American History

ODU Libraries' Special Collections and Archives collect, preserve, and provide access to archives, rare books, and other unique materials documenting the history of the university, local community and region.

Provides access to a unique set of resources devoted to early American history and Virginia's eighteenth-century capital. Searches and views digitized versions of rare books and manuscripts from a selection of reports on the buildings and people of 18th-century Williamsburg and the complete run of the Virgina Gazette to 1780.

Provides maps, first hand accounts and letters, court and public records, newspapers and many other digital resources that explore the legacies of the Jamestown settlement and "the Virginia experiment."

Largest maritime history collection in the Western Hemisphere with rich collections and international scope.

The Digital Library offers a searchable database of detailed personal information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color. Designed as a tool for scholars, historians, teachers, students, genealogists, and interested citizens, the site provides access to information gathered and analyzed over an eighteen-year period from petitions to southern legislatures and country courts filed between 1775 and 1867 in the fifteen slaveholding states in the United States and the District of Columbia.

Provides a portal for slavery and abolition studies, bringing together documents and collections covering an extensive time period 1490-2007, from libraries and archives across the Atlantic world.

A compilation of state and regional digital projects and collaborations

Contains 100 milestone documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration from thousands of public laws, Supreme Court decisions, inaugural speeches, treaties, constitutional amendments and other documents that have influenced the course of U.S. history from 1776 to 1965. Consult Research Tools and Ways to Search Online for more information on how to locate archival materials.