FYS101 Research Exercises - 2022/23

FYS101 Primary Source Collections

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 Click on the links beneath each Collection below to learn more about the individual primary sources in each Collection.

Collection 1: Personal Property

• Slave-for-Sale Ad, 1789 This link opens in a new window
• Political Cartoon: Thomas Jefferson as a rooster & “hen,” Sally Hemings This link opens in a new window
• Harriet Jacobs This link opens in a new window
• Sex trafficking statistics by race & gender
• Other resources:
  • Baptist, E. E. (2001). “Cuffy,”“fancy maids,” and “one-eyed men”: Rape, commodification, and the domestic slave trade in the United States. The American Historical Review, 106(5), 1619-1650.

Collection 2: Separate & Unequal

• African Free School Engraving This link opens in a new window 
• Kenneth & Mamie Clark & "The Doll Test" This link opens in a new window
• ROAR anti-busing movement button This link opens in a new window
• Funding statistic for White school districts v. Black school districts This link opens in a new window

Collection 3: Malpractice

• NYC African Burial Ground
  • Additional resources on African Burial grounds
    • ​Body Snatchers of Old New York
    • his link opens in a new windowUse search phrases like: "postmortem racism" 
      • Snatching Bodies, Snatching History/Ies: Exhuming the Insidious Plundering of Black Cemeteries as a Curriculum of Postmortem Racism
• Richard Allen & Refutation of Black immunity to Yellow Fever in 1797 Philly outbreak This link opens in a new window
• J. Marion Sims, Gynecological Surgeon, from "The History of Medicine" (1952)
• Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1932-1972) This link opens in a new window
• This link opens in a new window Statistic on African American Health and Ratio of COVID deaths to share of total population among Black people by state
  • Look at these pages for more information and statistics on the history of medical racism and its role in the social determinants of health: 
    • Key Facts on Health and Health Care by Race and Ethnicity (Kaiser Family Foundation)
    • Social Determinants of Health: Know What Affects Health (CDC)
    • Race, History, and the Science of Health Inequities (Boston University School of Public Health)
    • Or a specific health example like: Maternal mortality rates, by race/ethnicity (Axios)
    • Statistic on Current Health Disparities by Raceis link opens in a new window

Collection 4: Equity & Exclusion

• HOLC Redlining Map This link opens in a new window
• Levittown, NY This link opens in a new window & letter to governor from resident not wanting to live next to "those savages" This link opens in a new window
• MLK, Jr. struck in head by rock during Chicago Freedom Movement 1966 This link opens in a new window
• Statistic on Home Ownership by Race This link opens in a new window

Collection 5: Doing Time (Do not use Spring 2023, this is the sample)

• Fugitive Slave newspaper ad This link opens in a new window
• Black Codes This link opens in a new window
• Ida B. Wells This link opens in a new window & the Convict Lease System This link opens in a new window
• Statistic on disproportionate incarceration rates for Black people This link opens in a new window

Collection 6: Domestic Labors

• Social Security Program poster 1935 This link opens in a new window
• Aunt Jemima Pancakes ad 1940 This link opens in a new window
• Dorothy Lee Bolden & Maid's Honor Day This link opens in a new window
• Statistics on the racial demographics of, and lack of benefits afforded to, domestic workers This link opens in a new window

Collection 7: Debts of Service

• Prince Whipple tombstone This link opens in a new window
• Poster of Black leaders urging Free Blacks to enlist in Civil War 1863 This link opens in a new window
• 1942 Double V Campaign This link opens in a new window
• Statistic on Black veterans injury rates See also: The Disabled Veteran (Pew Research Center, 2011)See alThis link opens in a new window

Collection 8: Right of Passage

• Seamen's Protection Papers (Certificates) 1810 This link opens in a new window
• Homer Plessy's arrest site 1892 This link opens in a new window
• The Negro Motorist Green Book 1940 This link opens in a new window
• Statistic showing disproportionate police stops of Black people This link opens in a new window

Collection 9: Buy & For the Black Community

• William Custis Costin
  •  Ancestry of William Costin - from the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon
  • Video of Steve Livengood (Chief Guide of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society) talking about his research on William Costin: William Costin: “A tribute to worth by his Friends”  (To skip the intro, you can start the video at the 4:06 point)
  • Multi-Search box search phrase: "Free blacks" AND Washington D.C. AND nineteenth century . See various types of sources that might be helpful such as:
    • Provine, Dorothy. “The Economic Position of Free Blacks in the District of Columbia, 1800-1860.” Journal of Negro History, vol. 58, no. 1, Jan. 1973, pp. 61–72. 
    • Chase, Henry. “Black Life in the Capital.” American Visions, Feb. 1995, pp. 14–15.
  • Here are steps to access specific databases other than the Multi-Search box to find more information:
    • Click on the A-Z Database List in the “Quick Links” box on the library home page
    • Click on the “All Subjects” box above the alphabet on the A-Z Database List
    • Scroll down and click on History – to be taken to the list of databases with History content
    • Click on JSTOR and type in “William Costin” for starters. 
      • Asch, Chris Myers, and George Derek Musgrove. “Our Boastings of Liberty and Equality Are Mere Mockeries: Confronting Contradictions in the Nation’s Capital, 1815–1836.” Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital, University of North Carolina Press, 2017, pp. 47–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469635873_asch.This link opens in a new window
• Black Wall Street This link opens in a new window (circa 1930s-40s) after the Tulsa Massacre
• Drum & Spear Bookstore This link opens in a new window 1971 & the Black Power Movement
• Statistic on the impact of COVID on business owners by race & ethnicity Updated version of same statistics The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners: The First Three Months after Social-distancing Restrictions, by Robert W. Fairlie, Working Paper 27462

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