Africa

121 Wall Street | Library Home | Hours

African Squadron Letters

Fifteen volumes of original correspondence, typed and bound, from the archives of the U.S. Navy Department at Washington, D.C. Letters range from 1819 to 1861 and cover all aspects of the African Squadron, including the settlement of Liberia, the repatriation of captured slaves, and efforts to suppress the international slave trade.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Nineteenth Century, Printed Material, Slave Trade, United States

Land of Zenj Photograph Collection

The collection, assembled by the rare book dealers Jenny Allsworth and Humphrey Winterton, brings together photographs, photograph albums, glass lantern slides, and a lantern projector, which document the Sultanate of Zanzibar and European colonial expansion in East and Central Africa from 1870 to 1914. Also documented are early Arab and Portuguese coastal settlements at Kilwa, Mafia, Pemba, Sofala, and Zanzibar and the work of photographers who operated in different parts of the region.

Tags: Africa, Indian Ocean, Nineteenth Century, Photographs, Slave Trade, Twentieth Century

Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Ann

Manuscript fair copy, of dated entries recounting the departure from Liverpool, the shipwreck on the Barbary Coast, the crew’s enslavement in northern Africa, and their return to Dartmouth. Many entries concern the work done, foods, illnesses and injuries, and racial and religious differences encountered. The manuscript dates from about 1790.

Tags: Africa, Eighteenth Century, Manuscripts, Slavery

Robert Durand's Journal

Holograph journal of a voyage to Martinique of the three-masted ship Le Diligent. Probably not an official log, the journal was written by First Lieutenant Robert Durand and describes in detail a voyage from Vannes, France, to the coast of Guinea, each slave trade port encountered on the coast, purchase of 256 slaves at Jacquin, voyage to Martinique, selling of the slaves at St. Pierre, and return to Vannes. Also described are conditions of trade in the African and Caribbean ports, dealings between slave traders and kings and chiefs, prices of provisions, competition among slave traders, effects of climate and disease, and expenses and revenues of the voyage.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Drawings and Images, Eighteenth Century, Manuscripts, Slave Trade

Sketches of the Amistad Captives

New Haven resident William H. Townsend made pen-and-ink sketches of the Amistad captives while they were awaiting trial. Twenty-two of these drawings were given to Yale in 1934 by Asa G. Dickerman, whose grandmother was the artist’s cousin. Townsend, who was about 18 years old when he made the drawings, is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, beside the Yale University campus.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Drawings and Images, Nineteenth Century, United States

American Colonization Society Records

The American Colonization Society was formed in Washington, DC, in 1817 to establish a colony in Africa for free people of color residing in the US. Most of the documents found here are letters between Liberia and representatives of the Society. Many cover fundraising issues relating to support and education in the newly-formed country. The collection consists of 324 microfilm reels. A majority of these documents are now available online at Fold3.

Tags: Africa, Emancipation, Microfilm, Nineteenth Century, United States

Records of the Freedmen's Missions Aid Society

The Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society was the British Counterpart to the American Missionary Association. It provided financial support for educational and religious work among former slaves and their descendants in Africa and the United States.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Printed Material

120 High Street | Reading Room Home | Hours

Correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy Relating to African colonization, 1819-1844

Letters of the Secretary of the Navy to and from agents stationed on the northwest coast of Africa. The agents often dealt with Africans freed from captured slave ships. From the Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Tags: Africa, Microfilm, Nineteenth Century

Foreign Office Records: Confidential Print, Slave Trade, 1858-1892

The records consist of fifty volumes of the confidential print relating to the slave trade. The confidential print is a collection of selected correspondence, memoranda and other documents printed for internal use in the Foreign Office and for distribution to the missions. Originals are in the Public Record Office, London, England. Published finding aid available.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Great Britain, Microfilm, Nineteenth Century, Slave Trade

Foreign Office Records: General Correspondence before 1906, Slave Trade, 1816-1892

The records consist of 2,196 volumes of correspondence with commissioners at the several stations appointed to carry out the articles of the Slave Trade Conventions with various nations. The records constitute part of Public Record Office group Foreign Office class 84 (PRO FO 84). There are 1,222 microfilm reels.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Great Britain, Microfilm, Nineteenth Century, Slave Trade

Maryland State Colonization Society Papers

The papers consist of correspondence, minutes, financial records, records of manumission and emigration, reports of colonial agents, pamphlets and books on the colonization movement, copies of the Maryland Colonization Journal and the Liberia Herald, and census records of Maryland in Liberia. The materials shed light on race relations and socioeconomic conditions in antebellum America and are a source of information on the founding of Liberia. The complete collection is available online.

Tags: Africa, Emancipation, Microfilm, Nineteenth Century, United States

Muriel and William Peters Collection

The collection contains material on the capture, trial, and release of the Amistad captives who were illegally sold into slavery. The collection consists of diaries, letters, court and government records, and newspaper accounts of the case; secondary accounts of the case; and background information on Africa, Cuba, the slave-trade, similar cases, slavery in the United States, and abolitionist sentiment in the North.

