U. S. History Documents CD-ROM

1. Meeting Of Three Cultures.


Marco Polo Recounts His Travels Through Asia (1324). Christopher Columbus, Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (1494). Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, "Indians of the Rio Grande" (1528-1536). Jacques Cartier: First Contact with the Indians (1534). Bartolomé de Las Casas, "Of the Island of Hispaniola" (1542). Thomas Mun, from England's Treasure by Foreign Trade (1664). Don Juan de Oñate, Plaus: A Settlement in New Mexico (1599). The Founding of St. Augustine, 1565. The Columbian Exchange (1590). Thomas Harriot, The Algonquian Peoples of the Atlantic Coast (1588). Jose de Acosta, A Spanish Priest Speculates on the Origins of the Indians (1590).



2. Colonizing the New World.


John White, The Lost Colony (1590). Samuel de Champlain's Battle With the Iroquois, July 1609. An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves. Reasons for the Plantation in New England (1629). John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" (1630). The Taking of the Fort at Mystic: A Brief History of the Pequot War. The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1638). A Jesuit Priest Describes New Amsterdam (1642). George Alsop, The Importance of Tobacco (1660). The Examination and Confession of Ann Foster at Salem Village (1692). Onandogas and Cayugas: Iroquois Chiefs Address the Governors of New York and Virginia (1684). James Oglethorpe: The Stono Rebellion (1739). Gottlieb Mittelberger, The Passage of Indentured Servants (1750).



3. Colonial America.


Navigation Act of September13, 1660. Nathaniel Bacon's Challenge to William Berkeley and the Governor's Response (1676). Early French Explorations of the Mississippi River (1673). Edward Randolph Describes King Philip's War (1685). Excerpt from Cotton Mather's "Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions" (1689). William Penn's Charter of Privileges (1701). William Byrd II, Diary (1709). Manners and Etiquette in the Eighteenth Century. "The Storm Arising in the West," George Washington Delivers a Warning to the French (1753). The Closing of the Frontier (1763). The Adventures of Daniel Boone (1769). Alexander Falconbridge, The African Slave Trade (1788). Olaudah Equiano, The Middle Passage (1788).



4. Prelude to Revolution.


John Peter Zenger and the Responsibility of the Press (1734). Declaration of the Injured Frontier Inhabitants [of Pennsylvania] (1764). Benjamin Franklin, Testimony Against the Stamp Act (1766). "Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania" (1767). John Dickinson, from Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1768). The Boston "Massacre" or Victims of Circumstance? (1770). John Andrews to William Barrell, Letter Regarding the Boston Tea Party (1773). Address of the Inhabitants of Anson County to Governor Martin (1774). J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, "What Is an American?" (1782).



5. The American Revolution.


Benjamin Franklin, "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c." (1751). James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1763). The Crisis Comes to a Head: April 19, 1775. A Freelance Writer Urges His Readers To Use Common Sense (1776). Abigail Adams and John Adams Letters; Abigail Adams Letter to Mercy Otis Warren. Petition of "A Grate Number of Blackes of the Province" to Governor Thomas Gage and the Members of the Massachusetts General Court (1774). Joseph Warren, "Account of the Battle of Lexington" (1775). Thomas Jefferson, "Original Rough Draught" of the Declaration of Independence (1776). Rights of Women in an Independent Republic. The Rise of Partisan Warfare in the South (1778).



6. Forging a Constitution.


Constitution of Pennsylvania (1776). A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1780). George Washington, The Newburgh Address (1783). Henry Knox, Letter to George Washington (1786). Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America (1786). Shays's Rebellion: Letters of Generals William Shepard and Benjamin Lincoln to Governor James Bowdoin of Massachusetts (1787). Divergent Reactions to Shays's Rebellion. The "Distracting Question" in Philadelphia (1787). Patrick Henry Speaks Against Ratification of the Constitution (1788). Benjamin Banneker, Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1791). James Wilson, An Introductory Lecture To a Course of Law Lectures (1791). Molly Wallace, Valedictory Oration (1792).



