LibGuides: Slavery in the Americas, 16th through 19th Centuries: Home

Reference Encyclopedias to get started

The African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience
Discusses the history of African Americans from pre-colonial times to the present. Includes memoirs, letters, family histories, newspapers, oral histories, and city directories, providing historical evidence to help understand and interpret past events.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History
A five-volume set and supplement covering all aspects of the African-American experience from 1619 to the present day. Using biographies, historical essays, and thematic pieces, many written by foremost scholars, it addresses a wide array of subjects in over 2,300 articles to define in one source the cultural roots, participation in American life, and current condition of the African-American community..
Encyclopedia of African American History
Documents African American culture and political activism from the slavery era through the 20th century.
Encyclopedia of African American History
Documents African American culture and political activism from the slavery era through the 20th century.
Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture
Provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of Latin American history and culture from prehistoric times to the present. Covers cultural issues and includes numerous biographical profiles of important figures in politics, letters and the arts.
Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery
Illuminates daily life in slave society in America from colonial times to the end of the Civil War. Provides information on the business and regulation of slavery, the plantation way of life, work, family and community, culture and leisure, health and medicine, religion, resistance and rebellion, and slavery and freedom in the North.
Slavery in the United States
Provides a comprehensive presentation of all aspects, social, political, and economic, of slavery in the United States, from the first colonization through Reconstruction.

Streaming Video

Black Atlantic: on the orixas route Directed by Renato Barbieri
This Brazilian- made film takes us to both shores, to show how spiritual life, dance and song came with the captive people and took root in the new soil. Among the many traditions were the language and gods of Yoruba and Jejes from the Republic of Benin. When a group of freed slaves returned to Africa to rediscover their roots they were looked upon as outsiders. They became tradespeople - tailors, accountants and builders- and they actually brought Portuguese culture to Africa. From Publisher
Brazil: an inconvenient history
This well- researched BBC production charts Brazil s history using original texts, letters, accounts and decrees. From these original sources, we learn firsthand about the brutality of the slave traders and slave owners, and the hardship of plantation life. With the Portugese colony of Angola acting as a "factory" supplying Africans to Brazil, it was cheaper to replace any slave starved and worked to death than to extend his life by treating him humanely. From Producers
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Presented by the New York Public Library, this database provides more than 16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, and more than 60 maps.

Kanopy Streaming Films This link opens in a new window
Kanopy is an on-demand "pay-per-view" streaming video platform offering documentary and educational films. Email library@soka.edu to make purchase requests.

If a film has public performance rights, you will see a "PPR" icon next to its runtime (below the Play button).

HBO Documentary Films and Paramount Pictures encrypt their films by geo-blocking. Their films are not accessible in some regions outside of the United States. Kanopy does not otherwise use geo-blocking, so with valid Soka login credentials, you are able to access other films on our site from anywhere in the world.

History Databases

America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable early American Newspapers (1690-1900)
America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
America: History and Life is the definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Indexing hundreds of journals, it is an invaluable bibliographic database for history students.
America's Historical Imprints This link opens in a new window
Searchable monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and ephemera enable researchers to explore America's distant and not so distant past. Available here: Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Historical Abstracts is the definitive index of literature covering world history (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present. Indexing thousands of journals in over 60 languages, it is an invaluable bibliographic database for history students.
Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Developed cooperatively with scholars and librarians worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides.
African American Studies
African Studies
Atlantic History
Chinese Studies
Ecology
Education
Environmental Science
International Relations
Islamic Studies
Jewish Studies
Latin American Studies
Latino Studies
Political Science
Public Health
Sociology
U.S. History This link opens in a new window
Find information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History. The database merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text periodical articles, primary source documents, media files, and links to vetted websites.
World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean This link opens in a new window
It provides access to reference, periodicals, multimedia, reports, studies, and statistical data. An archive of digitized primary documents focus on the history of Latin America and the Caribbean back to the early 1800s through the contemporary period sourced from collections in the U.S. and abroad.