Sources for America's History, Volume 1: To 1877

PLEASE NOTE: VOLUME 1 INCLUDES CHAPTERS 1-16 AND VOLUME 2 INCLUDES CHAPTERS 15-31.

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction for Students

Part 1: TRANSFORMATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA (1450–1700)

CHAPTER 1: Colliding Worlds, 1450–1600 1-1 | An Englishman Describes the Algonquin People

THOMAS HARIOT, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588)

1-2 | Peasants Working a Lord’s Estate

LIMBOURG BROTHERS, March: Peasants at Work from the "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry" (15th Century)

1-3 | Columbus Encounters Native Peoples

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, Journal of the First Voyage (1492)

1-4 | Las Casas Describes European Atrocities

BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552)

1-5 | Huejotzingo Petitions the Spanish King for Relief

COUNCIL OF HUEJOTZINGO, Letter to the King of Spain (1560) 12

1-6 | Debating the Morality of Slavery

BROTHER LUIS BRANDAON, Letter to Father Sandoval (1610) 16

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

2-1 | Indians Resist Spanish Control

Testimony of Acoma Indians (1599)

2-2 | "City Upon a Hill" Sermon

JOHN WINTHROP, A Model of Christian Charity (1630)

2-3 | The Limits of the Puritan Community

The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)

2-4 | Maryland Protects Religious Belief

Maryland Act of Religious Toleration (1649)

2-5 | Slave Labor on the Rise

EDMUND WHITE, Letter to Joseph Morton (1687)

2-6 | Spreading the Gospel Among the Iroquois

REV. FATHER LOUIS CELLOT, Letter to Father François Le Mercier (1656)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

P1-1 | The Aztec God Tlaloc with Maize

Meal of Maize and Beans, the Sixth Month of the Aztec Solar Calendar (c. 1585)

P1-2 | Florida Natives Welcome the Returning French

THEODORE DE BRY, The Natives of Florida Worship the Column Erected by Commander on His First Voyage (1591)

P1-3 | A European Encounters the Algonquin Indians

THOMAS MORTON, Manners and Customs of the Indians (of New England) (1637)

P1-4 | The Trade in Goods and Slaves

THOMAS PHILLIPS, A Journal of a Voyage Made in the Hannibal (1693–1694)

P1-5 | Making the Case for Colonization

RICHARD HAKLUYT, A Discourse of Western Planting (1584)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

CHAPTER 3: The British Atlantic World, 1660–1750

3-1 | Bostonians Welcome the Glorious Revolution

The Declaration of the Gentlemen, Merchants and Inhabitants of Boston, and the Country Adjacent (1689)

3-2 | The Onondaga Pledge Support to Colonies

CANASSATEGO, Papers Relating to an Act of the Assembly of the Province of New York (1742)

3-3 | Virginia Tightens Slave Codes

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF VIRGINIA, An Act for Suppressing Outlying Slaves (1691)

3-4 | Gentility and the Planter Elite

WILLIAM BYRD II, Diary Entries (1709–1712)

3-5 | Trade Creates Dynamic Commercial Economy

JOHN BARNARD, The Autobiography of the Rev. John Barnard (1766)

3-6 | Colonists Assert Their Rights

LORD CORNBURY, Letter to the Lords of Trade (1704)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

4-1 | A Revivalist Warns Against Old Light Ministers

GILBERT TENNENT, Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry (1740) 81

4-2 | Sarah Osborn on Her Experiences During the Religious Revivals

SARAH OSBORN, Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Sarah Osborn (1814)

4-3 | Anglican Minister on the Manners and Religion of the Carolina Backcountry

CHARLES WOODMASON, Journal (1766–1768)

4-4 | Franklin Calls for Colonial Unity

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Albany Plan of Union (1754)

4-5 | Colonists Argue for an Alliance with Indians Against the French

State of the British and French Colonies in North America (1755) 93

4-6 | The North Carolina Regulators Protest British Control

Petition from the Inhabitants of Orange County, North Carolina (1770)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

PART 2 DOCUMENT SET: The Causes and Consequences of the Peopling of North America, 1660–1763

P2-1 | The Horrors of the Middle Passage

OLAUDAH EQUIANO, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself (1794)

P2-2 | German Immigrant Describes Carolina Opportunities

Letter from Christen Janzen to His Family (1711)

P2-3 | An Indentured Servant Confesses to Murder

The Vain Prodigal Life and Tragical Penitent Death of Thomas Hellier (1680)

P2-4 | Celebrating an Indian Defeat

A Ballad of Pigwacket (1725)

P2-5 | Colonial Settlements Raise Indian Alarms

Journal of James Kenny (1761–1763)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

5-1 | A Virginia Planter Defends the Natural Rights of Colonies

RICHARD BLAND, Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies (1766)

5-2 | Colonists Protest Parliament’s Acts

STAMP ACT CONGRESS, Declaration of Rights (1765)

5-3 | A Loyalist Decries the Boston Mob

PETER OLIVER, Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion (1781)

5-4 | Worcester Loyalists Protest the Committee of Safety

A Protest by the Worcester, Massachusetts, Selectmen (1774)

