This list gives several possible sources for your term papers.  It is by no means comprehensive and could use updating, but if you're doing one of the topics listed below, it should help. There are, of course, many more acceptable topics and sources besides the ones listed below.

Caveat:  I typically ask for a recenteconomic history source, defining "recent" as "last 15 years," and many of these sources are older than that.  They will still be good as background sources.  In rare cases when there simply hasn't been major scholarly work on a particular topic in the past 15 years, an older source may be acceptable (best to ask in advance, though).

General piece of advice:  Make ample use of the course reading materials, including your textbooks and the course reading packet.  While textbooks should not be your main sources for the term paper, you certainly should try to get whatever information you can from the course materials.

African Americans' economic gains, 1865-1900

• Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880. (1934. Good historical source.)
• Higgs, Robert. Competition and Coercion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press [?], 1977.
• Margo, Robert. "Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks: Comment and Further Evidence," American Economic Review 74:768-76 (September 1984).
• Margo, Robert. Race and Schooling in the South, 1880-1950. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
• Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper, 1944.
• Ransom, Roger.  Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
• Ransom, Roger, and Richard Sutch. One Kind of Freedom. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
• Various authors.  First six articles in Explorations in Economic History 38(1), January 2001.  (Available through Interlibrary Loan, and I have a copy in my office.)
• Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South. New York: Basic Books, 1986.

American Revolution, economic causes of

• Egnal, Marc.  A Mighty Empire.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. 
• Egnal, Marc, & Joseph Ernst. "An Economic Interpretation of the American Revolution," William and Mary Quarterly 24: 3-31 (1972).
• McCusker, John J., and Russell R. Menard. The Economy of British America, 1607-1789. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
• Perkins, Edwin J.  The Economy of Colonial America.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.  (Pages 187-211 in particular.)
• Rabushka, Alvin.  Taxation in Colonial America.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
• Reid, Joseph.  "Economic Burden: Spark to the American Revolution?" Journal of Economic History 38: 81-100 (1978).
• Sawers, Larry.  "The Navigation Acts Revisited."  Economic History Review 45(2): 262-84 (May 1992).
• (See also the six-article "Forum: Economics and American Independence" in the October 2011 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly.)

• Abramitzky, Ran, & Fabio Braggion.  "Migration and Human Capital: Self-Selection of Indentured Servants to the Americas."  Journal of Economic History 66(4): 882-905 (December 2006).
• Galenson, David.  White Servitude in Colonial America.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
• Galenson, David.  "White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America."  Journal of Economic History 41(1):  39-47 (March 1981).
• Galenson, David.  "The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis."  Journal of Economic History 44(1): 1-26 (March 1984).
• Grubb, Farley.  "Immigrant Servant Labor...." Social Science History 9: 249-275 (1985).
• Grubb, Farley.  "The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence on the Efficiency of Forward Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, 1745-1773." Journal of Economic History 45: 855-68 (1985).
• Grubb, Farley.  "The End of European Immigrant Servitude in the United States: An Economic Analysis of Market Collapse."  Journal of Economic History 54(4): 794-824 (December 1994).
• Grubb, Farley.  "The Trans-Atlantic Market for British Convict Labor." Journal of Economic History 60: 94-122 (2000).
• McCusker, John J., and Russell R. Menard. The Economy of British America, 1607-1789. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
• Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.
• Salinger, Sharon V.  "Review Essay: Labor, Markets, and Opportunity: Indentured Servitude in Early America."  Labor History 38(2&3): 311-338 (Spring 1997).

• Barrington, Linda, editor.  The Other Side of the Frontier: Economic Explorations into Native American History.  Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.
• Burke, Thomas E.  Mohawk Frontier: The Dutch Community of Schenectady, New York, 1661-1710.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. (Contains much on the Iroquois, the fur trade and Indian trade in general, Indian wars, etc.)
• Salisbury, Neal.  "The History of Native Americans From Before the Arrival of the Europeans and Africans Until the American Civil War."  In The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Volume I, edited by Stanley L. Engerman & Robert E. Gallman.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Silverman, David J.  "The Impact of Indentured Servitude on the Society and Culture of Southern New England Indians, 1680-1810."  New England Quarterly 74(4): 622-666 (December 2001).
• Silverman, David J.  "'We Chuse to Be Bonded': Native American Animal Husbandry in Colonial New England."  William and Mary Quarterly 60(3): 511-548 (July 2003).

