavery and anti-slavery literature, the literature of the confederacy, of the reconstruction and civil war periods, materials on Africa, folklore, ethnology, etc. This survey will show the location of important groups of such literature and summarize in a descriptive way some of the more important of these collections, so that workers in this field may have at least an elementary chart to guide them through this maze of historical materials.

## HISTORICAL SOCIETIES

The records deposited in Historical Societies are of particular value to the research worker. The contents of the historical societies differ from the contents of other libraries. In addition to acquiring and preserving books, pamphlets, periodicals and monographs on all subjects they collect material dealing with the history of the locality which the library represents. This material embodies manuscripts, scrap books, miscellaneous printed matter, circulars, handbills, programs, official documents of the region, records, reports of churches, courts, welfare organizations, schools, etc.

There are many historical societies throughout the country which contain important data on

Journal of Negro Education
V.5, April 1936

232

LIBRARY SOURCES FOR STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE 233

the Negro. They are divided into National, Sectional, State, and Local societies; and regardless of the division into which these societies fall they all have the primary purpose of collecting all manner of historical and genealogical material bearing upon the particular locality which the society seeks to represent. When searching for materials on the Negro, it is the locality which must be considered. For example, the Western Reserve Historical Society, incorporated in 1892 and located in what was once one of the most active anti-slavery centers, contains valuable documents for the study of the slavery argument.¹ The collection of books and pamphlets in this library on the Civil War and Slavery is extensive and ranks among the best in the country on the subject. It was sponsored by the late William P. Palmer, former President of Western Reserve University.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia has important records for the study of slavery and of the free Negro, especially for the Negro in Pennsylvania. In addition to hundreds of pamphlets, books and clippings on the Negro and related subjects, the library contains the Correspondence and Minutes of the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Abolition and Slavery from 1785-

1868.² Other documents such as the Records of the Friends' Meetings lend valuable aid to the student of research. Among the rarieties that may be found there are some of the original broadsides of the poems of Phillis Wheatley. A glance at the bibliography attached to the excellent study of the *Negro in Pennsylvania*, by Edward R. Turner shows that most of the material used in this study was found in this society.

It has been known for some time that the New York Historical Society in New York City has both printed and manuscript materials. Much of it is still inaccessible as it has not been catalogued. The catalogued collection should be examined by the worker in the field of Negro history.

The writer, a few years ago while trying to locate imprints written by American Negroes prior to 1835, discovered that the majority of the titles found were in the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr. Vail, the Librarian, does not know how many titles there are in the library on the Negro and slavery, but he writes that there are "thousands of them." The only extant issues, as far as is known, of *Rights of All*, a Negro newspaper first issued May 29, 1829, are in this library. It has among other rare volumes the *Colored American* for 1837 and 1838, an early Negro

¹See Bibliography in William C. Cochran, *The Fugitive Slave Law, a Prelude to the Civil War*. Cleveland: The Western Reserve Historical Society, 1920.

²William C. Lane, *Notes on Special Collections in American Libraries*. Cambridge: Issued by the Library at Harvard University (Bibliographical contributions, no. 45, ed. by Justin Windsor) p. 55.

234

THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION

newspaper now rare and important to research workers. The Society has published in its proceedings documents of interest to the Negro. One of the few known diaries giving information on the African Slave trade was edited by George A. Plimpton and reprinted by the Society from its proceedings.

STATE, COUNTY AND NATIONAL
ARCHIVES

At the turn of the century several states established state departments of archives and history or some corresponding department concerned with the custody and care of public archives. Of course the value of the records housed in State and County Archives is obvious. Their interest to the antiquarian is perhaps increased by the fact that these records are very often in manuscript form and are kept in fireproof vaults. The Virginia State Library at Richmond has a valuable manuscript collection of more than 1,500,000 pieces. These are Virginia items, for the most part, dating from colonial times. In addition the library has photostatic copies of original manuscripts of a vast number of church and local records. The collection of the Virginia State Library is probably next to the Library of Congress in size and value. The Civil War material is very extensive, especially that dealing

