Full-Text Reading Room
Welcome to the Full-Text Reading Room, where you will find hours of full-text reading on South Carolina, Georgia and Florida history.
We invite you to explore the full-text books and articles here.
If you know of great full-text resources we should include here, please contact us!
Featured Reading
Florida History Online is a digital archive of textual and visual documents of Florida history produced by students and faculty at the University of North Florida.
Recommended at Florida History Online:
Rice Culture in British East Florida: an In-Depth Look at Plantation Industry in Colonial Florida
We Recommend
Army Life in a Black Regiment
by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
During the Civil War, Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) commanded the First South Carolina Volunteers (later the 33rd USCT), the first regiment of federal soldiers comprised of freed slaves. Higginson's narrative of camp and field is a vivid portrait of the men who served in the First South Carolina Volunteers. You may also download this book as an audio file in MP3, Ipod or Itunes format from Books Should Be Free.
History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865
by Luis Fenollosa Emilio
In January 1863 the Union War Department authorized the creation of "a special corps" composed of "persons of African descent"— the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Hundreds of free blacks enlisted. This book documents the entire history of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, from recruitment in 1863 through to disbandment in 1865.
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers
by Susie King Taylor
Susie Baker King Taylor (1848-1912) was the first African American army nurse. Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers is her account of her experiences in the Port Royal encampment of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers.
South Carolina USCT
Borrowed Identity: A Case of Three USCT Regiments from South Carolina by John Raymond Gourdin
First to Fight: Black Civil War Soldiers from South Carolina by John Raymond Gourdin
South Carolina Slaveholders and Plantations
Historic Houses of South Carolina by Harriette Kershaw Leiding: A rich source of information about plantations and slaveholders
Ravenel Records: A History and Genealogy of the Huguenot Family of Ravenel, of South Carolina by Henry Edmund Ravenel
Chronicles of Chicora Wood By Elizabeth Waties Allston Pringle
Georgia
"I Am Sapelo" by Cornelia Walker Bailey: Reflections on tradition and change on Sapelo Island, GA
Negro Myths From the Georgia Coast, Told in the Vernacular by Charles Colcock Jones
Collections of the Georgia Historical Society: Jones Family Papers from the Georgia Historical Society
Checklist of Eighteenth Century Manuscripts in the Georgia Historical Society from the Georgia Historical Society
The Dead Towns of Georgia by Charles Colcock Jones a great resource for early settlements and plantations in Georgia
Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors by John Reed Swanton
Georgia: Pierce Butler and the Weeping Time Sale
What Became of Slaves on a Georgia Plantation? Great Auction Sale of Slaves, at Savannah Georgia, March 2d and 3d, 1859 by M. Thomson
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 by Frances Anne Kemble
Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation Since the War by Frances Butler Leigh
Florida History
Slavery and White Servitude in East Florida, 1726-1776 by Wilbur H. Siebert
Slavery in East Florida, 1776-1785 by Wilbur H. Siebert
Rice Culture in British East Florida: an in-depth look at plantation industry in Colonial Florida
Zephaniah Kingsley, Noncomformist (1765-1843) by Phillip S. May
The Free Negro in Florida Before the Civil War by Russell Garvin
Marriage Licenses of Volusia County, Florida with name index
Florida: Black Seminoles
Blacks and the Seminole Removal Debate, 1821-1835 by George Klos
The Seminole Negroes of Andros Island, Bahamas by John Goggin
Notes on Seminole Negroes in the Bahamas by Kenneth W. Porter
Black Seminoles, Maroons and Freedom Seekers in Florida by Toni Carrier
Featured Full-Text Archive: Internet Archive
Internet Archive offers permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996, Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages.
Sample Titles from Internet Archive:
The Calhoun family of South Carolina by A.S. Salley
The Hugers of South Carolina by Thomas Tileston Wells
Featured Full-Text Archive: PALMM
Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials (PALMM) is a cooperative initiative of the public universities of Florida to provide digital access to important source materials for research and scholarship. There you will find hours of full-text reading on all aspects of Florida history and culture, as well as photographs, aerial images, Sanborn maps, and historic world maps.
This immense collection will allow you to explore Florida history in-depth.
Sample Title from the PALMM Collection:
Race and Civil War in Florida by Irvin D. Solomon and Grace Erhart
Featured Full-Text Archive: DocSouth
Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture.
Currently DocSouth includes ten thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.