5-5 | The Danger of Too Much Liberty

THOMAS HUTCHINSON, Letter to Thomas Whately (1769)

5-6 | Thomas Paine Attacks the Monarchy

THOMAS PAINE, Common Sense (1776)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

6-1 | Democratic Spirit Empowers the People

Instructions to the Delegates from Mecklenburg to the Provincial Congress at Halifax in November (1776)

6-2 | A Call to "Remember the Ladies"

ABIGAIL AND JOHN ADAMS, Correspondence (1776)

6-3 | Enslaved Blacks Adopt the Cause of Liberty

PRINCE HALL, Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Council and the House of Representatives (1777)

6-4 | A Republican Hero Emerges

JAMES PEALE, General George Washington at Yorktown (c. 1782)

6-5 | A Shaysite Defends the "Risings of the People"

DANIEL GRAY, Address to the People of Several Towns (1786)

6-6 | Madison Defends the Constitution

JAMES MADISON, Federalist No. 10 and Federalist No. 51 (1787)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

7-1 | Hamilton Diverges from Jefferson on the Economy

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, Letter to Edward Carrington (1792)

7-2 | Jefferson’s Agrarian Vision for the New Republic

THOMAS JEFFERSON, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781)

7-3 | A Federalist Warns Against French Influence on American Politics

FISHER AMES, Foreign Politics (c. 1801–1805)

7-4 | Anxiety Over Western Expansion

THE PANOPLIST AND MISSIONARY HERALD, Retrograde Movement of National Character (1818)

7-5 | A Shawnee Chief Calls for Native American Unity

TECUMSEH, "Sleep Not Longer, O’ Choctaws and Chickasaws" (1811)

7-6 | New England Federalists Oppose the War of 1812

Report of the Hartford Convention (1815)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

8-1 | Building the Economy

J. HILL, Junction of Erie and Northern Canal (c. 1830–1832)

8-2 | In Praise of Domestic Manufacturing

THE WEEKLY REGISTER, Home Influence (1813)

8-3 | Warren Discusses Women’s Roles

MERCY OTIS WARREN, Letter to a Young Friend (1790) and Letter to Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham (1791)

8-4 | An Argument for the Education of Republican Women

BENJAMIN RUSH, Thoughts Upon Female Education (1787)

8-5 | Jefferson Warns Against Slavery’s Expansion

THOMAS JEFFERSON, Letter to John Holmes (1820)

8-6 | An Egalitarian View of Religion

LORENZO DOW, Analects Upon the Rights of Man (1816)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

P3-1 | Rallying Americans to the Cause of Freedom

JOHN DICKINSON, The Liberty Song (1768)

P3-2 | Defining the American Character

J. HECTOR ST. JOHN DE CRÈVECOEUR, Letters from an American Farmer (1782)

P3-3 | Women’s Right to Education in the New Republic

JUDITH SARGENT MURRAY, On the Equality of the Sexes (1790)

P3-4 | A Warning for the Young Republic

George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)

P3-5 | A Woman’s Perspective on Backcountry America

MARGARET VAN HORN DWIGHT, A Journey to Ohio (1810)

P3-6 | Democratic Enthusiasm Shapes Religion

JAMES FLINT, Letters from America (1820)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

9-1 | A Factory Girl Remembers Mill Work

LUCY LARCOM, Among Lowell Mill-Girls: A Reminiscence (1881)

9-2 | Making the Case for Internal Improvements

HON. P. B. PORTER, Speech on Internal Improvements (1810)

9-3 | A View of the Factory System

Repeating Fire-Arms. A Day at the Armory of Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (1857)

9-4 | Contrasting Images of Urban Life

Frontispiece from Sunshine and Shadow in New York (1868)

9-5 | Taking the Temperance Pledge

Preface to The Temperance Manual of the American Temperance Society for the Young Men of the United States (1836)

9-6 | Finney Discussing the Revival of Religion

CHARLES GRANDISON FINNEY, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1835)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

10-1 | A Professional Politician on the Necessity of Political Parties

MARTIN VAN BUREN, The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren (1854)

10-2 | Insurgent Democrats Flex Political Power

FITZWILLIAM BYRDSALL, The History of the Loco-Foco or Equal Rights Party (1842)

10-3 | President Defeats Monopoly Threat

ANDREW JACKSON, Veto Message Regarding the Bank of the United States (1832)

10-4 | Whig Partisan Describes Party’s Political Economy

HENRY CAREY, The Harmony of Interests (1851)

10-5 | Decrying Jackson’s Use of Presidential Power

King Andrew the First (c. 1833)

10-6 | Native American Women Urge Resistance to Removal Policy

CHEROKEE WOMEN, Petition (1821 [1831?])

