This remarkable microfiche collection brings together essential literature on the institution of slavery as it became the emotional fuel for sweeping social, political, and economic change in the U.S.

The more than 5,900 documents in the collection are organized into 11 topical areas covering a broad range of contemporary responses to the slavery dilemma. Researchers can study eyewitness accounts, recorded as the nation's most divisive conflict evolved from a question of economics and ethics to a major cause of a civil war.

While the primary sources in the collection primarily include material for researching American slavery, there are also numerous titles on Latin American and Caribbean slavery, as well as information on the British and French slave trades from the 16th through 19th centuries.

The Slavery microfiche collection includes the following types of primary source information:

• biographies and autobiographies
• campaign literature
• correspondence
• legal decisions and briefs
• sermons
• broadsides
• debates
• eyewitness accounts
• newspapers and periodicals
• speeches

A majority of the titles were drawn from the superb holdings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the New York Historical Society Library, the New York Public Library, and the Long Island Historical Society. With the diversity of materials offered, and the organization of the collection into 11 topical areas, students and researchers will be able to focus their research on issues such as:

• legal questions created by slavery, including the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision
• the views of many religious groups and churches on the morality of slavery, including important material on the Quaker abolitionist movement
• the impact of slavery on the American economy, including both pro- and anti-slavery views on "black gold," the slave dealers' term for their African cargo

The opportunities for research into the subjects of slavery, African-American history, or American studies are virtually boundless with this collection of incisive, primary source records.