with Virginia and the Confederate
States.⁵

Naturally, light is sometimes
shed on guarded local practices and
pursuits by such records. Records
found in the Oglethorpe County
Archives in Georgia indicate that
in spite of the fact that slavery was
abolished in 1863, the system of
bond servitude was active in this
country many years thereafter. A
typical example among a very
large number of cases filed there
shows that on January 9, 1899, a
Negro bound himself to James M.
Smith for full terms of five years.
The Negro was paid fifty dollars
each January 9th. It is well known
that Negro labor under the ap-
prenticeship system also existed
after the Civil War. Substantial
proof of this fact can be found
among the records in the archives
in the various counties and states
in the South. Registers of Free
Persons of Color, 1847-1862, giving
their names, ages, places of na-
tivity, residence, length of time in
Georgia and occupations can be lo-
cated in the Archives of Clarke
County in the town of Athens,
Georgia.⁵

The following interesting item is
an example of the type of record
which was found in a deed book in
the clerk's office of the Circuit

⁵Louis R. Wilson and R. B. Dunn, "Special Collections for the Study of History and Literature in the Southeast," *The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1934. v. 28, Pt. 2, p. 117.

Ulrich Phillips, "Georgia Local Arch-
ives", *Report of the American Historical
Society for the Year 1904*. Washington:
Govt. Print Off., 1905. p. 567.

Ulrich Phillips, op. cit., p. 567.

LIBRARY SOURCES FOR STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE 235

Court of St. Johns County, St. Augustine, Florida: "December 6, 1821, Jos. Sanchez, a colored man and a carpenter, for and in consideration of the sum of $300, bar-gains and sells to Francisco P. Sanchez, a Negro slave named [name illegible]."⁶ The Ordinances of the City Council reveal also documentary material concerning Free Negroes. An item for Decem-ber 8, 1822 states that "Persons of Color creating disturbance or mak-ing noise at their meeting upon complaint of anyone to be whipped at the discretion of the Mayor, not more than forty lashes and fined not more than $10 . . . Free Per-sons of Color must have a pass from a magistrate . . ." For July 21, 1824 the following item is found: "Free Negro male persons of Color between the ages of 18 and 50 to pay a tax of $3 a year; females $1.50. Residence of two weeks renders liable to tax."⁷ Similar items are recorded con-cerning slaves.

A similar exploration of the records across the country in the County Archives in California reveals a considerable number of manumission papers issued to Negro slaves down to 1856. This material made possible a study entitled *Slavery in California after*

1848.⁸ The author of this study, Professor Duniway, is responsible for other studies on the Negro in California, as a result of his research among unpublished early records found in County Archives.

Numerous records of this genre can be found in these offices throughout the country and they are for the most part arranged in excellent order and show evidence of much care in their keeping.

Our national depository, The Library of Congress, in addition to the large collection of books and pamphlets has important manuscript material of great value. In 1929, Dr. Carter G. Woodson presented to the library several valuable manuscript gifts by and relating to the Negro. An important element of his gift was the "four boxes of papers, comprising many letters of Negroes of the earlier period, 1855-1914, and various special collections of letters illustrating the great northward migrations of Negroes in the decade from the opening of the World War, 1914-1923."⁹ Equally valuable is the Journal kept on the West Coast of Africa, at Foura Bay, from April 21 to September 21, 1821," by Rev. Daniel Coker, an agent of the Colonization Society. Dr. Woodson's gift supplemented the materials already in the library, par-

⁶David Y. Thomas, "Report upon the Historic Buildings, Monuments, and Local Archives of St. Augustine, Florida," *Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1905*. Washington, D.C., Govt. Print. Off. v. 1, 1906. p. 350.

⁷Ibid., p. 347.

⁸"Report of the Proceedings of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association," *Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1905*. Washington, D.C., Govt. Print. Off. 1906, v. 1, p. 224.

⁹*Report of the Librarian of Congress, for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1930:* Washington, D.C., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1930. p. 79.

