Library Guides: Historical Primary Sources: Latin America: Primary Sources: Caribbean

Scope

The sources listed here may overlap with other geographic areas, but mainly cover the Caribbean Islands, including the island countries of Anguilla, Antigua-and-Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts-and-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent-and-the-Grenadines, Trinidad-and-Tobago, Turks-and-Caicos Islands, and United States Virgin Islands.

Collections relating to more than one country

Archives nationales d'outre-mer
This archive preserves records related to the colonial presence of France in its former overseas territories. Digital archives are listed under "Archives numérisées."
Caribbean colonial statistics from the British Empire, 1824-1950 (BOA)
Statistical records for the colonies of Antigua, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Honduras, Dominica, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Christopher, Nevis, St Lucia, St. Vincent, Tortola, the Turks Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago. The records include the years 1839-1938, though some begin in 1824 and others continue to 1950.
Caribbean Sea Migration
Materials from (or related to) the migration by sea of Cubans, Dominicans, and Haitians, including the refugee camp for Cuban and Haitian rafters that existed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, largely dating from 1991-1996.
Caribbean through a lens - explored!
Contains around 2,500 images form the UK National Archives' collection of Caribbean images drawn from the Ministry of Information (INF 10) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (CO 1069).
Caribbean Views
Over 1200 images, maps, and texts from the 18th and 19th centuries
*CIDIHCA - Le Centre International de Documentation et d’information Haitienne, Caribéenne et Afro-Canadienne

Colonial Caribbean: CO Files from The National Archives, UK This link opens in a new window
Colonial Office files (supplemented by some War Office files) from the UK National Archives, relating to British governance of 25 islands in the Caribbean, covering the years 1624-1870
This extensive resource includes administrative documentation, trade and shipping records, minutes of council meetings, as well as details of plantation life, colonial settlement, imperial rivalries across the region, and the growing concern about absentee landlords.
Colonial State Papers This link opens in a new window
Contains primary source documents that relate to the governance of, and activities in, the American, Canadian and West Indian colonies of England. [1570-1759]

Digital Library of the Caribbean
A cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. Includes newspapers, gazettes, and other research materials.
Early Caribbean Digital Archive
An open access collection of pre-20th-century Caribbean texts, maps, and images. The texts include travel narratives, novels, poetry, natural histories, and diaries.
The West Indies in Records from colonial missionaries, 1710-1950 (BOA)
This collection includes 20th-century reports recording the activities of a dedicated group of missionaries working in the West Indies at a critical and formative point of their history during the move from crown colony status to full independence.
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From British Online Archives
Slavery, Exploitation and Trade in the West Indies, 1759-1832 (BOA)
This collection comprises a careful selection of documents from the extensive Slebech Estate archives now held in the National Library of Wales and the Pembrokeshire Record Office. They relate chiefly to the interests of Nathaniel Phillips, 1756?-1832, in the West Indies. The collection represents a major resource for research into the social and economic history of West Indies, slavery, plantations and trade.
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From British Online Archives

Antigua

Antigua, slavery and emancipation in the records of a sugar plantation, 1689-1907 (BOA)
This collection contains records pertaining to the Tudway family’s 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.

Bahamas

'Bray Schools' in Canada, America and the Bahamas, 1645-1900 (BOA)
The Associates of Dr. Bray was a group comprised of English clergymen and philanthropists who created and funded schools for Black, and to a lesser extent, Indigenous North American, children in the American Colonies between 1758 and 1776. Their aim was not only to educate, but also to Christianize their pupils. This collection contains correspondence files, minute books, and financial reports compiled by the Associates during the period 1724-1900.

