HIST 380: Pirates, Captives, & Slaves: Websites & Online Archives

The following is information found in the records of the National Archives and Records Administration. It identifies the record group and series, with brief descriptions and locations. It does not provide actual documents.

Narratives from Barbary captives from the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.

The fourth in a series of local history collections presented by the National Digital Library Program as part of American Memory, joining "California As I Saw It", Pioneering the Upper Midwest, and Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age. Together, these online collections make up a virtual local history bookshelf. Like the other local history collections, The Capital and the Bay comprises first-person narratives, early histories, historical biographies, promotional brochures, and books of photographs in an attempt to capture in words and pictures a distinctive region as it developed between the onset of European settlement and the first quarter of the twentieth century.

Royal Museums Greenwhich collection of piracy materials from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The resources provided include subscription databases available onsite in the Library of Congress reading rooms, as well as free resources available on the web.

Information from Historic UK on the history of pirates and English slaves.

Jean Laffite (sometimes spelled Lafitte) was a pirate and the subject of many stories of romance and adventure across the Gulf of Mexico during the early 19th century. During 1817-1820, he started a colony in Galveston and transformed the island into a hotbed of smuggling and privateering.

The Mariners’ Museum and Park maintains a vast collection of objects, books, and archival materials.

Information from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on pirates in the Atlantic Ocean.

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.

Sir Francis Drake's accomplishments as an explorer and naval strategist were unparalleled. His most notable feat was circumnavigating the earth from 1577-80, the first such voyage since Magellan's in 1522 and the only one up to that time captained by the same man from start to finish. Drake's expeditions to the Caribbean and the Pacific, undertaken during the circumnavigation and in subsequent voyages, revealed significant new geographical data about the New World and added greatly to Queen Elizabeth I's [1533-1603] treasury.

Privateering archival collection from the Nova Scotia Archives.