236

ticularly the "bills of sale of slaves, extracts from court records, certificates of emancipation, freedom, ordination, press clippings, etc."¹⁰

There is to be found in the archives of United States Government in the District of Columbia certain classes of material on the Negro. The Naval War Records Office in the Navy Department contains among other manuscripts fifteen volumes of letters on the African Squadron. This material is of particular value since it relates to the slave trade in its earlier period." Certain records of Freedmen's Bureau may be found in the Adjutant General's Office in the Department of War.¹² The Patents and Miscellaneous Division in the Department of the Interior has among its materials a valuable and interesting group "comprising the papers relative to the slave trade and to schemes for colonizing Negroes." These papers fill eight boxes and four volumes, between the years 1854 and 1872. The papers relating to the suppression of the slave trade "consist of

correspondence with United States marshalls and attorneys, and with the President and members of the cabinet, of papers relating to the Slaver *Augusta*, 1861-1862, and of miscellaneous correspondence; those relating to the colonization schemes of correspondence with officers of the government, consuls, judges of mixed courts, emigration agents and commissioners, and officers of the American Colonization Society."¹³

The Department of State houses in its Bureau of Indexes and Archives documents on slave trade, mixed courts on the coast of Africa, 1862-1870,¹⁴ and "letters asking or in the name of the President directing the employment of vessels for executing such obligation as the suppression of the slave trade and opium traffic."¹⁵ The Department of Justice has letters transmitting "accounts for services arising under the execution of the fugitive slave law in Boston" (July 24, 1857).¹⁶ These archives should prove to be invaluable sources for the study of Negro life and history.

An idea of the various materials in the State and Historical Societies may be seen from an examination of Table I.

"Thomas P. Martin, "Sources of Negro History in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress", *Journal of Negro History*, 19:72, Ja. 1934. Further information concerning the collections on the Negro in the Manuscript division of the Library of Congress.

"Claude H. VanTyne and Waldo G. Land, *Guide to the Archives of the Government of the United States in Washington. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington*, 1907. p. 180.

"Ibid., p. 107.

"Ibid., p. 202.

"Ibid., p. 31.

"Ibid., p. 22.

"Ibid., p. 142.

238

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Numerous public libraries
throughout the country have made
beginnings in the collection of Ne-
gro material. In some one or more
specific aspects of history these col-
lections are developing distinct
values.

The Boston Public Library with
its extensive collection of books,
pamphlets, letters and manuscript
papers on the Negro and slavery
provides an invaluable reservoir
for studies. The Parker collection
was left to the library by the Rev-
erend Theodore Parker, a well-
known abolitionist of his day. At
the death of Mrs. Parker in 1881,
the library received 12,782 volumes
and 4,617 pamphlets. In addition,
the library contains about 6,000
letters in the Garrison collection;
the Weston Papers, 1808-1885 of
3,000 titles; the Child Papers,
1808-1885, of 400 titles; the May
Papers, 1834-1870 of about 500
titles; the Phelps Papers of about
3,000 titles, and numerous small
collections of letters and papers re-
lating to anti-slavery. The Civil
War material in the library covers
several thousand volumes.

Moreover, there are a number of
rare broadsides in the Boston Pub-
lic Library relating to the Negro.
One of these is a large caricature
19x23 inches, satirical in nature
which ridicules the Boston Ne-
groes' celebration in 1821 of the
abolition of slavery.

The Boston Public Library also
has the Hunt Library of 700
volumes, manuscripts and charts
relating to the West Indies and

Slavery. The collection was be-
queathed to the library by Ben-
jamin P. Hunt of Port au Prince
in 1877.¹⁷

The Public Library of Brookline,
Massachusetts, in addition to an
ordinary collection of books on the
subject in question has a valuable
set of seventy-seven volumes of the
laws of the slave-holding states
which were given to the library by
a prominent abolitionist, William
I. Bowditch.