• Atack, Jeremy; Haines , Michael R.; and Margo, Robert A.   "Did Railroads Induce or Follow Economic Growth?"  Social Science History 34(2): 171-197 (Summer 2010).
• Atack, Jeremy; Haines , Michael R.; and Margo, Robert A.  "Railroads and the Rise of the Factory: Evidence for the United States, 1850-70."  National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper No. 14410 (October 2008).  Downloadable from any wired computer in Mahar Hall via this link.  (Note:  If you are unable to download or print this paper, see me.  I have a copy.)
• Chandler, Alfred D.  "The Railroads: The First Modern Business Enterprises, 1850s-1860s."  In Historical Perspectives on the American Economy, edited by Robert Whaples and Dianne C. Betts.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
• Fishlow, Albert.  American Railroads and the Transformation of the Antebellum Economy.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965.
• Fishlow, Albert.  "Transportation in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries."  In The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Volume II, edited by Stanley L. Engerman & Robert E. Gallman.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Fogel, Robert.  Railroads and American Economic Growth.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1964.
• Fogel, Robert.  "Notes on the Social Savings Controversy," Journal of Economic History 39: 1-54 (1979)
• McClelland, Peter.  "Railroads, American Growth, and the New Economic History: A Critique," Journal of Economic History 28: 102-23 (1972).
• Solakoglu, Ebru Guven.  "The Net Effects of Railroads on Stature in the Postbellum Period."  Research in Economic History 24 (2006).

• David, Paul, et al. Reckoning With Slavery.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
• Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989 [originally published in 1974].
• Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. "Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South." American Economic Review 67: 275-96 (1977).
• Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. "Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South: A Reply." American Economic Review 70: 672-90 (1980).
• Olmstead, Alan L., and Paul W. Rhode.  "Biological Innovation and Productivity Growth in the Antebellum Cotton Economy."  Journal of Economic History 68: 1123-71 (2008).
• Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.
• Wright, Gavin. "The Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture: Another Interpretation," American Economic Review 69 (1979): 219-26.

• Bateman, Fred, and Thomas Weiss. A Deplorable Scarcity: The Failure of Industrialization in the Slave Economy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981.
• David, Paul, et al. Reckoning With Slavery.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
• Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989 [1974].
• Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. "Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South: A Reply," American Economic Review 70: 672-90 (1980).
• Parker, William. "Slavery and Southern Economic Development," Agricultural History 44:115-125 (1970). (Penfield Library doesn't carry this journal, but I have extra copies of this article.)
• Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.
• Wright, Gavin. "The Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture: Another Interpretation," American Economic Review 69 (1979): 219-26.
• Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South. New York: Basic Books, 1986. (Chapter 2, "From Laborlords to Landlords," should be especially useful).

• Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers.  Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men.  Chicago: Open Court Press, 1996.
• McPherson, James.  Battle Cry of Freedom.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Ransom, Roger.  Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
• Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.

• Galenson, David.  "White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America."  Journal of Economic History 41(1):  39-47 (March 1981).
• Hanes, Christopher.  "Turnover Cost and the Distribution of Slave Labor in Anglo-America."  Journal of Economic History 56(2):  307-329 (June 1996).

• Goldin, Claudia. Understanding the Gender Gap. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Goldin, Claudia.  "The Changing Economic Role of Women: A Quantitative Approach."  In Historical Perspectives on the American Economy, edited by Robert Whaples and Dianne C. Betts.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
• Kessler-Harris, Alice.  Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in America.  New York: Schocken Books, 1982.
• Matthaei, Julie. An Economic History of Women in America. New York: Schocken Books, 1982. (Available through Interlibrary Loan.)
• Rotella, Elyce.  "The Equal Rights Amendment--Yes, But Whose?"  In Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History, edited by Donald McCloskey.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Wright, Gavin. "Understanding the Gender Gap: A Review Article," Journal of Economic Literature 29:1153-1163 (September 1991).