7. The Federalist Era.


James Madison Defends the Constitution (1788). [William Maclay], "For the Independent Gazetteer" (1790). Alexander Hamilton, Final Version of "An Opinion on the Constitutionality of an Act to Establish a Bank" (1791). Questions Concerning the Constitutionality of the National Bank (1791). Opposing Visions for the New Nation (1791). An African American Calls for an End to Slavery (1791). Backcountry Turmoil Puts the New Government to the Test (1794). George Washington, Farewell Address (1796). The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798). Questions of Constitutionality and the Roots of Nullification (1798). Reverend Peter Cartwright on Cane Ridge and the "New Lights" (1801). Marbury v. Madison(1803).



8. Jefferson and the Republic.


"Memoirs of a Monticello Slave," as Dictated to Charles Campbell by Isaac (1847). Thomas Jefferson, "First Inaugural Address" (1801). Margaret Bayard Smith Meets Thomas Jefferson (1801). Constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase (1803). The United States Navy and the Bombardment of Tripoli (1803). A Matter of Honor or Vengeance? (1804). Fisher Ames, "The Republican. No. II" (1804). Sacagawea Interprets for Lewis and Clark (1804). An "Uncommon Genius" Advocates Indian Unity (1809). Indian Hostilities (1812). The British Attack Baltimore (1814). Report and Resolutions of the Hartford Convention (1814). Davy Crockett, Advice to Politicians (1833).



9. Economic and Social Change.


"The Western Country," Extracts from Letters Published in Niles' Weekly Register (1816). The Cherokee Treaty of 1817.The Case for the Erie Canal. John Marshall Affirms the Power of the Federal Government. Thomas Jefferson Reacts to the "Missouri Question" (1820). The Monroe Doctrine and a Reaction (1823). Henry Clay, "Defense of the American System" (1832). Imminent Dangers to the Free Institutions of the United States through Foreign Immigration (1835). The Harbinger, Female Workers of Lowell (1836). James F. Cooper, Notions of the Americans (1840). Resolutions of the Boston Carpenters' Strike (1845). The Trials of a Slave Girl.



10. Jacksonian Democracy.


Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (1823). A "Corrupt Bargain" or Politics as Usual? (1824). A Disaffected Mason Speaks Out Against the Order (1826). The "Commoner" Takes Office (1828). Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress (1829). "Memorial of the Cherokee Nation" (1830). Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Bank Bill (1832). President Andrew Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification (1832). The Force Bill (1833). Black Hawk, "Life of Black Hawk" (1833). A French Traveler Reports on American Society (1835). Female Industry Association, from the New York Herald (1845).



11. Reforming the Nation.


Joshua and Sally Wilson Letters to George Wilson (1823). Lyman Beecher, Six Sermons on Intemperance (1828). "Early Habits of Industry," The Mother's Magazine (1834). Charles Finney, "What a Revival of Religion Is" (1835). Temperance and the Washingtonians (1836). A Lowell Mill Girl Tells Her Story (1836). "Petition of the Catholics of New York" (1840). Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance" (1841). Ja Norcom, Letter to Mary Matilda Norcom (1846). Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Woman's Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York (1848). Horace Mann on Education and National Welfare. John Humphrey Noyes and Bible Communism (1845 and 1849). Sojourner Truth, Address to the Woman's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio (1851).



12. Manifest Destiny.


The Treaties of Velasco (May 14, 1836). The Aroostook War (1839). Across the Plains With Catherine Sager Pringle in 1844. John L. O'Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity" (1845). Thomas Corwin, Against the Mexican War (1847). Chief Seattle, Oration (1854).



13. Antebellum South.


State v. Boon (1801). A Black Abolitionist Speaks Out (1829). Nat Turner, Confession (1831). An Abolitionist Defends the Amistad Mutineers (1839). De Bow's Review, "The Stability of the Union," (1850). Benjamin Drew, Narratives of Escaped Slaves (1855). George Fitzhugh, "The Blessings of Slavery" (1857).



14. The Sectional Crisis.


William Lloyd Garrison, from The Liberator (1831). Harriet Beecher Stowe, from Uncle Tom's Cabin. National Convention of Colored People, Report on Abolition (1847). A Dying Statesman Speaks out Against the Compromise of 1850. Frederick Douglass, Independence Day Speech (1852). Kansas Begins to Bleed (1856). A White Southerner Speaks Out Against Slavery (1857). Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857). Abraham Lincoln, "A House Divided" (1858).