The Public Library in Cleveland,
Ohio, because of its proximity to
the Western Reserve Historical So-
ciety of Cleveland, does not special-
ize in material on the Civil War
and Reconstruction. It has, of
course, the usual materials on the
subject that a library of its size
would have. The main public li-
brary is building up a collection of
material on slavery. It is import-
ant to know, however, that this li-
brary does possess the John Gris-
wold White Collection of Folklore
and Orientalia. In it there are be-
tween four and five hundred books
on African languages, including all
magazines dealing with this sub-
ject. There are seven or eight hun-
dred books with linguistic material
in them on Africa. Many Bible
translations into African language
are in this collection. The books in
this collection were given to the li-
brary by John C. White of Cleve-
land before his death or purchased
since from his endowment to the
White Collection. Several of the
branch libraries of the Cleveland
Public Library are in Negro neigh-

"Lane, op. cit., p. 55.

UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE
LIBRARIES

There are many admirable collections on the Negro and related topics to be found in college and university libraries. Two large and important collections on anti-slavery literature are to be found in the Oberlin College Library and Cornell University Library. Oberlin has 1,700 volumes on slavery. Situated in what was once a center of the anti-slavery struggle it is natural that the documents on this subject are preserved there. Many of the slavery items were obtained when a campaign was undertaken at the time of the opening of the Spear Library building in 1885.

Three appeals for gifts to the "Historical Collection on Slavery" were made, with the plea—"We have a very valuable collection and hope to make it complete. We desire to secure a copy of every book, pamphlet, report, bearing upon the subject." As a result William Goodell's splendid collection representing every phase of the anti-slavery movement was secured through his grandson, Professor Frost. It lacks, however, periodicals and pro-slavery material.²² Other gifts of considerable importance were received. In 1932 there was printed *A Classified Catalogue of Anti-Slavery Propaganda in the Oberlin College Library*. It was compiled by Geraldine Hubbard as part of a thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts. As a classified and annotated list and

index it is invaluable to the whole
collection.

The Cornell University Library at Ithaca, New York received as a gift the private library of Samuel J. May, an abolitionist, in 1870. Small additions were made later by gifts from R. D. Webb of Dublin and Mrs. E. D. Nichols of Edinburgh. Occasional purchases have increased the collection. The library is also fortunate in possessing the letter books of the Freedmen's Aid Society. These are in manuscript form. There is no printed catalog of the collection. The whole collection has been listed on slips. In 1864 there appeared a printed list of books on slavery compiled by Samuel May.²³ This list was more than likely made from the books in the possession of May. If so, they in all probability formed part of the collection which was presented to Cornell University.

The library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts owes its collection of volumes on slavery very largely to Charles Sumner and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The collection is made up of pamphlets bound together. In addition, there are many books on slavery and there is a representative number of rare items written by free Negroes before 1840. The subject catalogue has about 3,300 titles under slavery. On Africa the

²²“A Catalogue of Anti-Slavery Publications in America, 1750-1863”, *Proceedings of the American Anti-Slavery Society*, at its third decade, held in the city of Philadelphia, Dec. 3d and 4th, 1863. New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1864, p. 157-175.

²³Lane, op. cit., p. 31.

242

Harvard University library has 8,000 volumes. One thousand of these are on North Africa. Its collection of over 600 titles on the Bantu languages is the largest in the United States. This was made possible through the purchase of the Frederick Starr collection relating to the Congo language.²⁴

The Library of the University of Texas has a special fund for Southern History, presented by the late Major George W. Littlefield, an ex-confederate soldier of Austin, Texas. The Littlefield Collection was established in 1914, and (as is stated on the bookplates) "for the full and impartial study of the South and its part in American history." The main emphasis has been placed on the period from 1820-1867. This period includes "Southern imprints and any phase of political, industrial, social and literary history of the South."²⁵ At the present time the card catalogue has approximately 1,000 entries under the subject Negro, 765 for Africa and 2,740 for the Civil War. There is much material that would be pertinent to the general subject Negro that is not brought out under these headings.

