Online Primary Sources: Researching Black Women Writers of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century in America

"The more my mind had become enlightened, the more difficult it was for me to consider myself an article of property." Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1861, p303.

On March 21st University Libraries hosted, Honoring the Legacy of Early Black Women Writers: A Faculty Roundtable, inspired by Women’s History Month and the Libraries’ recent acquisition of a signed and rare first edition copy of Anna Julia Cooper’s 1892 book, A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South, a series of essays on topics such as race and gender are seen as one of the first articulations of Black feminism. Other authors highlighted during the event are Sojourner Truth, Phillis Wheatley, and Harriet Ann Jacobs, among others. These authors and their respective publications bring together an interdisciplinary look at early Black women writers. Some of their work can be found in the public domain, but universities are continually providing access to online content for further research. 

Many of the authors and their works are available via the HathiTrust, a repository of digitized collections, created and supported by several large research universities. It includes full text of works that are out of copyright or in the public domain. Have a look at Harriet Jacobs’, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl;  there is much to discover in the HathiTrust. Beyond this collection, University Libraries has been growing its collection of online primary research tools to aid in further investigation, research, and general curiosity.

Access to and information about primary sources that focus on Black women writers of the 19th and 20th century are available through the Ohio Libraries’ research guides, such as Women’s History, African American History, American and English Literature, and History. Having access to primary sources, both online and in the University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections, offers the reader an opportunity to delve into the past and engage with the thoughts and conversations of the times.  

Voices of abolitionists and those from anti-slavery movements can be found in Slavery and Anti-slavery: A Transnational Archive which holds pamphlets, graphics, laws, newspapers, court records, and much more (*note that an Ohio University login is needed to access this, and the other databases described throughout this post). From An essay on the slavery and commerce of the human species, 1787 (written by Thomas Clarkson, a British Abolitionist), he refers to Phillis Wheatley and the importance of providing an education. 

“But where these impediments have been removed, where they have received an education, and have known and pronounced the language with propriety... For a proof of this, we appeal to the writings of an African girl, who made no contemptible appearance in this species of composition. She was kidnapped when only eight years old, and, in the year 1761, was transported to America, where she was sold with other slaves. She had no school education there, but receiving some little instruction from the family she obtained such a knowledge of the English language as to be able to speak it and read it to the astonishment of those who heard her. She soon afterwards learned to write, and, having a great inclination to learn the Latin tongue, she was indulged by her master, and made progress.”

Firsthand accounts, serials, books, manuscripts, diaries, and images, can be found in Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Women and Transnational Networks (NCCO) covering issues of gender and class, nineteenth-century debate in the context of suffrage movements, culture, immigration, health, and many other concerns. The database focuses on issues at the intersection of gender and class from the late-eighteenth century to the era of suffrage in the early twentieth century, all through a transnational perspective.

American abolitionist, Sojourner Truth is famously known for the quote “Ain’t I A Woman?.”  In the Woman’s Journal, a women’s rights periodical, in 1912, Elizabeth Hauser, suffrage leader recounts the story told by Frances Gage from the 1851 Women’s Convention.  

She spoke in deep tones which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house and away through the throng at the doors and windows. "'Wall, chilern, when dere is so much racket dar must be somethin' out o' kilter. Dat man ober dere say dat womin needs to be helped into carriages, and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles, or gibs me any best place.' And raising herself to her full height, and her voice to a pitch like rolling thunder, she asked, 'And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm!' (and she bared her right arm to the shoulder, showing her tremendous muscular power). 'I have ploughed and planted and gathered in¬ to barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man.”

The recounting of Sojourner Truth’s actual words and the dialect in which they are conveyed here are both deeply contested.  Utilize these primary source databases to investigate how various newspapers and other publications reported the story, from the original event in 1851 at the Women’s Convention in Akron to later renditions such as the one above. 

More resources are below and can be found, along with many others, in the above-mentioned Library Guides:

Black Thought and Culture 
Consists of non-fiction writings by major Black American leaders, teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures covering 250 years of history.

Black Abolitionist Papers 
Primary and secondary research.  Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings of the activists themselves.

Everyday Life and Women in America 1800-1920 
This digital collection supplies access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University, and The New York Public Library.

Gerritsen Online 
A digital compilation of primary source documents, 1543-1945, concerning international women's history and liberation movements.

Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice 
Explore and compare unique material relating to the complex subjects of slavery, abolition, and social justice.

Note:  these online primary resources reflect research on Black women writers of the 19th and 20th centuries; Ohio Libraries has many more sources, just contact your subject librarian or check out our research guides.