15. The Civil War.


Jefferson Davis, Address to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America (1861). The "Cornerstone Speech" (1861). Mary Boykin Chesnut, A Confederate Lady's Diary (1861). Why They Fought (1861). A Confederate General Assesses First Bull Run (1861). Charles Harvey Brewster, Three Letters from the Civil War Front (1862). Clara Barton, Medical Life at the Battlefield (1862). James Henry Gooding, Letter to President Lincoln (1863). Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863). John Dooley, Passages from a Journal (1863). A Firsthand Account of the New York Draft Riots (1863). Susie King Taylor, Reminiscences of an Army Laundress (1902). General William Tecumseh Sherman on War (1864).



16. Reconstruction.


"Address from the Colored Citizens of Norfolk, Virginia, to the People of the United States" (1865). Carl Schurz, Report on the Condition of the South (1865). Clinton B. Fisk, Plain Counsels for Freedmen (1865). Mississippi Black Code (1865). James C. Beecher, Report on Land Reform in the South Carolina Islands (1865, 1866). The Memphis Riot (1866). The Fourteenth Amendment (1868). Albion W. Tourgee, Letter on Ku Klux Klan Activities (1870). The Nation, "The State of the South" (1872). Susan B. Anthony and the "New Departure" for Women (1873). James T. Rapier, Testimony Before U.S. Senate Regarding the Agricultural Labor Force in the South (1880). A Sharecrop Contract (1882).



17. New South, Expanding West.


Edward Gould Buffum, Six Months in the Gold Mines (1850). Lydia Allen Rudd, Diary of Westward Travel (1852). Horace Greeley, An Overland Journey (1860). Joseph G. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest (1874). Helen Hunt Jackson, from A Century of Dishonor (1881). Congressional Report on Indian Affairs (1887). Tragedy at Wounded Knee (1890). Benjamin Harrison, Report on Wounded Knee Massacre and the Decrease in Indian Land Acreage (1891). The Omaha Platform of the Populist Party (1892). From Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). W. E. B. Du Bois, from "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others" (1903).



18. Industrializing America.


Charles Loring Brace, "The Life of the Street Rats" (1872). Progress and Poverty (1879). The Gilded Age (1880). Richard K. Fox, from Coney Island Frolics (1883). Address by George Engel, Condemned Haymarket Anarchist (1886). Edward Bellamy, from Looking Backward (1888). The Assassination of President Garfield (1889). Ida B. Wells-Barnett, from A Red Record (1895). Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address (1895). United States Sanitary Commission, Sketch of Its Purposes (1864). Lincoln Steffens, from The Shame of the Cities (1904). Etiquette for the Upper Classes (1919). Scientific Management (1919).



19. Immigrant and Urban Nation.


Memorial of the Chinese Six Companies to U.S. Grant, President of the United States (1876). Plain Facts for Old and Young (1884). Anglo-Saxon Culture Under Siege (1885). How the Other Half Lives (1890). The People's Party Platform (1892). The Secret Oath of the American Protective Association (1893). Adna Weber, The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century (1899). Lee Chew, Life of a Chinese Immigrant (1903). Lincoln Steffens, from The Shame of the Cities (1904). William T. Riordon, from Plunkitt of Tammany Hall (1905). John Spargo, From The Bitter Cry of Children (1906). Mary Antin, The Promised Land (1912).



20. America Around the Globe.


Josiah Strong, from Our Country (1885). Henry Cabot Lodge, "The Business World vs. the Politicians" (1895). Albert Beveridge, "The March of the Flag" (1898). The Spanish-American War (1898). William McKinley, "Decision on the Philippines" (1900). The Boxer Rebellion (1900). Theodore Roosevelt, Third Annual Message to Congress (1903). Mark Twain, "Incident in the Philippines" (1924).



