The majority of the resources listed on this page concern collections that have finding aids. For additional materials concerning related subjects, please do a targeted advanced search in our library catalog (view instructions). Please check back regularly, as we continue to add collections to this site.
- Slavery, free blacks, and the Civil War
- Civil Rights movement
- Black student movement at Rutgers University
- Download an article about Rutgers manuscript sources relating to the African-American community in New Jersey.
Slavery, free blacks, and the Civil War
For finding aids and additional information contact our reference services.
Manuscript collection
- African Association of New Brunswick minute book, 1817-1824
- New Brunswick Colonization Society records, 1838-1854
- Peter Still papers, 1850-1875
- online in Rutgers Digital Library but more easily accessible at the website of Rutgers librarian Francesca Giannetti (including transcriptions)
Printed materials
Printed materials, including pamphlets, can be found by doing a targeted advanced search in our library catalog and limit the library to Special Collections-University Archives (view instructions). Rare and fragile materials will not be provided when available online. (Download a 1965 list of of publications 1754-1964)
Slave ownership and manumission records
Account books
Account books may have references to enslaved individuals doing work or errands for their owner or being hired out. Occasionaly, there may also be references when their owners obtained shoes or clothes for them or paid for medical care.
Deeds and legal documents
The Indenture Collection (17th-19th century) comprises deeds and legal documents concerning the purchase and sale of land and property. The records include sales of people held in bondage, as well as sales of property to formerly enslaved people. Access to the collection is through a card catalog in the reading room.
Family and personal papers
Family and personal papers may include wills, legal documents, correspondence, and other papers concerning the purchase, transfer, and manumission of people held in bondage.
Local government records
- Certificates of abandonment of negro children born to slave parents, 1805-1807
- Manumission records, 1800-1825
- Register of black children's births, 1804-1844
Civil Rights movement
For finding aids and additional information contact our reference services.
- Shirley Chisholm papers, 1963-1994
- Donald Harris oral history, 2013: available online
- Paul Robeson collection, 1916-2006
- Ernest Thompson papers, 1943-1976
- See also Papers of members of congress
Black student movement at Rutgers University
- Black Organization of Students (Rutgers-Newark), 1967-1973
- Rutgers-Newark in the 1960s and 1970s oral history collection, 1990-1992
- Office of Rutgers University President Mason Gross: Subject files, "Black Student Protest, 1968-1971"