Tags: Africa, Antislavery Movements, Atlantic World, Microfilm, Nineteenth Century, Slave Trade, United States

Papers of the American Slave Trade

Papers of the American Slave Trade, provides scholars with access to primary source material on the business aspect of the trade in human beings. The collection documents the international slave trade in Britain’s New World colonies and the United States from 1718 to the trade’s demise after 1808. There are multiple series accompanied by printed guides. The printed guides are also available online.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Eighteenth Century, Microfilm, Slave Trade, United States

Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior Relating to the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and Negro Colonization, 1854-1872

Agents within the Office of the Secretary of the Interior were authorized by the Secretary of the Navy to receive any “Negroes, mulattos, or persons of color” found aboard vessels seized off the coast of Africa and relocate them to what is now known as Liberia. Ten microfilm reels, based on the originals held at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. These documents and several related collections are now available in full online.

Tags: Africa, Microfilm, Nineteenth Century, Slave Trade, United States

The Humphrey Morice Papers from the Bank of England

Includes the Slave Journal of Humphrey Morice (1721-1730), Journal of Humphrey Morice (1708-1710), trading accounts, personal and business papers, and documents relating to British trade with Africa, America, and the West Indies. More information and a detailed research guide are available online.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Eighteenth Century, Great Britain, Microfilm, Slave Trade

The Papers of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, 1696-1707

The papers include records relating to trade, industry, plantations, agriculture, ranching, immigration and settlement, the anti-slavery movement, politics, religion, and military affairs of Scotland and England. Personal papers, diaries, state documents, printed material, and the records of industrial and commercial concerns are also included in the papers. Additional information is availableonline.

Tags: Africa, Atlantic World, Caribbean, Eighteenth Century, Great Britain, Microfilm, Seventeenth Century

128 Wall Street | Archives Home | Hours

Holwell Walshe Papers

The papers consist of correspondence and official government and military directives to and from Holwell Walshe, which document his career in the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments, particularly his years as commander of Sherbro Island, Sierra Leone. Walshe took possession of Sherbro in September 1862 and successfully defended the island and revitalized its economy. He remained as Civil Commandant until 1871, when he was transferred to Singapore as a police magistrate.

Tags: Africa, Caribbean, Great Britain, Manuscripts, Nineteenth Century, Slave Trade

Slavery Miscellaneous Manuscripts

Includes seven scrapbooks titled “Tracts on Slavery in the United States, and on the U.S. Constitution and Organic Laws.” Also includes a manuscript book containing records of punishments administered to slaves in a South American mining camp between 1836 and 1847, numerous deeds for slaves dating from 1783 to 1848, newspaper clippings from the 1840s through the 1860s relating to the anti-slavery movement in Kansas, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, and a manuscript census of slaves in Chester County, Pennsylvania, from 1780 to 1815.

Tags: Africa, Manuscripts, Nineteenth Century, United States

409 Prospect Street | Library Home | Hours

Horace Waller Papers

Waller went to Africa in 1861 as Lay Superintendent of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. He resigned from the Mission in 1863 following a disagreement related to liberated slaves under the care of the Mission. These papers document the Zambezi expedition of David Livingstone (1813-1873) and the early history of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa.  Waller’s deep interest in Africa and the problem of slavery continued throughout his life and is reflected in his correspondence with Livingstone and in diaries dated 1875-1876, after his return to England.  Selections from Waller’s diaries for 1875 and 1876 have been scanned.

Tags: Africa, Manuscripts, Nineteenth Century, Religion, Slavery

The Early Dawn

This newspaper was printed by students at the Mendi Mission in Sherbro, West Africa, beginning in March 1861. Established by American abolitionists in the wake of theAmistad slave revolt, the Mendi Mission served as a bridge connecting the struggle against slavery across two continents. The Divinity Library also holds a rare copy of the Sherbro and English Book published by the mission in 1862.

Tags: Africa, Antislavery Movements, Atlantic World, Nineteenth Century, Printed Material, Religion

1111 Chapel Street | Gallery Home | Hours

Ross Archive of African Images

RAAI aspires to reproduce all the illustrations of figurative African objects published between 1800 and 1920 in books, periodicals, catalogues, newspapers, and other publications. It does not include postcards or pamphlets of very limited distribution. More than 95% of the material is contained in the James J. Ross library, the remainder has been recorded from copies in other libraries. Many of the items pertain in some way to slavery or its legacies.

Tags: Africa, Drawings and Images, Material Culture, Nineteenth Century, Religion, Twentieth Century

The Yale Guy van Rijn Archive of African Art

The Yale-van Rijn Photographic Archive comprises images of art from Africa south of the Sahara in collections worldwide. Currently there are more than 100,000 images of African art drawn from private and museum collections, dealers, general archives, and the existing body of literature including books, articles, notices, and auction catalogues. The archive may be useful for researchers interested in the impact of slavery on African culture or the evolution of African culture in the Americas. It is available for general research by appointment only.

Tags: Africa, Material Culture, Religion