21. The Progressive Era.


Frederick Winslow Taylor, "A Piece-Rate System" (1896). William Graham Sumner, What the Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883). Eugene V. Debs, "The Outlook for Socialism in the United States" (1900). Platform Adopted by the National Negro Committee (1909). James H. Patten, Chairman of the National Legislative Committee of the American .Purity Federation, Testimony Before Congress (1910). Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (1910). Theodore Roosevelt, from The New Nationalism (1910). Walker Percy, "Birmingham under the Commission Plan" (1911). Helen M. Todd, "Getting Out the Vote" (1911). Louis Brandeis, Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It (1913). Woodrow Wilson, from The New Freedom (1913). Herbert Croly, Progressive Democracy (1914).



22. World War One.


The Great War. Boy Scouts of America from, "Boy Scouts Support the War Effort" (1917). Letters from the Great Migration (1917). American Troops in the Trenches (1918). Eugene Kennedy, A "Doughboy" Describes the Fighting Front (1918). Newton D. Baker, "The Treatment of German-Americans" (1918). An Official Report. Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points (1918). Warren G. Harding, Campaign Speech at Boston (1920). Edward Earle Purinton, "Big Ideas from Big Business" (1921).



23. The 1920s and Modern America.


J. Grimke, "Address of Welcome to the Men Who Have Returned from the Battlefront" (1919). The Sahara of the Bozart (1920). National Origins Quota Act, 1924. Advertisements (1925, 1927). Family Planning 1926. Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Court Statement (1927).



24. Depression and New Deal.


Herbert Hoover, Speech at New York City (1932). FDR's First Inauguration Speech (1932). Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Speech at San Francisco (1932). Share the Wealth. The Victims of the Ku Klux Klan (1935). Father Charles E. Coughlin, "A Third Party" (1936). Mrs. Henry Weddington, Letter to President Roosevelt (1938).



25. World War Two.


Albert Einstein, Letter to President Roosevelt (1939). Charles Lindbergh, Radio Address (1941). Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms (1941). Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress (1941). A. Philip Randolph, "Why Should We March?" (1942). Japanese Relocation Order, February 19, 1942. Sterling A. Brown, "Out of Their Mouths" (1942).



26. Cold War.


George F. Kennan, "Long Telegram" (1946). Kenneth MacFarland, "The Unfinished Work" (1946). George Marshall, The Marshall Plan (1947). Containment (1947). Harry S Truman, The Truman Doctrine (1947). Ronald Reagan, Testimony Before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1947). Joseph R. McCarthy, from Speech Delivered to the Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia (1950). National Security Council Memorandum Number 68 (1950). Senator Joseph McCarthy's telegram to President Truman following the 'Wheeling [W. Va.] Speech,' February 11, 1950.



27. Consensus and Conformity.


The Kinsey Report (1948). Brown v. Board of Education(1954). Ladies Home Journal, "Young Mother" (1956). Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Statement of Purpose (1960).



28. The Changing Liberal State.


Dwight D. Eisenhower, Decision Not to Intervene at Dien Bien Phu (1954). Charles Sherrod, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Memorandum (1961). John F. Kennedy, Cuban Missile Address (1962). Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement (1962). John Lewis, Address at the March on Washington (1963). The Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Tonkin Gulf Incident (1964). Lyndon B. Johnson, Commencement Address at Howard University (1965). Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, from Black Power (1967). Donald Wheeldin, "The Situation in Watts Today" (1967). Vietnamization (1969).



29. The Struggle For Social Change.


John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address (1961). The Feminist Mystique (1963). Lyndon Johnson, The War on Poverty (1964). National Organization for Women, Statement of Purpose (1966). The Gay Liberation Front, Come Out (1970). Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971). Roe v. Wade (1973). Ione Malloy, Southie Won't Go (1975). Jimmy Carter, The "Malaise" Speech (1979).



30. America at the Millennium.


House Judiciary Committee, Conclusion on Impeachment Resolution (1974). Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address (1981). Ronald Reagan, Speech to the House of Commons (1982). Ronald Reagan, Address to the National Association of Evangelicals (1983). T. Boone Pickens, "My Case for Reagan" (1984). Paul Craig Roberts, The Supply-Side Revolution (1984). Bill Chappell, Speech to the American Security Council Foundation (1985). Patricia Morrisroe, "The New Class" (1985). George Bush, Address to the Nation Announcing Allied Military Action in the Persian Gulf (1991).