These are a few databases and websites where you can start looking for primary sources. This list is by no means exhaustive, so make sure to use Google and talk to me for other suggestions on your specific topic.
Journal writings of British seaman Aaron Thomas serving aboard a Royal Navy ship in the West Indies during the French Revolutionary Wars. Journal dated June 15, 1798 - October 26, 1799.
A comprehensive range of regional and local newspapers in Britain between the mid-eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, providing a range of publications to reflect the social, political and cultural events of the times. The British Library Newspapers' collections feature London national newspapers, English regional papers, home country newspapers from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and titles in specialist areas such as Victorian radicalism and Chartism.
The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) offers a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States. Search for the "Wilmington Ten" to find relevant sources related to this subject.
(EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War. Access includes Thomason Tracts and Early English Books Tract Supplement. early_english_books_online.
European Views of the Americas is a comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750 from European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed In Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750. The database contains more than 32,000 records, and covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of native American peoples. Find more information.
Provides digital facsimile images of primary sources that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth. Full-text searching across millions of pages of works from the periods 1450-1850, 1851-1914, and 1890-1945 provides researchers access to material for research in the areas of history, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies and more. Includes books, serials, pamphlets, essays and more.
The collection amounts to approximately 10,000 manuscript pages and includes correspondence, principally letters received, but also reports, invoices and accounts, journals, plus a small quantity of maps, charts and watercolors.
Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more.