Below is a list of links to primary sources about racial prejudice in the United States throughout the 19th and early 20th century. Primary sources are documents and objects created by people who lived during the historical period or event being studied. Primary sources provide first-hand perspectives on what happened, how people felt, what people thought, and what people could see or hear. One of the best ways to learn about prejudice and oppression in U.S. history is by "listening" to the people who experienced it every day. We have also included pieces by white Abolitionists who worked to gain support for the movement and used their platforms to make Black voices heard.

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Stewart Advocates Education For African American Women - Maria W. Stewart, 1832

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? - Frederick Douglass, 1852
Slightly abridged versions available from Mass Humanities in Hatian Kreyol and Spanish 
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852

Make the Slave’s Case Our Own - Susan B. Anthony, 1859

Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself - 1861

​A Voice From the South - Anna Julia Cooper, 1892

“The Progress Of Colored Women” - Mary Church Terrell, 1898

Indian Boyhood - Charles Eastman, 1902

The Souls of Black Folk - W. E. B. Du Bois,1903

“What It Means To Be Colored In The Capital Of The U.S.” - Mary Church Terrell, 1906

John Brown  - W.E.B. Du Bois, 1909