Anti-Slavery Manuscripts

Help the Boston Public Library turn their collection of handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activists in the 19th century into texts that can be more easily read and researched by students, historians and people through internet research. You may be one of the first people to read these primary sources.

How do I get started? Check out their website.

How long will this take? There’s no minimum involved, so you can do as much or as little work as you’d like on the project.

How do I expand this narrative arc? If History is in your narrative arc you have lots of interesting choices:

• Turn your research contribution into a more extensive and robust paper, either as in independent study or for publication in a journal like The Concord Review.

• Get involved with more Civil War research through the Library of Congress website.

• Create a Speaker’s Corner at your school where students can congregate to debate timely issues.

HOT TIP: On its own a single “citizen science” research project is unlikely to provide much WOW! factor. But combined with other projects that link into its theme you could be doing great work to expand and deepen your narrative arc. It can be challenging to find academic extracurriculars that are unusual, interesting and compelling. Use this as a jumping off point for a more robust and extensive historical project.