Is Currency of the Work Important?
If so, periodicals and the Internet may be your best resources. If you are doing a paper from one of the sciences, current information is usually necessary. Historical papers, documents or speeches are obviously going to be "old," but there may also be a fresh perspective on your topic. Do not discount checking, even briefly, for information in current literature on your historical topic. Scholars continue to examine and analyze historical events.
Slavery occured over 100 years ago. After 1865, a huge amount of information in the form of slave narratives was published. Since the civil rights movement, more current publications have been produced. And so, even the current literature contains articles on something which happened over 100 years ago.
