The Collection

Haskell Moroe Outside of Jesse Hall, University of Missouri 

The mission of The Haskell Monroe Collection: Life in the Confederacy is to present an accessible and digitized database of Professor Monroe's extensive primary source collection relating to ordinary life in the South during the Civil War Era.

The Haskell Monroe collection contains more than 2,000 items, of which over 1,200 are digitized and presented here. This website allows viewers to search the materials in several different ways and provides suggested searches by topic. It does not host the primary sources but gives their bibliographic information (some have abstracts and summaries) and links to where they can be found.

In addition to the individual materials, the collection provides for teachers exhibits and lesson plans focused on specific sources. Links to our Zotero website and Hathi Trust collection will help users access the entire collection for further learning and research.

The reader should be warned that some of these sources contain racist slurs and varying levels of dehumanizing racial language. Some actively promote or justify slavery, and others express a mindset of white supremacy in more subtle ways. While we recognize the importance of analyzing these sources as they are written, everyone should make every effort to ensure that our conversations, writing, and teaching utilize inclusive, appropriate, and respectful language and terminologies.