Subscription Databases
African Americans
1800 ~ 1870

         These are large collections of information in the form of journal articles, citations, documents, images or a combination of all of these. They can be queried with search terms to return results for a user. Libraries pay an annual fee to use this service for their patrons which may include students, faculty or the public with library card access. 
            Ask your school or public librarian which subscription databases are accessible to you or look on the library's website.
          Examples below of subscription databases that have excellent primary sources and scholarly journals  ~

African American Biographical Database (ProQuest)
The Largest Electronic Collection of Biographical Information on African Americans from 1790-1950 contains extended narratives of African American activists, business people, former slaves, performing artists, educators, lawyers, physicians, writers, church leaders, homemakers, religious workers, government workers, athletes, farmers, scientists, factory workers, and more--both the famous and the everyday person. Their stories are pivotal to an understanding of the Black American experience over the last two centuries. Includes photographs, illustrations, names, birth records, geographic & familial links.

American History (ABC-CLIO)
From the first explorers in the New World to the developments in today's headlines, ABC-CLIO Schools' authoritative American History website investigates the people, events, and themes of our nation's evolution.

American National Biography
Gives portraits of over 17,400 men and women from all eras and walks of life, whose lives have shaped the nation. New biographies are added quarterly in January, April, July and October, including articles on recently deceased notables as well as figures from the past who were not subjects in the print edition. There are nearly 2,500 illustrations with more added with each quarterly update or more frequently.

Annals of America
Documents in the Annals reveal a complete historical landscape: government, foreign relations, business, war, the arts, family life, and religion. All entries are chosen based on historical significance, caliber or fame of the work, or importance or fame of the author. Media in the Annals include images, video, and audio clips. Each image (art, illustration, or photograph) depicts a figure, event, or scene from everyday life from American history. Each video and audio clip captures a speech or significant moment in history.

AP Photo Archive
The AccuNet/AP Multimedia Archive is an electronic library containing the Associated Press’s current photos from their 50 million image print and negative library, as well as charts, graphs, tables, and maps from the AP's graphics portfolio with a selection of images from their vast negative and print library dating from the 1500s. Today, the Multimedia Archive contains 700,000 photos, most of which are contemporary images made since late 1995, and grows daily as hundreds of new photos enter the Archive from AP's worldwide picture report.

Chadwyck Healy Lion
African-American Poetry (1750-1900)
Nearly 3,000 poems written by African-American poets in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Discovering Collection (GALE)
Thousands of overview essays, critical analyses, biographies, timelines and multimedia elements comprise the Discovering Collection comprehensive online reference resources in five core subject areas: history, literature, biography, science and social studies.

Facts.com
This database provides a wealth of information on current events, as well as primary source material ranging from The Declaration of Independence to the Kosovo Conflict: Text of Milosovic Indictment. Full text articles contain numerous hyperlinks to other documents in the database. Besides current news, the database goes back approximately twenty years. Historic documents and primary source material goes back even further. Facts.com interconnects seven core reference databases to answer questions about events, issues, statistics and people of the last 20 years. It also gives in-depth features on historic events drawn from the 60-year Facts on File archive.

Grolier Online (Scholastic Library Publishing)
Timelines, charts, bibliographies, biographies, color photographs and illustrations, and international news features link directly to encyclopedia articles.

JSTOR
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping the scholarly community take advantage of advances in information technologies. JSTOR's initial goal is to provide electronic access to back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. The JSTOR project is a digital archive of core journals in various fields. As opposed to most electronic journal services which contain only the last few years, JSTOR contains the entire runs of these journals, from the first volume up to the volumes published only a few years ago. JSTOR deliberately does not have the most recent volumes of the journals in order to protect the publishers' current revenues. Each journal has a "moving wall" of 3-5 years after which the current issues are added to JSTOR.JSTOR phase one (completed in November 1999) includes 117 journals in the fields of: African-American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology and Statistics.

Making Freedom: African Americans in United States History (database of primary sources on CD's)
by Primary Source, Inc. 5 vols., available now from Heinemann. Go to the Heinemann Web site to order Making Freedom, -also, read sample chapters from the books. This series is an invaluable resource for teachers of seventh through twelfth grade American history who wish to present the history of African American ideas and to place that little-known history firmly within the American history curriculum. The Sourcebooks, examining African American thought from beginnings in Africa to 1970, are aligned with chronological eras traditionally studied in U.S. History: True to Our Native Land (Beginnings to 1770); The Harmonies of Liberty (1771-1830); Lift Every Voice: Speaking for Freedom (1831-1860); Our New Day Begun (1861-1877); and March On Till Victory (1878-1970). Each book contains context essays by scholars, primary sources, 12-20 lesson plans by classroom teachers and Primary Source staff, and sidebar connections to contemporary events. Included in each volume are an introduction, timeline and extensive annotated bibliography for the entire series. Each book will be accompanied by a CD of primary sources, including maps, paintings, portraits, photographs and music.

ProQuest Platinum and Historical Newspapers
Contains seventy plus regional, national, and international newspapers, cover-to-cover full text, including the last rolling ninety days of The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. Proquest also now contains the back file of The New York Times dating back to its inception in the 1800s. You can search the Current File (1999 to the present), the back file (1986 - 1998), or the deep back file (1851 – 1985).  Note: The deep back file is in PDF format. ProQuest also has  The New York Times available from 1851 on microfilm.