The Birney collection gathered by James G. Birney, the abolitionist, and his son General William Birney was presented to Johns Hopkins University in 1891.²⁶ The collection contained over 1,000 volumes and pamphlets including

many rare and early pamphlets. There are minutes of many of the meetings from the first abolition convention of 1790 to 1872; daily abolition newspapers, including the nearest complete set known of Lundy's *Genius of Universal Emancipation* and an especially rich collection of pamphlets for the political and religious controversies from 1835-1865.²⁷ In the same year the library received 50,000 pamphlets, unpublished manuscripts, autographed letters, official documents and historical curios on Southern history and the war between the states and pertaining chiefly to the history of Maryland.²⁸

At Atlanta, the Emory University Library is building up a collection of Southern history and literature, about one-half of the thousand volumes collected thus far relate to slavery and the Civil War. There are over 500 titles by little known Southern writers. The family of Joel Chandler Harris has deposited the Harris manuscript material in a memorial room at Emory. In addition to the manuscript material there are copies of all of the published volumes of Harris, a file of the *Uncle Remus Magazine*, photographs, scrapbooks and other material relating to the author.²⁹

The data in Table III show that there are valuable materials for the study of the Negro in College and University Libraries.

²⁴For a list of these books see *Bulletin 5, Dept. of Anthropology*, University of Chicago, 1908.

²⁵A.L.A. *Bulletin. Papers and proceedings. Hot Springs Conference*. 1923. 17:228 Jl., 1923.

²⁶Lane, op. cit., p. 3.

²⁷Johnston, op. cit., p. 42. See also "The Birney Collection of Books on Slavery", *Johns Hopkins University Circulars*, 10:56, Fe., 1891.

²⁸Wilson, op. cit., p. 105.

²⁹Wilson, op. cit., p. 105.

244

of material preserved in the libra-
ry. The states in the Southeast sec-
tion were tied together by the tre-
mendous issues of Slavery, Civil
War and Reconstruction. Thus the
literature of Slavery, of the Con-
federacy and of King Cotton and
Rural Life overshadows all other
subjects in that region. The signi-
ficant part played by the Negro on
the side of the Confederacy in the
Civil War has been neglected. This
relationship forms an important
part in the history of the Negro
race in America. The Southern li-
braries are repositories for the
most part of materials dealing with
the Negro during the Civil War and
Reconstruction periods. In the
Southeastern libraries may be
found more or less complete files
of the Southern Literary Messen-
ger, Southern Literary Gazette,
Southern Review, Southern Quar-
terly Journal, Sewanee Review,
South Atlantic Quarterly, Virginia
Quarterly Review.⁵⁰ The Southern
libraries contain primary source
material not located in Northern
libraries, for the most part, in the
form of manuscripts, newspapers,
diaries, plantation records, account
books, local imprints, state and
municipal documents. The South-
ern states have been particularly
interested in the care and preserva-
tion of their historical records.
North Carolina is an outstanding
example of a state which makes a
permanent provision for this. The
North Carolina Historical Commis-
sion at Raleigh preserves "county
and local archives, church records,
plantation journals, personal papers

and all manuscripts of value for
historical purposes."³¹ The Com-
mission is also collecting photo-
static copies of all North Carolina
newspapers published before 1800
which are in collections in the Unit-
ed States.³²

In the North, the material found
in libraries differs in subject and
type from that located in Southern
libraries. The literature of Aboli-
tion, works by free Negroes,
studies on the social and economic
status of the Negro are subjects
of the materials which are found
in the collections in the Northern
cities. The circulation of anti-
slavery tracts was prohibited in
Southern states and therefore they
are not usually found in Southern
libraries. Imprints written by free
Negroes were published in the
North for the most part. These
were collected by abolitionists
whose collections, in turn, were de-
posited in Northern libraries. Col-
lections in the North are more gen-
eral while those in the South are
more regional. For the most part
all of these materials are available
for the scholar. For some of the
subscription libraries and Histori-
cal Societies letters of introduc-
tion are usually necessary. What-
ever formalities may be exacted of
the visiting scholar his zeal will
certainly lead him to overcome
them all eventually in the attempt
to study the riches of collections in
all places.

