Table of Contents

Preface

I. NORTH AMERICAN FOUNDERS

1. First Founders

Christopher Columbus, Letter to Luis de SantÕ Angel (1493)

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, ÒIndians of the Rio GrandeÓ (1528-1536)

Bartolome de Las Casas, ÒOf the Island of HispaniolaÓ (1542)

Jacques Marquette, from The Mississippi Voyage of Joliet and Marquette (1673)

Thomas Mun, from EnglandÕs Treasure by Foreign Trade (1664)

 

2. European Footholds on the Fringes of North America, 1600Ñ1660

John Smith, ÒThe Starving TimeÓ (1624)

The Laws of Virginia (1610-1611)

John Winthrop, ÒA Model of Christian CharityÓ (1630)

Excerpt from the Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)

3. Controlling the Edges of the Continent, 1660Ñ1715

BaconÕs Rebellion: The Declaration (1676)

William Penn, from "Frame of Government of Pennsylvania" (1682) 

Trial of Elizabeth Clawson, Stamford, Connecticut (1692) 

 

II. A CENTURY OF COLONIAL EXPANSION TO 1775

4. African Enslavement: The Terrible Transformation

William Byrd II, Diary (1709)

Olaudah Equiano, The Middle Passage (1788)

Alexander Falconbridge, The African Slave Trade (1788)

James Oglethorpe, Establishing the Colony of Georgia (1733)

William Bull, Report on the Stono Rebellion (1739)

5. An American Babel, 1713Ñ1763

Benjamin Franklin, ÒUpon Hearing George Whitefield PreachÓ (1771)

Jonathan Edwards, from ÒSinners in the Hands of an Angry GodÓ (1741)

Gottlieb Mittelberger, The Passage of Indentured Servants (1750)

Elizabeth Sprigs, Letter to Her Father (1756)

6. The Limits of Imperial Control, 1763Ñ1775

John Dickinson, from Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1768)

Address of the Inhabitants of Anson County to Governor Martin (1774)

Patrick Henry, ÒGive Me Liberty or Give Me DeathÓ (1775)

III. THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION, 1775Ñ1803

7. Revolutionaries at War, 1775Ñ1783

Royal Proclamation of Rebellion (1775)

The Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 12, 1776)

John Adams to John Sullivan, 26 May 1776

Letter of a Revolutionary War Soldier (1776)

8. New Beginnings: The 1780s

Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crevecouer, from Letters from an American Farmer (1782)

George Washington, The Newburg Address (1783)

Publius (James Madison), Federalist Paper #10 (1788)

George Mason, Objections to This Constitution of Government (1787)

9. Revolutionary Legacies, 1789Ñ1803

George Washington, Farewell Address (1796)

The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

"Petition for Access to Education" (1787)

Molly Wallace, Valedictory Oration (1792)

Benjamin Banneker, Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1791)

Judith Sargent Murray, ÒOn the Equality of the SexesÓ (1790)

IV. EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES OF FREEDOM AND SLAVERY, 1803Ñ1848

10. Defending and Expanding the New Nation, 1803Ñ1818

Meriwether Lewis, Journal (1805)

Tecumseh, Letter to Governor William Henry Harrison (1810)

The Harbinger, Female Workers of Lowell (1836)

Mary Paul, Letters Home (1845, 1846)

11. Expanding Westward: Society and Politics in the ÒAge of the Common Man,Ó 1819Ñ1832

Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress (1829)

ÒMemorial of the Cherokee NationÓ (1830)

Henry Clay, Speech Opposing President JacksonÕs Veto of the Bank Bill (1832)

Davy Crockett, Advice to Politicians (1833)

Nat Turner, Confession (1831)

Charles Finney, ÒReligious RevivalÓ (1835)

12. Peoples in Motion, 1832Ñ1848

Dorothea Dix, Appeal on Behalf of the Insane (1843)

William Lloyd Garrison, from The Liberator (1831)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments (1848)

Elizabeth Dixon Smith Greer, Journal (1847-1850)

Chief Seattle, Oration (1854)

John L. OÕSullivan, ÒThe Great Nation of FuturityÓ (1845)

Thomas Corwin, Against the Mexican War (1847)

 

V. DISUNION AND REUNION

13. The Crisis over Slavery, 1848Ñ1860

The Ostend Manifesto (1854)

Benjamin Drew, Narratives of Escaped Slaves (1855)

Harriet Beecher Stowe, from Uncle TomÕs Cabin (1852)

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

Frederick Douglass, Independence Day Speech (1852)

George Fitzhugh, ÒThe Blessings of SlaveryÓ

John Brown, Address to the Virginia Court (1859)

 

14. ÒTo Fight to Gain a CountryÓ: The Civil War

James Henry Gooding, Letter to President Lincoln (1863)

Jefferson Davis, Second Inaugural Address as President of the Confederate States of America (1862)

Clara Barton, Medical Life at the Battlefield (1862)

Theodore A. Dodge, from Civil War Diary (1863)

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863)

 

15. In the Wake of War: Consolidating a Triumphant Union, 1865Ñ1877

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (1865)

Mississippi Black Codes (1865)

A Sharecrop Contract (1882)

Congressional Testimony on the Actions of the Ku Klux Klan (1872)

Civil Rights Cases (1883)


