First, orient yourself with the Primary Sources by Geography: Resources on the South Available at UVA Libraries map, which shows how many primary sources are available at the University of Virginia libraries for each county in the nineteenth-century South. Use this as a rough guide for where you will be likely to find sources for your particular time and place.

Below are links to online guides for the Records of Antebellum Southern Plantations, historical newspapers, African American newspapers, and Civil War newspapers, all available at UVA. Additionally, we have listed many collections of primary sources that have been filmed and are available in the microfilm room of Alderman Library. You will also want to consult the following PDF guide to using microfilm collections.

• Records of Ante Bellum Southern Plantations, online guide to the collections
• Online Database of Historical Newspapers Available in the UVa Libraries
• Online Listing of African American Newspapers Available in the UVa Libraries
• Online Listing of Civil War Newspapers Available in the UVa Libraries
• American Women's Diaries, Microfilm 22, Alderman Library
  Southern Women Nineteenth century life--education, courtship, marriage, kinship, childrearing, plantation life, politics and the Civil War--is the focus of this collection. Detailed print guide available in Micoforms Guide area.
• Hampton University Newspaper Clipping File, Micfich 2157, Periodical/Microforms Room, Alderman Library
  Over 55,000 clippings from 100 U.S. black newspapers, 1873-1940
• Southern Women and their Families in the 19th Century: Papers and Diaries, Micofilm 5727, Alderman Library
• State Slavery Statutes, Micofich 2193, Periodical/Microforms Room, Alderman Library.
  Guide available in Microfiche Guides Area
• State Secession Debates, 1859-1862, Micfilm 1368, Alderman Library
• State constitutional conventions, Microfiche collection, pt. 1: 1776-1959
  
  • Ser. 1, the thirteen original states.
  • Ser. 2, states admitted to the union before the Civil war.
  • Ser. 3, states admitted from 1861-1959.

  Note: Only Micofich S-64 - Ser. 2 is available in the Periodicals/Microforms Room of Alderman Library. The Law Library has all 3 series.

Below are search engines for finding manuscript collections available at UVA's Special Collections library. Please consult the SHD guide to using the Special Collections Library. You may also use VIRGO to locate manuscripts, or the Virginia Heritage website, which is maintained by the University of Virginia and allows you to search for manuscripts throughout Virginia (although you will want to limit your search to manuscripts available at UVA).

• VIRGO (limit your searches by selecting "manuscript" in the right column before searching)
• Virginia Heritage: Guide to Manuscript and Archival Collections in Virginia
• Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Below are several online resources that provide access to some primary documents. These will be especially useful for students whose research areas are outside the state of Virginia, though we have also linked to websites whose collections focus on Virginia. (PLEASE NOTE: If you wish to use another website for your primary source research, you must get it approved by your TA.)

• Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina
• American Memory, Library of Congress
• The Vally of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War, Virginia Center for Digital History
• The Countryside Transformed: The Railroad and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, 1870-1935, Virginia Center for Digital History
• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
• Early American Newspapers Online, Readex Archive of Americana
• Archival Research Catalogue, The National Archives
• Crisis of the Union, University of Pennsylvania, Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image
• The American Civil War: Diaries and Letters, Alexander Street Press
• Nineteenth Century Laws of Texas Online, University of North Texas
• Texas Constitutions Project, University of Texas
• Afro-Louisiana History and Geneaology
• American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement
• Making of America, University of Michigan
• Making of America, Cornell University
• A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U. S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
• Nineteenth-Century Documents, Furman University
• Digital History, University of Houston
• American Periodical Series, Nineteenth-Century Journals online
  Available through UVA's libraries, you must be on the UVA network to access this resource.
• The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective, 1860-1865, University of Virginia
• African-American Newspapers, 1760-1975, University of Virginia