Texts in Chronological Order (Terms of Use)

1600-1799	1800-1839	1840-1865	1866-1899	1900-Present

 

1600-1799

• The Five Points of Calvinism from the Synod of Dort (1619) (in pdf format)

• John Smith’s Account of being Rescued by Pocahontas (1624) (in pdf format)

• John Winthrop Defends the Right of Puritans to Settle on Indian Land (1629) (in pdf format)

• John Winthrop Calls Massachusetts Bay Colony “a City upon a Hill” (1630) (in pdf format)

• Abigail and John Adams Discuss Women and Republican Government (1776) (in pdf format)*

• Thomas Jefferson on the African Race (1781) (in pdf format)

• Thomas Jefferson Articulates the Agrarian Ideology (1781) (in pdf format)

• Thomas Jefferson’s “Act for Establishing Religious Freedom” in Virginia (1786) (in pdf format)

• "Centinel" Criticizes the Proposed Constitution (1787) (in pdf format)

• Olaudah Equiano Recalls the Middle Passage (1789) (in pdf format)

• Benjamin Franklin on Religion (1788) (in pdf format)*

• Thomas Paine, Excerpts from The Age of Reason (1796) (in pdf format)

1800-1839

• Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association (1802) (in pdf format)*

• Thomas Jefferson's Indian Policy (1803) (in pdf format)*

• Samuel Jennings, Excerpt from The Married Lady's Companion (1808) (in pdf format)

• John M'Cullough, Recollection of the Delaware Prophecy (of 1760s) (1808)

• Tecumseh's Address to the Osages (1811) (in pdf format)*

• William Ellery Channing, Excerpts from "Unitarian Christianity," "The Moral Argument Against Calvinism" and "Likeness to God" (1819, 1820, & 1828) (in pdf format)

• Chief Justice John Marshall Explains the Discovery Doctrine (Johnson v. M'Intosh) (1823) (in pdf format)

• Andrew Jackson, "Veto Message" Regarding the Bank of the United States (1832) (in pdf format)

• Excerpts from The Autobiography of Black Hawk (1833) (in pdf format)*

• George Ripley, "Review of J. Martineau's Rationale of Religious Inquiry" (1836)

• Catherine Beecher on Abolitionism and the Duties of American Females (1837) (in pdf format)*

• Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Divinity School Address" (1838) (in pdf format)*

• Andrews Norton, "A Discourse on the Latest Form of Infidelity" (1838)

1840-1865

• “The Spirit of Discontent”: A Young Woman Reflects on Factory Work (from the Lowell Offering) (c. 1841) (in pdf format)

• Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843)

• Edgar Allan Poe, "The Imp of the Perverse" (1845)

• John O'Sullivan Coins the Phrase "Manifest Destiny" (1845) (in pdf format)

• Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Ethan Brand" (1851) (in pdf format)

• The Democratic Review against the Women's Rights Movement (1852) (in pdf format)*

• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Excerpts from Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) (in pdf format)*

• Abraham Lincoln, "Fragment on Equality" (1854) (in pdf format)

• Peter Cartwright on Campmeetings and Calvinism (1857) (in pdf format)*

• Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, "The Two Offers," from the Anglo-African Magazine (1859) (in pdf format)

• Abraham Lincoln on Slavery and Freedom (1858-60) (in pdf format)

• Charles Darwin, Excerpts from On the Origin of Species (1859) (in pdf format)

• Abraham Lincoln, "Messages to Congress" (Excerpts) (1861-2)

• Abraham Lincoln, "The Gettysburg Address" (1863) (in pdf format)

• Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address" (1865) (in pdf format)

1866-1899

• Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Post-War Violence against Freed Slaves in Louisiana (1866)

• Preamble to the Constitution of the Knights of Labor (1878)

• Interview with Thomas O'Donnell, "The Life of a Mule-Spinner" (1883) (abridged version)

• Andrew Carnegie, "The Road to Business Success" (1885) (abridged version)

• Terence Powderly, "The Plea for Eight Hours" (1890)

• Senator William Peffer, "The Mission of the Populist Party" (1893)

• Robert Ingersoll, "The Divided Household of Faith" (1888)

• Lyman Abbott, "Flaws in Ingersollism" (1890) (abridged version)

• William James, "The Will to Believe" (1895) (abridged version) (in pdf format)

• Booker T. Washington, "Atlanta Compromise" Speech (1895) (in pdf format)*

• Young Ralph Plumb Reacts to 1896 Democratic Convention (1896) (in pdf format)*

• James Mooney, compiler, "Cherokee Creation Story" (c. 1897) (in pdf format)

• Robert M. La Follete, "The Danger Threatening Representative Government" (1897) (in pdf format)

• Perspectives on the Spanish-American War (Selected Documents from 1898-99) (in pdf format)

• Albert Beveridge, "The March of the Flag" (1898) (abridged version)

• Theodore Roosevelt, "The Strenuous Life" (1899) (abridged version)

• The Anti-Imperialist Position (1899) (abridged version)

• Miss L. Perrine Writes to Historian Reuben Thwaites about the Founding Site of the Republican Party in Ripon (1899) (in pdf format)*

1900-Present

• Antanas Kaztauskis, "From Lithuania to the Chicago Stockyards" (1904)

• Woodrow Wilson, "We Must Accept War" (1917) (in pdf format)

• University of Wisconsin Professor Charles Augustus Smith Receives News During the Great War (1917–1918) (in pdf format)

• Walter Rauschenbusch, Excerpts from A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917) (in pdf format)*

• Florence M. [Sullivan] Larkin, “War, at First and Second Hand” (1919) (in pdf format)*

• Cartoon, Florence [Sullivan] Larkin Papers, "Who Says American Girls are Not Popular?" (1919) (in pdf format)*

• George Creel, "How We Advertised America" (1920)

• Margaret Sanger, "Debate on Birth Control" (1921) (abridged version)

• Franklin D. Roosevelt, "First Inaugural Address" (1933)

• Joseph McCarthy on the Threat of Communism (1950) (in pdf format)*

• Dwight Eisenhower, "The Domino Theory" (1954)

• Dwight Eisenhower, "Farewell Address" (1961)

• Lyndon B. Johnson, "Inaugural Address" (1965)

• Gloria Steinem, "Testimony before the Senate Hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment" (1970)

• "Orestes Augustus Brownson" (1908), by Henry Brownson

• Review of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Divinity School Address" (1838) (abridged version in pdf format)

• "Church of the Future" (1842)

• "Reform and Conservatism" (1842)

• "The Mediatorial Life of Jesus" (1842)

• "Orestes Brownson on Capitalism and Democracy" (1842) (in pdf format)

• "Democracy and Liberty" (1843)

• "No Church, No Reform" (1844)

• "The Higher Law" (1851)

These electronic texts (including document headnotes and discussion questions) are © 2003-09 David J. Voelker. Permission is granted to copy and use these texts for educational purposes only. These texts may reproduced in coursepacks offered for sale to students on an ad hoc basis, but they may not be used in any form for commercial purposes. All users must retain the texts' bibliographic information and cite this source (www.historytools.org).  For the sake of quality control, please use links to these pages rather than storing them locally. Please report any errors or send comments to David Voelker at the address below. *Texts marked with an asterisk were created as part of the “Documenting American History” or "Documenting Wisconsin History" projects, supervised by Professor David Voelker at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. This project had support from UWGB’s Research Council.

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