Portal:Slavery

Slavery

Source documents on slavery

Ancient works

• Philemon by Paul of Tarsus (apostle)
• On Benefits^[1], Book III, chapters 18-25, 62 AD by Seneca

Transatlantic slavery

Legislation, petitions etc.

• Petition against the Introduction of Slavery, 1739
• Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, 1790 by Benjamin Franklin
• Upper Canadian Act Against Slavery, 1793
• History of the United States 1801-09 during the Second Administration of Thomas Jefferson, Volume I, Chapter 15, 1807, Account of the U.S. Congressional Debate on the bill that became the law abolishing the international importation of slaves to the United States (history published 1890 by Henry Adams).
• Treaty between His Britannic Majesty and His Majesty the King of the Netherlands, for preventing their Subjects from engaging in any Traffic in Slaves, 1818
• Fugitive Slave Act, 1850 Act
• Corwin Amendment, 1861 proposed constitutional amendment
• The Emancipation Proclamation, 1862 by Abraham Lincoln

Abolitionist writing

Texts written by slaves and former slaves

• The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, (1794)
• A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself, (1798) by Venture Smith
• The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) by Nat Turner
• Three Years in Europe, 1852 by William Wells Brown
• Twelve Years a Slave, (1853) by Solomon Northup
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, (1861) by Harriet Jacobs
• The works of Frederick Douglass
• The works of Booker T. Washington

Other texts

• Memorial Against Slaveholding, 1688 by Francis Daniel Pastorius et. al.
• An exhortation & caution to Friends concerning buying or keeping of Negroes, 1693 by George Keith
• The Selling of Joseph, 1700 by Samuel Sewall
• A caution and warning to Great Britain and Her Colonies in a short representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved negroes in the British Dominions, 1766 by Anthony Benezet
• A Dissuasion to Great-Britain and the Colonies, from the Slave Trade to Africa, 1772 by James Swan
• Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, 1788 by John Newton
• Pity the Poor Africans, 1870 by William Cowper
• Slavery, a poem, 1788 by Hannah More
• Gen. Jackson's Negro Speculations, and his Traffic in Human Flesh, Examined and Established by Positive Proof, 1828 by Andrew Erwin
• An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, 1833 by Lydia Maria Child
• Slavery a Positive Good, 1837 by John C. Calhoun
• An essay upon the constitutional rights as to slave property, 1840 by Conway Robinson
• Paradise (to be) Regained, 1843 by Henry David Thoreau
• A History of Slavery and its Abolition, 1844 by Esther Copley (transcription project)
• Herald of Freedom, 1844 by Henry David Thoreau
• Wendell Phillips Before the Concord Lyceum, 1845 by Henry David Thoreau
• Thomas Carlyle and His Works, 1847 by Henry David Thoreau
• Civil Disobedience^[1], 1849 by Henry David Thoreau
• Freedom National; Slavery Sectional, 1852 by Charles Sumner
• Slavery in Massachusetts, 1854 by Henry David Thoreau
• The Landmark of Freedom, 1854 by Charles Sumner
• A Plea for Captain John Brown, 1859 by Henry David Thoreau
• The Last Days of John Brown, 1860 by Henry David Thoreau
• The Barbarism of Slavery, 1860 speech by Charles Sumner
• Life without Principle, 1863 by Henry David Thoreau
• Prayers, 1866 by Henry David Thoreau

Apologies of Slavery

• Of the Power of Masters^[1], chapter 22 of The Elements of Law, 1640 by Thomas Hobbes
• Bondage a Moral Institution, Sanctioned by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments[1]
• A Defence of Southern Slavery[2], Author:Iveson L. Brookes
• Uncle Tom's Cabin in Ruins! Triumphant Defence of Slavery![3], Author:Nicholas Brimblecomb
• A Defence of Negro Slavery, as it Exists in the United States[4] Author:Matthew Estes
• Slavery Not Forbidden by Scripture[5], Author:Richard Nisbet
• Slavery Consistent with Christianity[6] 1840 by Author:Leander Ker
• Bible Defence of Slavery [7], Author:Josiah Priest (1843)
• Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution[8] 1845 Author:Francis Wayland and Author:Richard Fuller
• The Duties of Masters and Slaves Respectively[9] 1845 Author:William Thomas Hamilton
• The Pro-Slavery Argument[10] 1853
• Negro Slavery: No Evil[11] 1854 Author:Benjamin F. Stringfellow
• Slavery Indispensable to the Civilization of Africa[12] 1855 Author:Samuel McKenney
• Slaveholding not Sinful[13] 1856 Author:Samuel Blanchard How
• A Scriptural Examination of the Institution of Slavery in the United States[14] 1856
• Slavery: The Argument from the Scriptures[15] 1856 Author:Albert Taylor Bledsoe
• Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery[16] 1856 Author:Thornton Stringfellow
• The Christian Doctrine of Slavery[17] 1857 Author:George Dodd Armstrong
• The Right of American Slavery[18] 1860 Author:True Worthy Hoit
• Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible?[19], 1860
• Suggestions as to the Spiritual Philosophy of African Slavery[20] 1861 Author:William Henry Holcombe
• A History and Defense of African Slavery[21] 1861 Author:William B. Trotter
• Negroes and Negro Slavery: The First and Inferior Race; the Latter its Normal Condition[22] 1861 Author:John H. Van Evrie
• Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible[23], 1861Author:John Richter Jones
• The Interest in Slavery of the Southern Non-Slaveholder[24] 1860 Author:James Dunwoody Brownson De Bow
• A Scriptural, Ecclesiastical and Historical View of Slavery from the Days of the Patriarch Abraham to the Nineteenth Century[25] 1864 Author:John Henry Hopkins and Author:Alonzo Potter
• White Supremacy and Negro Subordination[26] 1868 Author:John H. Van Evrie

Modern works

• The Souls of Black Folk, 1903 by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
• What Women might do with the ballot: The Abolition of the White Slave Traffic, 1911 by Clifford G. Roe
• Slavery in Europe, 1918 by the Anti-Slavery Society
• In re African-American Slave Descendants Litigation, 2005

Slave sale posters

• 
  Slave sale poster, 1829, St. Helena
• 
  Slave sale poster, 1840. New Orleans

Fictional accounts of slavery

• 
  Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852
• 
  The Black Man's Lament, 1826 by Amelia Opie

• Poems on Slavery, 1842 by Henry Longfellow
• Dead Souls^[1], 1842 by Nikolai Gogol
• Poor Folk^[1], 1846 by Fyodor Dostoevsky

See also

• Portal:Slavery in the United States

Reference

1. from "additional readings" bibliographical list of chapter 87: Slavery. Hutchins, Robert Maynard, ed. Great Books of the Western World, vol. 3, The Great Ideas, Adler, Mortimer Jerome, ed. (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952) p. 790