African American Women Writers of the 19th Century is a digital collection of some 52 published works by 19th-century black women writers. A part of the Digital Schomburg, this collection. provides access to the thought, perspectives and creative abilities of black women as captured in books and pamphlets published prior to 1920

In what ways did Black women’s early nineteenth-century economic power increase Colored Convention delegates’ social mobility? This exhibit highlights the contributions of local boarding house hosts and hostesses who provided comfortable spaces for delegates of 1830s conventions and helped to transform their communities into hubs for activism. Articulating the ways boardinghouses served as sites of Black intellectual production, this exhibit also features interactive maps that visualize Black women’s participation in convention activities.

A Celebration of Women Writers" website, listing 26,000+ women authors, 22,000+ author information links, and 16,000+ freely readable on-line books. The inclusion of Library of Congress authorized and variant names, birth and death dates, countries where authors lived, and ethnicity in the author database supports complex searches targeting particular areas of interest.

Ohio was home to many well-seasoned activist men and women who defied the Fugitive Slave Act. As crucial stopovers for fugitives, Cincinnati and other outlying cities became places of refuge where Black residents mobilized to aid escaping enslaved men and women. This exhibit delves into the lives and contributions of Black Ohioans and the Convention of the Colored Men of Ohio in 1858. Attendees such as Charles H. Langston, the grandfather of poet Langston Hughes, willingly broke the Fugitive Slave Law and faced legal repercussions as a result. The 1858 convention is especially notable for its inclusion of women. Frances Ellen Watkins [Harper] was among the many Black women who animated this historic gathering.

The 1830s and 1840s was an era of reform and revival for the United States. Women took a leadership role in reform efforts, tackling a broad range of issues from prisons to education to the abolition of slavery. Ultimately, many diverse campaigns merged into activism against slavery. Women reformers saw results of their efforts during these decades, though some of their goals would have to wait.

Maps and links to historical narratives from 1810 to 1859, from the University of Richmond.

Researchers frequently turn to other sources to try to gain insight into slavery and the lives of enslaved individuals. Published sources, such as William Still's The Underground Railroad(1872), provide second-hand accounts of Maryland slaves, including some very resourceful women, who escaped to freedom.

The National Archives holds rich collections of records on nineteenth-century Southern African American women. Two of the most important collections for the study of formerly enslaved African American women are the Civil War soldiers pension files and the Freedmen's Bureau records. These sources allow an exploration of the changes and continuities from slavery to freedom for women, men, and families.

Emilie Davis was an African-American woman living in Philadelphia during the U.S. Civil War. This website is a transcription of Emilie’s three pocket diaries for the years 1863, 1864, and 1865. In them, she recounts black Philadelphians’ celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, nervous excitement during the battle of Gettysburg, and their collective mourning of President Lincoln. The diary allows readers to experience the war in real time, as events unfolded for Civil War Americans.

"North American Slave Narratives" collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of fugitive and former slaves and some significant fictionalized slave narratives published in English before 1920.

Open access repository on enslaved people in the Atlantic World.

Discussions about African American education dominated national Colored Conventions in the pre-Civil War era. African American activists believed that basic and advanced schooling would lead to social, political, and racial equality. Early schools, however, often only targeted African American men. At the 1853 National Colored Convention in Rochester, a plan was introduced to break this trend, proposing a manual labor school to serve Black men and women, alike. Discover how Black leaders pivoted from ignoring Black women’s access to higher education to advocating for greater acceptance of co-educational models and women’s activism. The exhibit draws from scholar Kabria Baumgartner’s work and a stunning collection of historical artifacts.