Breese, Sidney. Reports of Cases at Common Law and in Chancery, Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, from its First Organization in 1819, to the End of December Term, 1831. 2nd edition. Edited by Edwin Beecher. Chicago: Callaghan & Company, 1877.

Carveth, Bruce G. “Edward Coles (1786–1868).” Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 17 Jul. 2014. Accessed March 2020. https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Coles_Edward_1786-1868

Coles, Edward. “Edward Coles to James Madison, 8 January 1832” [letter]. Founders Online. Accessed March 2020. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/99-02-02-2506

Coles, Edward. “Edward Coles to James Madison, 20 July 1819” [letter]. Founders Online. Accessed March 2020. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/04-01-02-0438

Coles, Edward. “Edward Coles to Thomas Jefferson, September 26, 1814” [letter]. Library of Congress. Accessed March 2017. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib021851

Coles, Edward. “Governor Coles’ Autobiography: Letter from Governor Edward Coles to the Late Senator W. C. Flagg: Early Settlements in Madison County.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984) 3, no. 3 (1910): 59-64. 

Coles, Edward. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, in Conformity to the Provisions of the Act of Fifteenth May, 1820, for the Relief of the Inhabitants of the Village of Peoria, in the State of Illinois. Washington: Printed by order of the Senate of the U.S., 1821.

Coles, Edward. History of the Ordinance of 1787. Philadelphia: Press of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1856.

“The Coles Family.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 7, no. 1 (1899): 101-02.

“Coles Family (Concluded).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 7, no. 4 (1900): 428-29.

“Documents: The People of the State of Illinois Versus Edward Coles, 1824-1825.” FamilySearch. Accessed March 2017. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-WQ9L-C1?cc=1834344

Gordon, Nicholas. “The Man Who Freed His Slaves: A Narrative of the Life of Edward Coles.” Last updated August 22, 2010. Accessed March 2017. https://www.poemsforfree.com/edwardcoles.html

Guasco, Suzanne Cooper. Confronting Slavery: Edward Coles and the Rise of Antislavery Politics in Nineteenth-Century America. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2013.

Howard, Robert P. Mostly Good and Competent Men: Illinois Governors, 1818-1988. Springfield: Illinois Issues, Sangamon State University and Illinois State Historical Society, 1988. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.

“Illinois Servitude and Emancipation Records.” Compiled by the Illinois State Archives. Accessed March 2017. http://www.ilsos.gov/isa/servemansrch.jsp

Jefferson, Thomas. “Thomas Jefferson to Edward Coles, August 25, 1814” [letter]. Library of Congress. Accessed March 2017. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib021817

Laws Passed by the First General Assembly, of the State of Illinois, at Their Second Session, Held at Kaskaskia, 1819. Kaskaskia: Published by authority, 1819.

Leichtle, Kurt E., and Bruce G. Carveth. Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011.

Lewis, Donald Fremont. “The Philadelphia Years of Governor Edward Coles of Illinois, 1832-1868.” Alton, 1954. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.

Norton, W.T. Edward Coles: Second Governor of Illinois: 1786-1868. Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott, 1911. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.

One of Many [i.e. Coles, Edward]. “No. 1: To the Citizens of Illinois.” Illinois Intelligencer, May 14, 1824.

One of Many [i.e. Coles, Edward]. “No. 3: To the Citizens of Illinois.” Illinois Intelligencer, May 28, 1824.

One of Many [i.e. Coles, Edward]. “No. 4: To the Citizens of Illinois.” Illinois Intelligencer, June 4, 1824.

One of Many [i.e. Coles, Edward]. “No. 5: To the Citizens of Illinois.” Illinois Intelligencer, June 11, 1824.

“Roberts Coles, Green Mountain Grays, 46th Virginia Infantry.” Accessed March 2020. https://scottsvillemuseum.com/war/coles/home.html

Washburn, E.B. Sketch of Edward Coles, Second Governor of Illinois, and of the Slavery Struggle of 1823-1824. Edited by Clarence Walworth Alvord. Vol. 15 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library. Springfield: Trustees of the Illinois State Historical Library, 1920. Originally published Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Company, 1882. Available at the Madison County Archival Library. Also available online at https://archive.org/details/governoredwardco15alvo