HIS307 The American Civil War Research Guide

Primary Sources

Primary Sources are first-hand accounts of events, such as letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper articles, photos, film footage, speeches, interviews, original research, government documents, postcards, leaflets, and artifacts. 

Primary sources are vital to understanding historical perspectives.

Many documents are available online, but many more have yet to be digitized and are available in their original physical form in archives around the world.

This guide will help you to find primary sources that are easily accessible to the Bethel University community.

(Image from University of Minnesota Libraries: http://digital.lib.umn.edu/warposters/)

Tips for Finding Primary Sources

Identify the topic words you will use for your search

• For example, if you were conducting research on slaves taken from Ardra in the Bight of Benin during the late 17th century, you may want to start with the following topic words:
  • slaves
  • slavery
  • slave trade
  • Ardra
  • Benin
  • West Africa
  • 17th century

Locate background information

• Use encyclopedias and other background resources to identify key participants, dates, and publications (reports, newsletters, magazines, pamphlets, etc.) associated with your topic
• Click on Reference in this guide for examples of resources in which to search for encyclopedias

Locate books and eBooks that contain primary sources

Use Libsearch (Advanced Search) to search for books and eBooks on your topic

• Put your topic words (people, places, events) in the first search boxes with the All Fields Search Type selected (the default)
  • Examples:
    • southampton insurrection
    • (slaves OR slavery) AND "united states"
    • (women OR wives OR wife) AND "united states"
• Put the type of primary text or texts you are looking for in the subsequent search box and select the Subject Terms Search Type.
  
  NOTE:  You must use one of the words listed below since primary text catalog records generally use one of these words as part of their Subject Heading(s):
  • sources  (one of the most common words that identifies primary texts)
  • document*  (note the truncation character at the end of this term)
  • personal narratives
  • correspondence
  • letters
  • diaries
  • interviews
  • speeches
  • quotations
  • periodicals  (identifies newspapers, magazines, or journals)
  • manuscripts
  • reports

  
  You may want to combine some of the above words using OR

  Example:
  sources OR "personal narratives" OR correspondence OR diaries
  
  (Skip this step when looking for literary works not covered by any of the terms above)
   
• For example:
  If you enter the following Advanced Search in Libsearch...
  
       Any Field:   (slaves OR slavery) AND "united states"
       Subject:  sources OR "personal narratives" OR correspondence OR diaries
       Material Type:  Books
  
  ...you will obtain results that include:
  Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies

(NOTE: These tips are adapted with permission from Sarah Shoemaker, Archives & Special Collections Librarian at Brandeis)