Literary Research in Special Collections

The African-American and African Pamphlet Collection consists of 20th century materials on African, African-American, and Caribbean culture and literature. The collection spans the years 1905-1979, although the majority of the pamphlets date from the 1960s and 1970s. The pamphlets are in English, French, and a variety of African languages, such as Swahili, Tsonga, Tswana and Xhosa. Some of the unique publications include a transcript of a 1931 worker's trial by the U. S. Communist Party on a race-related incident, 1970s university studies on integration, and texts of speeches given by American radical leaders and leaders of African countries. The collection is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Slave narratives are a rich source of information about the personal experiences of individual African Americans in early American society. Special Collections at the University of Maryland is home to a wide variety of slave narrative and oral histories that document the individual experiences of slaves within the state