A guide to library resources for the Caribbean Studies Centre, including an overview of databases, advice on referencing, a support page for researchers and contact details for your department's Subject Librarian.
African Writers Series (LION)This link opens in a new windowFor over 40 years, Heinemann's African Writers Series published the key texts of modern African literature. It has a unique importance in the history of postcolonial writing.
This online edition includes over 250 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose, including works by Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Steve Biko, Buchi Emecheta, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Doris Lessing, Nelson Mandela, Dambudzo Marechera, Christopher Okigbo, Okot p'Bitek and Tayeb Salih.
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Antigua, Slavery and Emancipation in the Records of a Sugar Plantation, 1689-1907This link opens in a new windowThis collection contains records pertaining to the Tudway familys ownership of an Antiguan sugar plantation during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The papers cover the period from the early slave trade to the post-slavery economy. The combination of statistical ledgers and narrative correspondence provides a unique insight into the operation and eventual abolition of the slave trade in the West Indies.
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Colonial Missionaries' Papers from America and the West Indies, 1701-1870This link opens in a new windowThe United Society Partners in Gospel (USPG) is a UK-based Anglican missionary organisation that operates around the world. During the 18th, 19th, and early-20th centuries, the USPG went by the name of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). This collection covers the period 1701-1870 and contains the organisations founding documents, in-house journal, annual sermons, and reports. These documents provide a fascinating insight into the relationship between colonisers and the colonised.
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Latino LiteratureThis link opens in a new windowAlexander Street Press full-text database.
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Literary EncyclopediaThis link opens in a new windowA reference source with details of authors, works, and literary and historical topics.
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Literature Online (LION)This link opens in a new windowLiterature Online brings together primary texts in poetry, drama and prose with criticism and reference works in a single cross-searchable database.
A video guide to searching the resource can be found here.
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MLA International BibliographyThis link opens in a new window To access this resource please register for free membership to Senate House Library.
The MLA International Bibliography is an essential tool for research in all aspects of modern languages and literature. Available as a searchable online database of more than 2.8 million records, this database is a classified listing and subject index of scholarly books and articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore and linguistics compiled by the Modern Language Association.
A video guide to searching the resource can be found here.
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North American Women's DramaThis link opens in a new windowThis edition of North American Women's Drama contains 1,517 plays by 330 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. More than 30% of the plays in the collection have never been published before. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
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Scottish Trade with Africa and the West Indies in the Early 18th century, 1694-1709This link opens in a new windowThis collection contains the financial and administrative records of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies (also known as the Darien Company). The documents cover the period from the companys formation in 1694 as a rival to the East India Company to its dissolution due to debts incurred in pursuit of the ill-fated Darien scheme. The latter is widely regarded as being the chief factor which gave rise to the 1707 Act of Union.
These papers are an invaluable resource for those who wish to understand the sweeping political and economic changes which led to the creation of the British state, and the central role played by colonialism and the slave trade.
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Slavery in Jamaica, Records from a Family of Slave Owners, 1686-1860This link opens in a new windowThis collection contains records detailing the Goulburn familys ownership of Amity Hall plantation and associated properties in Jamaica during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most of the papers concern the properties when they were administered by Conservative MP Henry Goulburn between 1805 and 1856.
They papers provide a comprehensive overview of the operation and eventual abolition of the slave trade in the West Indies.
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Slave Trade Records from Liverpool, 1754-1792This link opens in a new windowThis collection offers a window into one of the darkest episodes of Britains history. Over the course of the 18th century, Liverpool became Britains busiest and most profitable slave-trading port in the country. The practice of slavery was abolished in 1807 but not before British merchants had gained unimaginable wealth at the expense of enslaved African people, who were sold to new markets in the Americas.
This collection contains the papers of merchants who were involved in this transatlantic slave trade during the period 1754-1792. The documents cover all aspects of the trade, from payments made by slave owners to dealings with groups along the coast of West Africa. The collection provides a sinister insight into the dehumanisation of slaves and the profit motive that fuelled the practice during the 18th century.
In order to aid with the context and navigation of this collection, a contextual essay and archive guide by Professor Kenneth Morgan is attached. Additionally, the papers of captain and ship-owner James Brown, from the post-abolition period (ca. 1807-1851), are included as a supplement.
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Slave Trading Records from William Davenport & Co., 1745-1797This link opens in a new windowWilliam Davenport was a Liverpool merchant and British slave trader. From the late 1740s till the early 1790s, he invested regularly in the African slave trade and was a partner in slaving ventures with other leading merchant Liverpool families. These papers from Keele University Library are accompanied by an online guide to the collection by Professor David Richardson, Hull University.
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The West Indies: Slavery, Plantations and Trade, 1759-1832This link opens in a new windowNathaniel Phillips owned several slave plantations in Jamaica during the 18th and 19th centuries. This collection contains business records, legal documents, and correspondence relating to his activities in the West Indies.
Considered together, the documents represent an important resource for students who are interested in the social and economic history of the transatlantic slave trade.
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British Online ArchivesThis link opens in a new windowBritish Online Archives is home to over seventy digitised primary source collections, dedicated to teaching and research within the Humanities and Social Sciences with collections ranging from colonial, missionary and transatlantic relations to twentieth century political and social development, cover four-hundred years of world history. A video guide to the resource can be found here.
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Cite Them Right OnlineThis link opens in a new windowCite Them Right is the essential referencing resource. This site will help you to reference just about any source, and understand how to avoid plagiarism.
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Credo ReferenceThis link opens in a new windowCredo Reference is an online database of encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference texts with access to 3,476,088 full text articles in 942 titles from 116 publishers covering a wide range of subjects.
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Drama OnlineThis link opens in a new windowDrama Online introduces new writers alongside the most iconic names in playwriting history, providing contextual and critical background through scholarly works and practical guides. From the epic to the monologue; ensemble to one-person plays; comedy to tragedy; the historical to the contemporary; and from the highly political to the profoundly personal, there is plenty to discover. Drama Online offers expert guidance in the form of scholarly notes, annotated texts, critical analysis and contextual information. Critical interpretations, theatre history surveys and major reference works on authors, movements, practitioners, periods and genres are included alongside performance and practitioner texts, acting and backstage guides.
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Goldsmiths has subscriptions to Collections I-IV & VII. Collections V-VI and VIII-XV are freely available until the end of June 2021.
NexisThis link opens in a new windowNexis contains thousands of national and international newspapers and other news sources. It also provides international company and industry information and biographical data for many individuals. A video guide to using the resource can be found here.
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Project MUSEThis link opens in a new windowThe library subscribes to the 'standard collection.'
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Twentieth-century Drama (LION)This link opens in a new windowBringing together an unparalleled collection of the most important works from the last century from the English-speaking world, Twentieth Century Drama is the essential resource for the study and research of the drama of this influential period.
Featuring plays from noted playwrights as well as lesser known dramatists, the collection includes works by over 300 writers including Amiri Baraka, Noël Coward, Susan Glaspell, Langston Hughes, Brian Friel, David Mamet, Eugene O’Neill, John Osborne, Sean O’Casey, Harold Pinter, Bernard Shaw, Neil Simon, Gertrude Stein, Tom Stoppard, Derek Walcott, August Wilson and Elizabeth Wong.
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