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

11-1 | A Transcendentalist View of Women’s Rights

MARGARET FULLER, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)

11-2 | Mormon Leader’s Vision of Religious Community

JOSEPH SMITH, History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet (c. 1830s)

11-3 | Remembering Bowery Culture

ABRAM C. DAYTON, Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York (1882)

11-4 | Attacking the Legal Disabilities of Women

SARAH GRIMKÉ, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman (1837)

11-5 | Abolitionist Decries Slavery’s Dehumanizing Power

DAVID WALKER, Preamble to Walker’s Appeal in Four Articles (1830)

11-6 | Antiabolitionist Attacks Reformers’ Efforts

CALVIN COLTON, Abolition a Sedition (1839)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

12-1 | Reporting on the South’s Peculiar Institution

ETHAN ANDREWS, Slavery and the Domestic Slave-Trade (1836)

12-2 | Witness to the Punishment of a Runaway Slave

LEVI COFFIN, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (1876)

12-3 | A Southern City Affirms the Morality of the Slave Trade

Proceedings of the Charleston City Council (1856)

12-4 | Religious Life of Enslaved African Americans

Slave Songs of the United States (1867)

12-5 | Southern Hospitality on Display

SUSAN DABNEY SMEDES, Memorials of a Southern Planter (1887)

12-6 | Free Blacks Push for Elevation of the Race

Proceedings of the Colored National Convention (1848)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

P4-1 | Commerce Overcomes Nature’s Obstacles

Canal Commissioners of Ohio Contract (c. 1820s)

P4-2 | Cultivating the "Garden of Graves"

JOSEPH STORY, Address Delivered on the Dedication of the Cemetery at Mount Auburn (1831)

P4-3 | A Woman’s Perspective on the Overland Journey West

EMMELINE B. WELLS, Diary (1846)

P4-4 | Depicting America’s Transcendent Landscape

ASHER BROWN DURAND, Kindred Spirits (1849)

P4-5 | Assessing Climate’s Effect on Americans

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, A Journey Through Texas (1854)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

13-1 | The Lure of the West

LANSFORD HASTINGS, The Emigrant’s Guide to Oregon and California (1845)

13-2 | Two Views of the War with Mexico

JOHN D. SLOAT, To the Inhabitants of California (1846) and GENERAL FRANCISCO MEJIA, A Proclamation at Matamoros (1846)

13-3 | A Southern Perspective on the Political Crisis

JOHN C. CALHOUN, Speech on the Slavery Question (1850)

13-4 | Attacking the Slave Power Conspiracy

CHARLES SUMNER, The Crime of Kansas (1856)

13-5 | Supreme Court Rules Against Antislavery Cause

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

13-6 | A Southern Woman Reacts to Lincoln’s Election

KEZIAH GOODWIN HOPKINS BREVARD, Diary (1860–1861)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

14-1 | A Southern Woman Opposes Secession

MARY BERKELEY MINOR BLACKFORD, Letter to John Minor (1861)

14-2 | War’s Impact on Southern Economy

STAUNTON SPECTATOR, The Uses of Economy (1862)

14-3 | A Battlefield View of the Cost of War

CORNELIA HANCOCK, Letters of a Civil War Nurse (1863)

14-4 | Political Divisions over Freeing the Slaves

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and JEFFERSON DAVIS, President’s Message (1863)

14-5 | Hearing the News of Emancipation

HARRY SMITH, Fifty Years of Slavery (1891)

14-6 | Redistributing the Land to Black Refugees

WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, Special Field Order No. 15 (1865)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

15-1 | President Focuses on Work of Reconstruction

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Last Public Address (1865)

15-2 | A Freed Family’s Dream of Landownership

BETTY POWERS, Federal Writers’ Project Interview (c. 1936)

15-3 | A Former Slave Owner Complains of "Negro Problem"

FRANCES BUTLER LEIGH, Letter to a Friend in England (1867)

15-4 | A Liberal Republican Opposes Universal Suffrage

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS JR., The Protection of the Ballot in National Elections (1869)

15-5 | Nast Lampoons Freedmen’s Government

THOMAS NAST, Colored Rule in a Reconstructed State (1874)

15-6 | African American Congressman Urges Support of Civil Rights Bill

ROBERT BROWNE ELLIOTT, Speech to Congress (1874)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

16-1 | Promoting the Transcontinental Railroad

The Pacific Railway Act (1862)

16-2 | Railroad Transforms the Nation

CURRIER & IVES, Across the Continent (1868)

16-3 | Harvesting the Bison Herds

J. WRIGHT MOOAR, Buffalo Days (1933)

16-4 | Addressing the Indian Question

FRANCIS A. WALKER, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (1872)

16-5 | Remembering Indian Boarding School Days

MOURNING DOVE, A Salishan Autobiography (1990)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

P5-1 | Women Reformers Demand Citizenship Rights

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, Declaration of Rights and Sentiments (1848)

P5-2 | Defining Native American Rights and Limits

STATUTES OF CALIFORNIA, An Act for the Government and Protection of Indians (1850)

P5-3 | The Catholic Threat to American Politics

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States (1855)

P5-4 | Debating the Meaning of the Constitution

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Cooper Union Address (1860)

P5-5 | Southern Leader Contrasts Union and Confederate Constitutions

ALEXANDER STEPHENS, "Cornerstone" Speech (1861)

P5-6 | Freedman Claiming the Rights of Citizenship

REV. HENRY McNEAL TURNER, Speech Before the Georgia State Legislature (1868)

COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS