| Diverse Beginnings | |
| The Spanish Letter of Columbus to Luis Sant' Angel (1493) | |
| ** Images of 16th Century Native American Life | |
| Jesuit Comparison of French and Native Life (1657-58) | |
| Captain John Smith Describes Founding of Jamestown (1607) | |
| "General Considerations for the Plantation in New England" (1629) | |
| William Bradford on Sickness Among the Indians (1633) | |
| "Captivity Account" of Mary Rowlandson (1675) | |
| The Pueblo Revolt (1680) | |
| Emerging Colonial Societies | |
| **Images of 17th Century European and Native American Combat | |
| **A Treaty Between the Five Nations and the New England Colonies (1689) | |
| Petition of an Accused Witch (1692) | |
| "Pennsylvania, the Poor Man's Paradise" (1698) | |
| Of the Servants and Slaves in Virginia (1705) | |
| **Cotton Mather on the Evils of "Self-Pollution" (1723) | |
| Early New Orleans (C. 1728) | |
| Eliza Lucas, a Modern Woman (1741-1742) | |
| Towards an American Identity | |
| Navigation Act of 1660 | |
| **Two Views of Early Merchant Capitalism | |
| Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741) | |
| Pennsylvania Assembly Comments on German Immigration (1755) | |
| Edmund Burke on British Motives in the Seven Years' War (1762) | |
| "The Pontiac Manuscript" (1763) | |
| "What is an American?" (1770) | |
| Coming of the Revolution | |
| John Locke on Political Society and Government (1689) | |
| Cato's Letters (1721) | |
| **Stamp Act Riots (1765) | |
| The Boston Massacre (1770) | |
| Ann Hulton, Loyalist View of Colonial Unrest (1774) | |
| A Loyalist Perspective of the Coming of Revolution (1780) | |
| Lord Chatham's Motion to Withdraw the Troops from Boston (1775) | |
| The War for Independence | |
| Introduction to Common Sense (1776) | |
| A Speech Against Independence (1776) | |
| German Doctor's Account of War and Surgery (1777) | |
| Treaty of Alliance with France (1777) | |
| **The Battle of King's Mountain and Loyalism in the Carolinas (1780) | |
| Women's Contributions to the War Effort (1780) | |
| The Quock Walker Decision (1783) | |
| Towards a New Government | |
| The Articles of Confederation (1777) | |
| Failure of the Continental Congress (1786) | |
| The Northwest Ordinance (1787) | |
| Grievances of the Shays Rebels (1786) | |
| Pennsylvania Dissent to the Ratification of the Constitution (1787) | |
| Federalist Number 10 (1788) | |
| Mercy Otis Warren and the New Constitution (1788) | |
| Defining the New Nation | |
| Voting Qualifications in Virginia (1779) | |
| **How Revolutionary was the Revolution? (Images) | |
| Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Jefferson, Blacks and Liberty in the New Nation (1791) | |
| Alexander Hamilton Speaks in Favor of the National Bank (1791) | |
| **Opposing Views of the Whiskey Rebellion (1794) | |
| George Washington's "Farewell Address" (1796) | |
| The Virginia Resolutions (1798) | |
| Marbury v. Madison (1803) | |
| The New Nation and its Place in the World | |
| Jefferson's Instructions to Robert Livingston, Minister to France (1802) | |
| Heading West with Lewis and Clark (1804) | |
| **A Frontier View of the Chesapeake Affair (1807) | |
| Tecumseh on White Encroachment (1810) | |
| Dolly Madison on British Invasion of Washington (1814) | |
| Resolutions of the Hartford Convention (1815) | |
| Tennessee Expansionists on the Adams-Onis Treaty (1819) | |
| The Monroe Doctrine (1823) | |
| The Democratic Republic | |
| Richmond Enquirer on Mcculloch v. Maryland (1819) | |
| Fanny Wright on Equality (1828/1830) | |
| Daniel Webster's Second Reply to Robert Y. Hayne (1830) | |
| South Carolina Nullifies the Tariff (1832) | |
