Anyone who is conducting research on the topic of slavery may benefit from the HeinOnline collection, Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law, edited by Paul Finkelman.
HeinOnline has made this collection free, including for individuals who are not affiliated with any library.
The collection contains:
- every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery,
- every federal statute dealing with slavery,
- all reported state and federal cases on slavery,
- every English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920,
- more than a thousand pamphlets and books on slavery from the 19th century,
- word-searchable access to all Congressional debates from the Continental Congress to 1880,
- many modern histories of slavery and modern law review articles on the subject, and more.
Much of the non-legal material in the collection is based on the holdings of the Buffalo Public Library. Its rare book collection contains hundreds of nineteenth century pamphlets and books on slavery. The Buffalo Public Library’s staff helped make HeinOnline’s project possible.
See the collection’s home page for more details about the contents and how to navigate the collection.