What are the most interesting primary sources you’ve found so far? Why?

I am extremely interested in pursuing the “reception” of Austen’s Northanger Abbey by her contemporaries, because by examining these reactions through the eyes of persons completely immersed in her world, we can better understand the message Austen was trying to send. Thus far, the databases best suited to that research remain Orlando and the Reading Experience database. I have found several interesting quotes on the Reading Experience Database regarding Northanger Abbey already. However, I still need to learn how to best use Orlando, and I am not completely sure if I am using it in the right way. It has been difficult to find primary sources regarding the reception of Northanger Abbey as opposed to mentions of primary reception within secondary sources,  and the organization of the site is somewhat confusing.

Another interesting primary source I have found so far is an article from the Nineteenth Century Collection, by Richard Bickell. It is titled “The West Indies as They Are; or a Real Picture of Slavery, but More Particularly as It Exists in the Island of Jamaica.”  In congruence with the goal of pinning down and learning about “things unsaid” in Austen’s writing, and with my takeaway from Carleton’s DH Day, I am interested in pursuing the topic of race relations and slavery in Austen’s time, and how they influenced her writing and the political context of Northanger Abbey. As I mentioned in the document,  this article is the only source I could find in the nineteenth century collection database regarding the slave trade in Austen’s era. When I searched “slave*” the database pulled up this, along with a few articles using “slave” in a poetic or figurative manner. I think that in itself is rather telling. Even if not, it is a useful source to discern one response to/ opinion on slavery in Britain at the time. (Anti-slavery c 1825)