Cuba

Castro Speech Database
Speeches and interviews dating from 1959 to 1996 transcribed and translated into English
Cuba and Southern Africa
Cuban documents about Havana's policy toward Southern Africa in the final fifteen years of the Cold War (1976-1989)
Cuba and the U.S.: The Declassified History of Negotiations to Normalize Relations, 1959-2016‎ (DNSA)
Includes 1,704 documents on top secret policy making toward Cuba, revealing the back-channel attempts at conflict resolution and engagement.
Cuba Material
Textual and visual sources documenting the history of Cuba from the colonial to the post-Communist period.

Cuban Culture and Cultural Relations, 1959-, Part 1: “Casa y Cultura” This link opens in a new window
Primary-source collection of ca. 45,000 fully-searchable documents from the Casa de las Américas in Havana, documenting the culture and cultural relations of Revolutionary Cuba and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Includes articles, newspaper clippings, cable messages, interviews, conference memorabilia, etc. (Brill) [1959 to present]. NOTE: Issues with Chrome have been reported with this resource. Users are encouraged to use other browsers.
This collection is Part 1: Casa y Cultura” of the so-called Archivo Vertical held in library of the Casa de las Américas.
Cuban Culture and Cultural Relations, 1959-, Part 2: Writers This link opens in a new window
This primary-source collection documents the literary, intellectual and cultural milieu of Revolutionary Cuba. NOTE: Issues with Chrome have been reported with this resource. Users are encouraged to use other browsers.
Sourced from the archives of the Casa de las Américas in Havana, it provides unprecedented access to files covering more than a thousand writers, thinkers and artists from Cuba and abroad.
Cuban Culture and Cultural Relations, 1959-, Part 3: Theater This link opens in a new window
This primary source collection documents the history of theater in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a special focus on Revolutionary Cuba. [1959-Present]. NOTE: Issues with Chrome have been reported with this resource. Users are encouraged to use other browsers.
Founded just three months after the Cuban Revolution, Casa de las Américas in Havana quickly became a fundamental link between the cultural vanguard in Latin America and the Caribbean on the one hand and a diplomatically isolated Cuba on the other. It has amassed a vast amount of information; this collection contains some 45,000 documents organized in 545 folders, covering such materials as articles, newspaper clippings, cable messages, interviews, conference memorabilia, etc., collected from 1959 onward.

Cuban Heritage Collection
The Cuban Heritage Collection is a repository for primary and secondary sources of Cuba and the Cuban diaspora from colonial times to the present.
Cuban Historical & Literary Manuscript Collection
Comprised of original manuscripts from the 17th to the 20th centuries. This collection includes manuscript books, slavery sales and property documents, wills, and correspondence.
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 (DNSA)
Declassified documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited (DNSA)
Declassified documentation from the United States, the Soviet Union, Cuba, and other key countires
Deena Stryker: Photographs of Cuba, 1963-1964
Photographs of a journalist who traveled to Cuba with her camera in the early years of the Revolution.

Cine Cubano: Latin America’s Oldest Film Magazine This link opens in a new window
The journal Cine Cubano (1960-2019) is a vital resource with 200+ issues offering unparalleled access to 6 decades of Cuban revolutionary & Latin American cinema theory, filmmaking approaches, & reviews. Scanned at ICAIC in Havana
The journal Cine Cubano is an essential resource for studying the rich history of both Cuban revolutionary cinema and Latin American cinema at large. It is now made available online for the first time. The more than two hundred issues (1960–2019) offer students and researchers unparalleled access to six decades of cutting-edge film theory, novel approaches to film making, and scores of film reviews. Scanned at the ICAIC film institute in Havana, Cuba, the present collection includes all 205 issues of the journal that have ever been published in print.
Cuban Pre-Revolutionary Cinema This link opens in a new window
The collection chronicles Cuban cinema's development from the Silent Era to 1959, with unpublished materials like Cinema magazine's full 1935-1965 run.
"The collection documents Cuban cinema's development from the Silent Era to the 1959 Revolution, offering unpublished photos, clippings, lobby cards, and the complete 1935-1965 run of Cinema magazine. It highlights Cuba's struggle to establish a film industry during the Republican Era despite efforts by ""dreamers.""
The Agramonte-Castillo collection provides biographical information on filmmakers. Cinema magazine, founded in 1935 by Enrique Perdices, was pivotal in promoting a national cinema. Its 1,424 issues trace the industry's ups and downs week-by-week, with Perdices championing government support through his editorials.
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Feminism in Cuba, 1898-1958 This link opens in a new window
"This collection, compiled from Cuban sources, spans the period from Cuban independence to the end of the Batista regime. The collection sheds light on Cuban feminism, women in politics, literature by Cuban women and the legal status of Cuban women."
"This collection is a study on feminists and the feminist movement in Cuba between Cuban
independence and the end of the Batista regime. In the decades following its independence
from Spain in 1898, Cuba adopted the most progressive legislation for women in the western
hemisphere. This collection provides a documentary explanation of how a small group of
women and men helped to shape broad legal reforms, by describing their campaigns, the
version of feminism they adopted with all its contradictions, and contrasts it to the model of
American feminism.
This collection draws on rich primary sources-texts, personal letters, journal essays, radio
broadcasts, memoirs from women’s congresses-which allow these women to speak in their
own voice."

