The grant allowed over 10,000 additional pages of text to be added to the collection, bringing resources up to 25,000 individual pages of printed text and corresponding searchable transcriptions. The collection represents work published between 1787 and 1911. The publications are all drawn from the holdings of Millersville University Library and the Dickinson College Library, as well as each of their respective Special Collections Departments.

The Slavery & Abolition digital collection was initially launched in fall of 2008. The completion of that project, as well as the extension of the collection with new materials, was supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in association with Millersville University and Dickinson College. This online resource is made freely available to the public, with the hope that providing these rare and important research materials will enhance teaching and learning about this complex issue at all levels of instruction.

Millersville University and Dickinson College are pleased to have the opportunity to share these materials with a global user community. Any questions about this project may be directed to Marilyn Parrish at Millersville (marilyn.parrish@millersville.edu) or Jim Gerencser at Dickinson College (gerencse@dickinson.edu).

Quotes from students, faculty & scholars:

"The Slavery and Abolition Digital Collection is a valuable teaching tool that brings important and sometimes forgotten texts to a wide general audience. Readers should be grateful for this collaborative project and the rich resources it makes available." - Dr. Dennis Downey, Professor of History & Director of the University Honors College, Millersville University.

“A challenge of teaching students about the Atlantic Slave Trade is to help them understand the arguments and observations of contemporary participants, victims, and advocates of the trade. The Slavery & Abolition in the US digital project makes finding primary sources that much easier and thus more accessible to students. The fact that it is possible to access digital sources dating to the late eighteenth century is just an incredible teaching tool.” – Dr. Jeremy Ball, Professor of History, Dickinson College

“This collection is a unique electronic repository that is truly rich in substance and significance. Historians across the academic spectrum will find a wealth of valuable primary source materials on the social, political, cultural, and economic dimensions of slavery.” - Dr. Jeffery S. Prushankin, Visiting Assistant Professor of Civil War Era Studies, Millersville University

“As a future English teacher, I could see using the Slavery & Abolition digital collection for many projects with my students. The many voices and viewpoints give students a broad view of the topic for research papers. Students can also use these texts to analyze arguments and as the basis for creative writing.” - Elizabeth Harkinson, English Secondary Education student, Millersville University, class of 2011.

“Working with the Slavery &Abolition in the US project was my first experience with OCR technology. While I merely edited the computer-transcribed texts, I was able to read each book page by page. The need for the scans of each page to be searchable made accuracy within this process (from OCR text to finished product) very important. The manual corrections of the thousands of pages were at times tedious, but our work was made ever more interesting by the authors’ beliefs. Whenever we would come across an interesting passage (either for the archaic language or for the unique presentation of the author's argument regarding slavery) we were able to view the slavery/abolition debate from a multi-faceted 19th-century perspective. I hope that my participation in this project will help future researchers to use these materials more efficiently in their new digital format and make such old texts accessible to all students.” - Allyson Glazier, English/Italian student, ickinson College, class of 2011

"Preservation and access are working hand-in-hand through this extensive digital collection of books and pamphlets. Users have at their fingertips the ability to become immersed in America's past through first-hand, primary and secondary source material." - Brigette C. Kamsler, Archivist, Historical Society of Frederick County Maryland.

"The resources provided by Slavery and Abolition in the US: Select Publication of the 1800s are enriching and empowering. This collection highlights individual and interconnected stories and offers the opportunity to explore diversity and intersectionality within our nation's history." - Michelle Spiller, History Secondary Education student, Millersville University, class of 2011.