Jim Crow Justice, Hist 3142/AFRS 3142: Serial Set

The Serial Set includes both materials that originated in Congress and those that originated in the Executive branch. "The Serial Set, America's longest-running series, is a serially numbered collection of House and Senate Reports and Documents dating back to 1789 in a documentary compendium considered without peer in Western representative democracies." (Source: Tapping the Government Grapevine, Judith Schiek Robinson.) Some documents were published both in a departmental (Executive branch) edition and in a Congressional edition in the Serial Set. There are now over 14,000 volumes in this magnificent set.

1. To find materials in the Serial Set:
   • This guide provides links to many documents in the Serial Set.
   • Readex' U.S. Congressional Serial Set
   • HeinOnline > U.S. Congressional Serial Set,
   • United States Congressional serial set (HathiTrust)
   • use the information below, and/or
   • ask Barbara Levergood for assistance in finding these publications in the print Serial Set.
2. "After extensive inquiry in former Confederate states, the Joint Committee on Reconstruction recommended that Congress set conditions for readmission of those states to representation in the Union. Concerned about violence against African Americans in the South, the committee sought to guarantee them legal protection through a constitutional amendment. Ratification of the amendment would be a requirement for readmission of the Southern states." U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
   Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, at the first session Thirty-ninth Congress. 39th Cong., 1st sess., 1866. H.Rpt. 30, serial 1273. HeinOnline.
3. "After the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, those opposed to freedom for African Americans found other means of control. Southern states implemented restrictive laws known as Black Codes, and armed vigilantes formed the Ku Klux Klan and used violent intimidation. Several congressional committees investigated the Klan, and Congress passed the Enforcement Act of 1870 to protect freedmen against violence. A Joint Committee to Inquire into the Conditions of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States formed in 1871 and exposed the Klan’s tactics, hastening a decline that lasted until the 1920s." "The Joint Committee that investigated the Ku Klux Klan released its report in 1871. The thirteen volumes described Klan violence against African Americans in seven Southern states. It persuaded President Ulysses S. Grant to launch a vigorous campaign against the Ku Klux Klan, nearly destroying the organization as it was then constituted." U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
   The materials produced by the Joint Committee can be found by searching on the quoted phrase "condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states" in Citation Text in Readex' U.S. Congressional Serial Set.
4. Essential sources for Civil War research are the volumes of The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (a.k.a. Official Records). Some options:
   • If you have a citation, search Readex' U.S. Congressional Serial Set either (a) by Serial Set number, or (b) by Congress, session, document class, and publication number. (See screenshots below.)
   • Search all of the volumes through this HathiTrust collection: The War of the Rebellion.
   • Search Readex' U.S. Congressional Serial Set.
   • Use the index (Serial Set volume number 4209).
   • Choose a volume you would like to see from: Civil War: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, National Archives and Records Administration. For example:
     Serial No. 3112
     H.Misc.Doc. 40
     52 Congress, 2nd Session
     Then search Readex' U.S. Congressional Serial Set by Serial Set volume number. (See first screenshot below.)

• This guide may also be useful: Chris E. Marhenke, Finding Official Records Volumes in the U.S. Serial Set.

We have access to the Serial Set online and in print.

• Online via U.S. Congressional Serial Set for 1817-1994. It is comprehensive for that time period. (There are other non-comprehensive sources as well.)
• Print is in the Government Documents collection in the basement of HL in compact shelving all the way to the left of the bound periodicals. We do not have a comprehensive print collection.
  • Volumes 1-5204 (1817-1907) are in locked shelving.
  • Volumes 5205-end (1907-end) are in open shelving.

Users are encouraged to use the online version for volumes 1-5204 (rather than the print volumes in locked shelving) in order to better protect and preserve the print volumes. However, the print version is there for those who need to use it and we do want to provide access to it as best we can.

Contact

If you need access to one or more known print volumes in locked shelving, please contact Barbara Levergood or Amy Heggie.

If you do not know which print volume(s) you need, please contact Barbara Levergood.

• House Document, H.Doc.
• House Executive Document, H.Exec.Doc
• House Miscellaneous Document, H.Misc.Doc.
• House Report, H.Rpt.
• Senate Document, S.Doc.
• Senate Executive Document, S.Exec.Doc
• Senate Executive Report, S.Exec.Rpt.
• Senate Miscellaneous Document, S.Misc.Doc.
• Senate Report, S.Rpt.