The conflict over slavery, the growth of federal power, and the territorial expansion of the United States figure prominently in the Collection. Thousands of letters, documents, broadsides, and pamphlets focus on slavery and abolition. Other materials in this period cover a wide range of topics including the Bank of the United States, removal of American Indians from tribal lands, the Nullification Crisis, Jacksonian politics, settlement of the Mormons in Utah, the Mexican-American War, and Texas.
- Slave sale materials
- Bank of the US
- Materials relating to slave life
- Indian removal
- Texas history including colonization, independence from Mexico, and annexation by the United States
- The papers of Army Surgeon John B. Moore written during the Utah Expedition and the Mormon Wars
- The slave revolt on the Amistad, including handwritten transcripts of testimony given by the Africans during the trial in Connecticut
- John English’s Mississippi plantation journals totaling more than 400 pages, including lists of slaves and how much cotton they picked per day
- Nullification Crisis
- The US Navy’s African Squadron’s efforts to suppress the illegal import of slaves
- Runaway slave broadsides
- Rare petitions from free black people in Texas who sold themselves and their families into slavery in order to stay in the state
Educational materials including essays, timelines, multimedia, interactives, featured primary sources, and other teaching resources can be found in the History by Era section of our website. Our Featured Primary Sources include introductions, transcriptions, and images of documents, available to all educators, with additional content of questions for discussion and printable hand-outs for Affiliate School members.