Convicts and Slavery

The purpose of this guide is to list relevant Internet sites, Library databases, electronic journals and printed reference sources relating to Convicts and Slavery. This is not a comprehensive guide or gateway but rather a starting point to information in areas taught at the University of Sydney. Other useful resources will appear under General, Australian and United States history.


DATABASES AND CATALOGUES

As well as the Library's databases, these sites may be useful.

First Fleet Database
A searchable database of 780 First Fleet convicts. The advanced search enables the convict data to be queried about age, gender, occupation, crime, value of crime, sentence, transported for, date and place of trial, partner in crime, description of looks and behaviour, date of leaving the colony, or date of death, and details about marriage and children.
NB it is freely available on the Web, courtesy of the University of Wollongong.

Irish Convicts Database
A database containing details of Irish convicts who were transported to New South Wales in the period 1791 - 1825. A bibliography and links to other websites are included.
NB it is freely available on the Web.

National Archives Catalogue, Great Britain
Catalogue of the National Archives, formerly the Public Records Office. The catalogue details their collection of over 9 million files - the records of central government and the courts of law. Use this catalogue to identify relevant documents and the departments that created them, then check the USYD catalogue to see if they are held in Fisher Library.
NB it is freely available on the Web.

Nineteenth Century
Freely available index to the collection of over 25,000 nineteenth-century works available on microfiche. The Library has the Women Writers collection in Fisher Audiovisual MIC 820.8 327.

Royal Historical Society Bibliography
Hosted by the Institute of Historical Research, this is an authoritative guide to writing on British and Irish history from the Roman period to the present day. It contains over 300,000 entries including articles in journals and collective volumes.
NB it is freely available on the Web.

State Records of NSW - Online Indexes
A guide to the collections of the State Records. It includes indexes for the Colonial Secretary Papers, 1788-1825 and Convict Records
NB it is freely available on the Web.

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ELECTRONIC JOURNALS

American Historical Review
Published by the American Historical Association, it is the oldest scholarly journal of history in the United States.
The Library has the printed issues in Fisher Research 905 11, v.1, 1896+

Australian feminist studies
An international, peer reviewed journal that publishes academic articles on current developments in Women's Studies and feminist research.
The Library has the printed issues in Fisher Research 305.420994 1 , v.1, 1985.

Journal of African History
An international, peer reviewed journal that publishes academic articles on current developments in Women's Studies and feminist research.
The Library has the printed issues in Fisher Research 960 89, v. 2+.

Journal of Negro History
Articles on African American history published by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
The Library has the printed issues in Fisher Research 973.05 21, v.1, 1916+

Journal of Southern African studies
Articles on history, politics and social issues.

Slavery and Abolition
A journal devoted to the discussion of the demographic, socio-economic, historical and psychological aspects of human bondage from the ancient period to the present. It is also concerned with the dismantling of the slave systems and with the legacy of slavery. Access from vol 25, 2004+

Labour History
The journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. This website provides a table of contents and abstracts from vol 16+. The Library has printed copies of the journal from 4(1963)+ in Fisher Research 331.05 5.

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INTERNET RESOURCES

Full text sites

American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology
From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. This site presents a sample of those interviews. The entire collection of narratives can be found in George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1972-79) in Fisher Research 301.451 252
star icon url: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.html

Convicts and the Colonies - Source Material Index
Primary sources for the course run by Dr Clare Anderson of the University of Leicester. This site also contains links to other sites
star icon url: http://www.le.ac.uk/esh/ca26/eh400/sources/index.html

ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collection Online)
Digital images of every page of 150,000 books published during the 18th Century. Based on the English Short Title Catalogue, it includes every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain, along with thousands of important works from the Americas. As well as books and directories it covers sheet music, pamphlets and advertisements.
NB For current University of Sydney staff and students only.

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
Full text of 397 pamphlets from the Library of Congress. This site complements the African American Perspectives Pamphlets.
star icon url: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aapchtml/aapchome.html

ICCS: International Centre for Convict Studies
An electronic archive of research, course materials, convict narratives and other information relating to the study of penal transportation and convict experience within the British Empire from 1600-1940.
star icon url: http://iccs.arts.utas.edu.au/

North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920
Full text site which, when completed, it will include all the narratives of fugitive and former slaves published in broadsides, pamphlets, or book form in English up to 1920 and many of the biographies of fugitive and former slaves published in English before 1920.
star icon url: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/neh.html

Slave Movement Datasets
DPLS Archive containing access to the raw data and documentation on the records of slave ship movement between Africa and the Americas, slave ships of eighteenth century France, slave trade to Rio de Janeiro, Virginia slave trade in the eighteenth century, English slave trade (House of Lords Survey), Angola slave trade in the eighteenth century, internal slave trade to Rio de Janeiro, slave trade to Havana, Cuba, Nantes slave trade in the eighteenth century, and slave trade to Jamaica. Registration (free) is required to download the data.
star icon url: http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/slavedata/index.html

Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture
A multimedia archive of primary sources, interactive timeline and virtual exhibits relating to the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel.
star icon url: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/

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Subject Directories

Africa South of the Sahara: Slavery
A major directory of links to websites on African slavery. Part of the larger Africa South of the Sahara website prepared by Stanford University Library.
star icon url: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/history/hislavery.html

HSTY 3083/4: Race, Empire & Bondage Links
Links selected by the lecturer of particular relevance to students.
star icon url: http://teaching.arts.usyd.edu.au/history/hsty3083/links.html

Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation: Links and Web Resources
A directory compiled by Brycchan Carey, who has an interest in the literature, history, and culture of late-eighteenth-century Britain.
star icon url: http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/links.htm

Internet sites

Atlantic Slave Trade & Slave Life in the Americas: a visual record
Hundreds of images of maps, Pre-Colonial Africa, European Forts, the capture of slaves, slave ships, auctions, plantations, domestic servants, recreational activities, family life, religion, military service, physical punishment, emancipation and portraits taken from the period.
star icon url: http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/

Convicts to Australia
Designed to help researchers find convict ancestors, this site is rich in links to convict registers, census material, bibliographies and links to other sites. This directory is part of Convict Central.
star icon url: http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/index.html

First Fleet Online
The site, created by the University of Wollongong, consists of information about the convicts who were transported to Australia in 1787. It contains a searchable database, links to documents and other sites and a discussion group.
star icon url: http://cedir.uow.edu.au/programs/FirstFleet/

Slavery Bibliography
A bibliography from the Digital History webpage. There is a searchable database, containing full text articles from Common-Place (interviews with contemporary academics and historians), Forgotten History, History News Network, and the History News Service. just enter the word slavery.
star icon url: http://www.gliah.uh.edu/modules/slavery/geo_regions.html

Slave Route
An Intercultural project administered, co-ordinated and monitored by the UNESCO Department of Intercultural Dialogue and Pluralism for a Culture of Peace. The site describes the Project's educational programmes, efforts to document sources and lists publications. In its pilot stage is the Slave Trade Archives which will provide access and preserve original archive material.
star icon url: http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave/

Slavery @ the Cape
A gateway to colonial 'Slavery @ the Cape' of Good Hope in both Dutch and British South Africa. The site is designed for historians interested in Dutch Colonial Slavery period and the British Anti-Slavery Emancipation campaigns, students of South African history, and those involved with the UNESCO Slave Trade Route Project. The site is sponsored by the Dutch East India Company.
star icon url: http://batavia.ugent.be/slavery/

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PRINTED RESOURCES

Atlases and Guides

The African-American atlas: Black history and culture--an illustrated reference / Molefi K. Asante.
New York: Macmillan; London: Prentice Hall International, c1998.
Fisher Ref 973.0496073 76

First fleeters: a comprehensive listing of convicts, marines, seamen, officers, wives, children, and ships / edited by Paul G. Fidlon and R.J. Ryan.
Sydney: Australian Documents Library, 1981.
Fisher Research 994.4010922 2

Guide for the study of British Caribbean history, 1763-1834, including the abolition and emancipation movements, compiled by Lowell J. Ragatz.
Publisher New York, Da Capo Press, 1970.
Fisher Research 972.90016 2

Guide to the printed materials for English social and economic history, 1750 - 1850 / by Judith Blow Williams.
New York: Octagon Books, 1966. 2 vols.
Contains chapters on slavery and transportation.
Fisher Ref 942.07016 1

Historical guide to world slavery / edited by Seymour Drescher and Stanley L. Engerman.
New York : Oxford University press, 1998.
Fisher Research 306.362 16

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Dictionary of Afro-American slavery / edited by Randall M. Miller and John David Smith.
Publisher New York : Greenwood Press, 1988.
Fisher Ref 305.5670899 1

Historical dictionary of slavery and abolition / Martin A. Klein.
Lanham, Md. ; London : Scarecrow Press, 2002.
Fisher Ref 306.36203 1

Bibliographies and Indexes

African slave trade and its suppression, a classified and annotated bibliography of books, pamphlets and periodical articles / Peter C. Hogg.
London, Frank Cass [1973]
Storage DG 16719

Bibliographie zur antiken Sklaverei / im Auftrag der Kommission fÜr Geschichte des Altertums der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur herausgegeben von Joseph Vogt und Heinz Bellen ; neu bearbeitet von Elisabeth Herrmann, in Verbindung mit Norbert Brockmeyer.
Bochum: N. Brockmeyer, 1983. 2 vols.
Fisher Research 016.306362 1