| The American System (1832) | |
| Andrew Jackson's Bank Veto Message (1832) | |
| **Opposing Perspectives of the Jackson Presidency(Cartoons on the Jackson Presidency) | |
| The Cherokee Phoenix on Georgia Policy Toward the Cherokee (1832) | |
| Commentary on Elections in Jacksonian America | |
| "Spirit of Jacksonism" (1832) | |
| Diversifying Society and Economy | |
| Description of a Conversion Experience at Cane Ridge, Ky (1801) | |
| Promoting the Erie Canal (1818) | |
| Charles G. Finney Describes the Rochester Revival (1830-31) | |
| "Americans on the Move" | |
| **A Optimistic View of the Promise of the Marketplace (Images) | |
| American Mania for Railroads (1834) | |
| **Urban Riots (1835) | |
| Women Workers Protest "Lowell Wage Slavery" (1847) | |
| "On Irish Emigration" (1852) | |
| Social Reform | |
| "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World" (1829) | |
| William Lloyd Garrison on Slavery (1831) | |
| Horace Mann on Educational Reform (1840) | |
| Lyman Beecher on Intemperance (1825) | |
| Sarah Grimk? Argues for Gender Equality (1837) | |
| "Declaration of Sentiments," Seneca Falls Convention (1848) | |
| Manifest Destiny and American Expansion | |
| **Mid-Nineteenth Century Images of Race and Nation (Images) | |
| Texas and California Annexation (1845) | |
| American Description of Mexican Women in Santa Fe (1845) | |
| Mob Violence Against Mormons (1846) | |
| Mexican View of U.S Occupation (1847) | |
| San Francisco and the California Gold Rush (1848) | |
| "Civil Disobedience" (1849) | |
| **A Chinese American at Yale (1850) | |
| Slavery and the Old South | |
| Olaudah Equiano Describes the "Middle Passage" (1789) | |
| **Perspectives on Slavery (Images) | |
| The Trial of Denmark Vesey (1822) | |
| The Alabama Frontier (1821) | |
| A Reaction to the Nat Turner Revolt (1831) | |
| The Plantation Labor Force (1838-39) | |
| Martin Delany and African American Nationalism (1852) | |
| A Slave Describes Sugar Cultivation (1853) | |
| A Defense of Southern Society (1854) | |
| The Southern Yeomen (1860) | |
| Origins of the Civil War | |
| An African American Minister Responds to the Fugitive Slave Law (1851) | |
| Southern Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) | |
| Charles Sumner on "Bleeding Kansas" (1856) | |
| Chicago Tribune on the Dred Scott v. Sanford Decision (1857) | |
| The Freeport Doctrine | |
| ** Cartoonists Depict the Issues of the Day.(Cartoons on the 1860 Presidential Election) | |
| Republican Party Platform (1860) | |
| Inaugural Address of South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens (1860) | |
| The Civil War | |
| Mary Boykin Chesnut, the Attack on Fort Sumter (1861) | |
| "A War to Preserve the Union" (1861) | |
| Jefferson Davis Responds to the Emancipation Proclamation(1862) | |
| New York City Draft Riots (1863) | |
| African-American Troops in Combat (1863) | |
| **The Southern Homefront (1863) | |
| General William T. Sherman on War (1864) | |
| Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865) | |
| Reconstruction | |
| A Northern Teacher's View of the Freedmen (1863-65) | |
| ** Charleston, South Carolina at the Conclusion of the Civil War (1865) | |
| African-Americans Seek Protection (1865) | |
| Thaddeus Stevens on Reconstruction and the South (1865) | |
| A White Southern Perspective on Reconstruction (1868) | |
| The Ku Klux Klan During Reconstruction (1872) | |
| "The Problem at the South" (1871) | |
| **African American Suffrage in the South (1867, 1876) | |
| (Images from Harper's Weekly) | |
| ** Indicates selection is new to this edition. | |
| Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved. |