Haiti

A Colony in Crisis
Primary resources from the colony of Saint-Domingue, with special attention to the grain shortage that occurred in 1789. Includes Kreyòl translations.

Haytian papers : a collection of the very interesting proclamations and other official documents : together with some account of the rise, progress, and present state of the kingdom of Hayti

Jamaica

Slavery in Jamaica, records from a family of slave owners, 1750-1860 (BOA)
These documents deal with the history of Amity Hall plantation, a sugar estate in Vere Parish, Jamaica, and some associated properties (principally Bogue livestock pen) while they were in the hands of the Goulburn family.
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From British Online Archives
Jamaica Unshackled
Resources from the National Library of Jamaica related to two landmark events in Jamaica's history: the 1831 Sam Sharpe Rebellion / Baptist War and the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion

Puerto Rico

Archivo Digital de Aguadilla
A repository of primary and secondary sources of the Official Historian of the Municipality, Haydée E. Reichard de Cancio. This collection contains documents dating from the 18th century to the present. The documents in this collection are vital for the study of the Municipality of Aguadilla and the West Zone of Puerto Rico.
Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico
An access portal to digital resources of archives, museums, libraries, and audiovisual collections related to Puerto Rico. The site also hosts collections, such as the Historical Archive of Aguadilla.
Biblioteca Digital Puertorriqueña
A repository of images and texts covering the history and culture of Puerto Rico.
La Colección Puertorriqueña
A digital portal that provides access to primary sources and documentary information on the historical and sociocultural heritage of Puerto Rico. Includes digitized newspapers, magazines, printed governmental materials, literary manuscripts, maps, images, and much more.
FBI files on Puerto Rican Groups
This is the Federal Bureau of Investigation file on its counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) targeting "Groups Seeking Independence for Puerto Rico" (GSIPR) from 1960-1971.
Frank Espada photographs and papers
Provides online access to a small portion (25 photographs) of Espada's larger The Puerto Rican Diaspora project. The remainder of the photographs and papers that preserve the stories of the communities he visited are available for research and study at Duke University.
Puerto Rican Civil Court Documents Collection
This collection, housed at the University of Connecticut, includes approx. 5000 documents dated between 1840s to the 1890s, many of which are from the Arecibo civil (corte de primera instancia) court districts, covering the full range of cases that might have been brought to civil courts in those times mainly disputes over economic holdings such as land disputes, sale of slaves, and similar materials. The digitized collection is housed at the Internet Archive.
Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age
Collection of first-person accounts, political writings, and histories dealing with the early history of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico Citizenship Archives Project
A searchable repository of federal legislation and related texts, as well as contextual essays and resources lists, related to the extension of U.S. Citizenship to Puerto Rico.

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Historical Primary Sources: Latin America