VI. THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA, 1877-1900

16. Standardizing the Nation: Innovations in Technology, Business, and Culture, 1877-1890

Russell Conwell, from Acres of Diamonds (1915)

Helen Hunt Jackson, from A Century of Dishonor (1881)

Charles Loring Brace, ÒThe Life of the Street RatsÓ (1872)

Josiah Strong, from Our Country (1885)

William L. Riordon, from Plunkitt of Tammany Hall (1905)

Richard K. Fox, from Coney Island Frolics (1883)

17. Challenges to Government and Corporate Power: Resistance and Reform, 1877-1890

Lee Chew, from Life of a Chinese Immigrant (1903)

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

Henry Grady, "The New South" (1886)

Terence V. Powderly, Preamble to the Constitution of the Knights of Labor (1878)

Edward Bellamy, from Looking Backward (1888)

Jane Addams, from Twenty Years at Hull House (1910)

18. Political and Cultural Conflict in a Decade of Depression and War: The 1890s

Frederick Jackson Turner, ÒThe Significance of the Frontier in American HistoryÓ (1893)

The Omaha Platform of the Populist Party (1892)

From Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address (1895)

W.E.B. Du Bois, from ÒOf Mr. Booker T. Washington and OthersÓ (1903)

The Secret Oath of the American Protective Association (1893)

William Graham Sumner, from ÒOn Empire and the PhilippinesÓ (1898)

William McKinley, ÒDecision on the PhilippinesÓ (1900)

 

VII. REFORM AT HOME, REVOLUTION ABROAD, 1900-1929

19. The Promise and Perils of Progressive Reform, 1900-1912

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, from A Red Record (1895)

John Spargo, from The Bitter Cry of Children (1906)

Ida Tarbell, from The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904)

The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904)

Theodore Roosevelt, from The New Nationalism (1910)

Woodrow Wilson, from The New Freedom (1913)

National American Woman Suffrage Association, MotherÕs Day Letter (1912)

20. War and Revolution, 1912-1920

Boy Scouts of America, from ÒBoy Scouts Support the War EffortÓ (1917)

Newton D. Baker, ÒThe Treatment of German-AmericansÓ (1918)

Eugene Kennedy, A ÒDoughboyÓ Describes the Fighting Front (1918)

Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the Court (1918)

Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points (1918)

A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the Reds" (1920) 

21. The Promise of Consumer Culture: The 1920s

Comprehensive Immigration Law (1924)

Calvin Coolidge, Honoring Charles Lindbergh (1927)

Marcus Garvey, Aims and Objectives of the UNIA (1923)

VIII. FROM DEPRESSION AND WAR TO WORLD POWER, 1929-1953

22. Hardship and Hope in the 1930s: The Great Depression

Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1933)

Huey Long, ÒShare Our WealthÓ (1935)
      Eleanor Roosevelt, from ÒMy DayÓ Column (1939)

23. Global Conflict: World War II, 1937-1945

Albert Einstein, Letter to President Roosevelt (1939)

Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms (1941)

Charles A. Lindbergh, from Des Moines Speech (1941)

A. Phillip Randolph, "Why Should We March?" (1942)

Korematsu v. United States (1944)

24. Cold War and Hot War, 1945-1953

Harry S. Truman, The Truman Doctrine (1947)

George Marshall, The Marshall Plan (1947)

Joseph R. McCarthy, from Speech Delivered to the WomenÕs Club of Wheeling, West Virginia (1950)

Margaret Chase Smith, from "Declaration of Conscience" (1950)

Whittaker Chambers, from Foreword to Witness (1952)

IX. THE COLD WAR AT FULL TIDE, 1953-1979

25. Domestic Dreams and Atomic Nightmares, 1953-1963

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address (1961)

From John F. Kennedy, Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

26. The Nation Divides: The Vietnam War and Social Conflict, 1964-1971

Students for a Democratic Society, Port Huron Statement (1962)

National Organization for Women, Statement of Purpose (1966)

Curtis Sitcomer, ÒHarvest of DiscontentÓ (1967)

The Tonkin Gulf Incident (1964)

Kevin MacCauley, Oral History on the 1968 Siege of Khe Sanh


27. Reconsidering National Priorities, 1972-1979

Roe v. Wade (1973)

House Judiciary Committee, Conclusion on Impeachment Resolution (1974)

Ione Malloy, Southie WonÕt Go: A TeacherÕs Diary of the Desegregation of South Boston High School (1975)

Jimmy Carter, The ÒCrisis of ConfidenceÓ Speech (1979)

X. A Nation of Immigrants, A Global Economy, 1979Ñ2001

28. The Cold War ReturnsÐand Ends, 1979-1991

Ronald Reagan, Speech to the House of Commons (1982)

David E. Wildmon, The Conscience of a Christian Conservative (1985)

George H. W. Bush, Address to the Nation Announcing Allied Military Action in the Persian Gulf (1991)

29. PostÑCold War America, 1991-2000

Bill Clinton, First Inaugural Address (1993)

Articles of Impeachment against William Jefferson Clinton (1998)

30. A Global Nation for the New Millennium

Owen Burdick, Witnessing the 9-11 Terrorist Attack in New York (2001)

Barbara Lee, Speech in Opposition to the U.S. War in Afghanistan (2001)

Wayne Allard, Testifying in Favor of The Federal Marriage Amendment (2004)


Credits