Primary Sources
Keyword search terms: pirate, pyrate, pirates, pyrates, piracy, privateer, indentured, maritime, law of the sea, corsair
Databases
- American History 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window• Select the Advanced Search option on the upper right and specify desired dates in the Date filter to limit your searches to Module 1 covering 1493-1859.
• After clicking on the title to see the detailed record, select among various assigned Subjects to refine your search and/or, click on Download entire document as PDF.
• RefWorks users, notice the Citation/Export Options. - Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowFull-text, searchable primary documents from the 18th century; over 180,000 titles: books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and other material in all subject areas, published in the UK and elsewhere. Includes an image gallery.
Web Sites
- The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History and DiplomacyBrowse by century or document collection. The text comparison feature allows readers to view two versions of the same documents simultaneously. Maintained on Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law Library web site.
- Digital Library of the Caribbean"The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections."
- Early Americas Digital ArchiveGateway to primary source material “written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820.” Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), University of Maryland, College Park.
- EuroDocs—Pirate Page"A collection of documents and maps (facsimiles)."
- Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake"This collection is provided by the Library of Congress. "Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and naval strategist, circumnavigated the earth from 1577-1580. During these travels, Drake visited the Caribbean and the Pacific claiming a portion of California for Queen Elizabeth and waging battles on the Spanish. This collection comprises important primary and secondary materials accumulated about Drake’s voyages throughout the then Spanish territory of the Americas. Texts are in English, Latin, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and French."
- Law Library of CongressUse the left search option to only search the Law Library of Congress.
- Piracy Trials - Law Library of Congress"The Law Library of Congress has digitized its collection of pre-1923 piracy trial. This historical collection of piracy trials is critical for understanding how the various nations of the world handled piracy issues before the year 1900."
- Louisiana Works Progress Administration Collection"Provides public access about piracy in New Orleans history."
- The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913"A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court."
- Spoils of War: Privateering in Nova Scotia"Digitized original log-books for the privateers Charles Mary Wentworth (1799-1800), Nelson (1802) and Dart (1813). A virtual exhibit telling the story of war-at-sea, 1793-1815, using digitized content selected from Halifax newspapers, court records and government documents of the time." Note: Also explore the Virtual Archives, Resource Guides and Databases at the Nova Scotia Archives
- The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade DatabaseExplore the Voyages Database, Assessing the Slave Trade interactive estimates page, and the African Names Database. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute (Harvard University), and Emory University.
Identifying Primary Sources
See the tutorial Primary vs. Secondary Sources (Twin Cities Library, St. Mary's University of Minnesota) for a definition and examples of Primary Sources.