The Library of Congress has a great tool for helping you evaluate potential primary sources:
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use.
Primary source research requires a slightly different approach to searching. Here are a few tips/strategies:
Start by doing some background reading or "pre-research": The more you know about key events, people, laws, and especially common terminology used during the time period you are researching the more successful your research will be. See the "Getting to Know Your Topic" page in this guide for help.
Limit to specific time periods: When searching for primary sources online always remember to use date ranges (usually on the advanced search page) to focus your search.
Use primary source keywords to find primary sources: Use search terms that reflect the types of primary sources you’re looking for, such as: diaries, pamphlets, correspondence, speeches, manuscripts, personal narratives, interviews, firsthand, eyewitness, sources, etc.
For example: slave AND diary | suffrage AND pamphlets | united states and race relations AND sources
Primary sources are items that are directly associated with their producer or user and the period in which they are created. They reflect the authority and perspective of someone who directly experiences what they are detailing.
Primary sources can be found in:
Native American Indians, 1645-1819, is a collection of over 1,600 publications that reveal the history and culture of Native America in the colonial era. The collection includes treaties, letters, tribal histories, missionary reports, captivity narratives, accounts of battles, trading records, maps, books on languages and grammar, and more. These documents are essential sources for researchers and students of Native American studies, early American history, and other disciplines. The collection also features text analysis tools, author biographies, and suggested search paths for browsing and discovery. With these tools, users can explore the rich and diverse heritage of Native America in new and innovative ways.
This digital collection contains comprehensive records of the interactions between Indigenous people and American Territorial officials, as well as descriptions of Native American cultures during a period of great change. Native American Tribal Histories, 1813-1880, is an essential resource for anyone studying Native American history, culture, and law. This collection is based on the Bureau of Indian Affairs Field Office and Central Office Records at the American National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It covers many Native tribes from different regions of the United States, such as Apache, Arapaho, Blackfeet, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Klamath, Lummi, Mandan, Mojave, Navajo, Nez Perce, Osage, Potawatomi, Pueblo, Seminole, Sioux, Ute and more. Users can search, browse and filter documents by territory, date, tribe, topic, document type and more using a customized user interface.