John Brown Primary Sources: Letters, Documents, and other Writings

Official Documents:

John Brown’s Declaration of Liberty (1859)

Primary Source Contents

  • CourtCases (4)

  • Newspapers (21)

  • Manuscript Collections (15)

  • Addresses, Essays, Sermons and Society Publications (135)

  • Autobiographies, Biographies, Memoirs and Narratives (55)

  • Edited Primary Sources (18)

  • Official Records and Correspondence (16)

  • Articles and Reports (37)

  • Dissertations and Theses (13)

  • Books (191)

This collection is from the research of Ryan Jones, M.A., a board member of The John Brown Project

Antislavery and Abolition Primary Sources

This bibliography lists 505 sources on American slavery, abolition, and the world of John Brown, with direct links to online copies wherever they exist. Of the 505 entries, 238 can be read free online right now in full with no account, and 9 more through free Internet Archive digital lending.

Primary sources run from 1745 to 1898 and include slave narratives, abolitionist pamphlets, court decisions, newspapers, and colonial records. Compiled and link-verified by the John Brown Project for John Brown: America 250.