³⁰Wilson, op. cit., p. 102.

³¹R. D. W. Connor. "How can the States be Persuaded to take care of their Historical Archives," *Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1922*. Washington, D.C., Govt. Print. Off. 1926, v. 1, p. 121.

³²Wilson, op. cit., p. 112.

Public, University and Private American
Library Holdings on the Negro

Ernest Kaiser

Surveys of and Conferences on United States Negro Collections

AS EARLY as 1936 Dorothy Porter, long-time curator of the Moorland-Spingarn Collection at Howard University, published "Library Resources for the Study of Negro Life and History" in the then recently started *Journal of Negro Education* (April 1936), a Howard University publication. In March 1940 the American Council of Learned Societies held an important conference on the problems of research and scholarship in the field of Negro studies. At this conference L. D. Reddick, in a paper entitled "Bibliographical Problems in Negro Research" (*ACLS Bulletin No. 32*, September 1941), stated (as he had in his article "Library Facilities for Research in Negro Colleges," *Quarterly Review of Higher Education among Negroes*, July 1940) that there were then about a half dozen important Negro collections in the United States, and that they were all suffering from rather indifferent support. Reddick, then curator of the Schomburg Collection, emphasized the necessity of building up a few great collections of Negro literature in the country and called for much greater effort in the area of Negro studies. He appealed to all sections of the country, including the then largely uninterested states of the Far West. He also pointed to the need for three guides to the sources on the Negro, to cover the sources in Europe, in Latin America and in the United States. Reddick later supplied (and it was probably the first of its kind) a summary—but quite good—nonexhaustive roundup of library holdings on the Negro in these three areas in his essay "Library Resources for Negro Studies in the United States and Abroad," included in *Encyclopedia of the Negro: Preparatory Volume* (1945; 1946). This publication was edited by W. E. B. Du Bois and Guy B. Johnson.

Since 1945 there has been very little in the way of resource or holdings guides on the Negro in the United States. Paul Lewinson, author of *Race, Class and Party: A History of Negro Suffrage and White Politics in the South* (1932; 1963), compiled in 1947 *A Guide to Documents in the National Archives: For Negro Studies*, for the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies. Since 1947 the only valuable published material of this sort has been in bibliographical essays found in books such as Gilbert Osofsky's *Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto* (1966) and August Meier's *Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915* (1963; 1968) and occasional periodical pieces on individual libraries such as the Schomburg Collection or the Moorland-Spingarn Library. If any papers on Negro sources in the United States were read at the annual meetings of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History or at the occasional Atlanta University School of Library Science conferences, they were never published. Collections on the Negro are listed in general and special library directories, but the descriptions of the holdings are brief, inadequate and usually out of date.

Eighteen years after Lewinson's Guide was published, the Atlanta University School of Library Science and Trevor Arnett Library convened in October 1965

Machwe, Prabhakar Balvant, 1917-

केशवसुत. [लेखक] प्रभाकर माचवे. [1. संस्करण] नई दिल्ली, साहित्य अकादेमी [1966]

77 p. geneal. table. 22 cm. Rs 2.50

At head of title: भारतीय साहित्य के निर्माता.

In Hindi.

Bibliography : p. [73]-77.

1. Dāmale, Kṛṣṇājī Kēśava, 1866-1905.

I. Title.

Title romanized: Keshavasuta.

PK2418.D25Z76

S A 67-3785

Library of Congress

PL 480: I-H-4446

[3]

Gritchenko, Nikolaï Vasil'evich.

Физическая подготовка и здоровье воина. Москва,
Воен. изд-во, 1962.

94 p. 17 cm.

At head of title: Н. В. Гритченко.

1. Physical education and training, Military.

I. Title.

Title romanized: Fizicheskaia pod-
gotovka i zdorov'e voina.

U325.R9G7

67-54930

Library of Congress

[2]