Bibliography of the convict transports [microform] / James Hugh Donohoe.
Sydney: J.H. Donohoe, 1988.
Fisher Microform 016.929394 5

Bibliography of the First Fleet / Victor Crittenden.
Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1982, c1981.
Fisher Research 016.36534 1

Slavery and slaving in world history : a bibliography, 1900-1991 / Joseph C. Miller.
Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus International Publications, c1993.
Fisher Research 016.306362 3

Primary Sources

Abolition & emancipation
Marlborough, Wiltshire: Adam Matthew Publications, 1996.
Microfilm of 105 reels.
Includes the papers, correspondence and diaries of Thomas Clarkson, William Lloyd Garrison, Zachary Macaulay, Harriet Martineau, Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Wilberforce from the Duke University collection.
Fisher Audiovisual MIC 326.8 10

Church Missionary Society Archive
80+ microfilm reels. 1799-
Section 1. East Asia Missions
Fisher Audiovisual MIC 266.02341 3

Eighteenth Century Collection
Woodbridge, Conn.: Research Publications, Inc., 1982-
NB Now available online as ECCO.
Over 9,000 microfilms based on the (ESTC) Eighteenth century short title catalogue. It aims to reproduce "... every notable item printed in any language in Great Britain and its colonies, and printed in English anywhere in the world between 1701-1800." The collection is being purchased jointly by:
University of Sydney - religion, philosophy, literature and language.
State Library of NSW - history, geography, fine art, general, reference & miscellaneous. University of NSW - social science and law
The index to the collection is kept with the microfilm.
Fisher Audiovisual MIC 820.8 275

Historical records of Australia
Fredrick Watson, ed.
Sydney: Library Committee of the Commonwealth Parliament, 1914-1925
ser. I. Governors' despatches to and from England, 1788-1848. 1914-1925. (26 v.)
ser. III. Despatches and papers relating to the settlement of the states. 1921-1923. (6 v.)
ser. IV. Legal papers. 1922. (1 v.)
Fisher Research & Undergraduate 994 1

Records of the Cape Colony
Cape Colony: Records of the South-eastern Africa, collected in various libraries an archives deparmtents in Europe by G M Theal.
1898. 8 vols covering 1898 - 1903.
Fisher Research 968
Records of the Cape Colony copied for the Cape Government from the manuscript documents in the Public Record Office.
London, 1897. 8 vols.
Fisher Research 968.7
Basutoland (Lesotho) Records: copies of official documents of various kinds, accounts of travellers, etc, collected and arranged by order of the Hon J W Sauer, Secretary for Native affairs, by G M Theale.
3 vols in 4 covering 1833 - 1865+
Fisher Research 968

Slavery, abolition, and emancipation: writings in the British Romantic Period.
General editors, Peter J. Kitson, Debbie Lee.
London; Brookfield, Vt: Pickering & Chatto, 1999.
v. 1. Black writers v. 2. The abolition debate v. 3. The emanicipation debate v. 4. Verse v. 5. Drama v. 6. Fiction v. 7. Medicine and the West Indian slave trade v. 8. Theories of race
Fisher Research 941.00496 4

British Government Publications

Fisher Library has an excellent collection from the 19th century. Some are situated in the general collection, but many are located on Level 9 of the Research Library. Use the British Government Publications guide to check library holdings and locations. A complete set of British House of Commons parliamentary papers, 1731-1968 is on microcard in Fisher Research Level 9 at XTA7

As well as the regular government documents, the Irish University Press published a selection of parliamentary papers from the 19th century:

Irish University Press series of British parliamentary papers.
Shannon, Irish U.P.
Facsimile reprint of selected 19th century sessional papers grouped by subject. Fisher Library has received the papers for colonial matters (including Africa, Australia and the West Indies) and the Slave Trade.
approx 600 volumes.
Fisher Research G.UK PI (level 9)

Indexes to this set:
Catalogue of British parliamentary papers in the Irish University Press 1000-volume series and area studies series, 1801-1900.
Dublin: Irish University Press, 1977.
Fisher Ref 015.42 18 A
and
Index to British parliamentary papers on Australia and New Zealand, 1800-1899.
Dublin: Irish University Press, c1974. 2 vols.
This is an index to the IUP 1000-volume series of British parliamentary papers listed above. Fisher Library holds approx 600 of these volumes, especially those on Australia at G.UK PI on level 9
Fisher Ref 016.32841 4

Foreign Office General correspondence before 1906; slave trade 1816 - 1892.
Great Britain. Foreign Office.
Leichtenstein: Kraus-Thomson, 1972.
Mircofilm of 817 reels from the Public Records of Great Briain, Series 1 F084
Fisher Audiovisual MIC 380.144 8

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