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| Introduction to Students: How to Read Primary and Secondary Sources | |
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| Conquest and Colliding Empires | |
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| Documents | |
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| Christopher Columbus Recounts His First Encounters with Native People, 1493 | |
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| Fray Bernardino de Sahagun Relates an Aztec Chronicler's Account of the Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs, 1519 | |
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| Father Bartolomeacute; de Las Casas Disparages the Treatment of the Indians, 1542 | |
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| Reverend John Heckewelder Records a Native Oral Tradition of the First Arrival of Europeans on Manhattan Island (1610), Printed in 1818 | |
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| Father Paul Le Jeune Reports on His Encounters with the Indians, 1634 | |
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| William Wood Describes Indian Responses to the English, 1634 | |
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| John Mason Gives a Puritan Account of the Pequot War, 1637 | |
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| Essays | |
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| The Indians' New World Neal Salisbury | |
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| The Indians' Old World | |
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| The Southern Colonies in British America | |
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| Documents | |
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| Richard Frethorne, an Indentured Servant, Laments His Condition in Virginia, 1623 | |
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| George Alsop Argues That Servants in Maryland Profit from Life in the Colonies, 1666 | |
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| Nathaniel Bacon Recounts the Misdeeds of the Virginia Governor, 1676 | |
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| Virginia's Statutes Illustrate the Declining Status of African American Slaves, 16601705 | |
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| William Byrd Describes His Views Toward Learning and His Slaves, 17091710 | |
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| Olaudah Equiano, an African, Depicts the Horrors of Enslavement, 1757 | |
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| Reverand Charles Woodmason Complains About Life in the Carolina Backcountry, 1768 | |
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| Essays | |
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| The Anxious World of the Slaveowning Patriarch | |
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| The Effects of Paternalism Among Whites and Blacks | |
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| Colonial New England and the Middle Colonies in British America | |
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| Documents | |
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| Governor John Winthrop Provides a Model of Christian Charity, 1630 | |
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| Governor William Bradford Mourns a Wickedness That Breaks Forth, 1642 | |
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| William Penn Promotes His Colony, 1681 | |
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| Massachusetts Officials Describe the Outbreak of Witchcraft in Salem, 1692 | |
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| Jonathan Edwards Pictures Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, 1741 | |
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| Benjamin Franklin Celebrates a Life of Thrift and Industry (c. 17301750), 1793 | |
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| Dr. Alexander Hamilton Depicts the Material Acquisitions of Northern Colonists, 1744 | |
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| Gottlieb Mittelberger, a German, Portrays the Difficulties of Immigration, 1750 | |
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| Mary Jemison Recounts Her Experience of Capture and Becoming Seneca, 1755 | |
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| Essays | |
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| The Northern Colonies as a Family-Centered Society | |
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| The Northern Colonies as an Empire of Goods | |
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| The American Revolution | |
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| Documents | |
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| Congress Condemns the Stamp Act, 1765 | |
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| The Town of Boston Denounces the "Boston Massacre," 1770 | |
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| Thomas Jefferson Specifies the Rights of British Americans, 1774 | |
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| Patrick Henry Warns the British to Maintain American Liberties, 1775 | |
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| Thomas Paine Advocates the "Common Sense" of Independence, 1776 | |
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| German Americans Support the American Revolution, 1776 | |
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| Abigail Adams Asks Her Husband to "Remember the Ladies," 1776 | |
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| African Americans Petition for Freedom, 1777 | |
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| Mohawk Leader Joseph Brant Commits the Loyalty of His People to Britain, 1776 | |
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| Loyalists Plead Their Cause to the King, 1782 | |
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| Essays | |
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| The American Revolution as a Response to British Corruption | |
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| The American Revolution as a Radical Departure | |
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| The Making of the Constitution | |
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| Documents | |
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| Cato, an African American, Pleads for the Abolition of Slavery in Pennsylvania, 1781 | |
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| Hector St. John Cregrave;vecoeur Compares the Freedom in the North with Slavery in the South, 1782 | |
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| Slaveholders in Virginia Argue Against the Abolition of Slavery, 17841785 | |
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| Thomas Jefferson Proposes the Protection of Religious Freedom in Virginia, 1786 | |
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| The Northwest Ordinance Lays Out the Method for New States Joining the Union, 1787 | |
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| General William Shepard and Benjamin Lincoln Regret the Disorder That Characterized Shays's Rebellion, 1787 | |
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| The Federalist Papers Illustrate the Advantages of Ratification of the Constitution, 17871788 | |
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| Richard Henry Lee Opposes the Ratification of the Constitution, 1787 | |
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| Patrick Henry Condemns the Centralization of Government if the Constitution Is Ratified, 1788 | |
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| George Washington Declares Freedom of Religion for Jewish People, 1790 | |
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| Essays | |
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| The Pressure of the People on the Framers of the Constitution | |
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| The Concern of the Framers to Recruit Citizens to Enter Public Life | |
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| Competing Visions of Empire in the Early National Period | |
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| Documents | |
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| Thomas Jefferson Celebrates the Virtue of the Yeoman Farmer, 1785 | |
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| Congress Establishes Its First Policy for Naturalization, 1790 | |
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| Alexander Hamilton Envisions a Developed American Economy, 1791 | |
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| Thomas Jefferson Berates the Federalists, 1796 | |
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| C. William Manning, a Republican, Fears for the Future of the Nation, 1798 | |
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| Thomas Jefferson Advances the Power of the States, 1798 | |
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| John Marshall Argues for the Primacy of the Federal Government, 1803 | |
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| Parson Weems Romanticizes the Life of George Washington, 1808 | |
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| Essays | |
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| The Fears of the Federalists | |
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| The Fears of the Jeffersonian Republicans | |
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| Westward Movement, the Market Revolution, and Indian Removal | |
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| Documents | |
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| Joseph Brant Compares Indian and White Civilizations, 1789 | |
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| Iroquois Chief Red Jacket Decries the Day When Whites Arrived, 1805 | |
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| William Clark Enters into Diplomacy with Native People, 1806 | |
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| Shawnee Chief Tecumseh Recounts the Misdeeds of Whites and Calls for Indian Unity, 1810 | |
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| Tenskwatawa (the Shawnee Prophet) Relates His Journey to the World Above, 1810 | |
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| Congressman Felix Grundy Advocates War with Britain, 1811 | |
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| John Marshall Advances a Broad Construction of the Constitution, 1819 | |
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| James Monroe Declares That European Powers May Not Interfere in the Americas, 1823 | |
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| John Quincy Adams Urges Internal Improvements, 1825 | |
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| The Cherokee Nation Pleads to Remain "on the Land of Our Fathers," 1830 | |
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| Essays | |
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| Indians Utilizing a Strategy of Armed Resistance Theda Perdue | |
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| Indians Utilizing a Strategy of Accommodation | |
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| Nationalism, Sectionalism, and Expansionism in the Age of Jackson | |
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| Documents | |
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| John C. Calhoun Argues for Rights of States, 1828 | |
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| Daniel Webster Lays Out His Nationalist Vision, 1830 | |
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| Andrew Jackson Condemns the Rights of "Nullification" and Secession, 1832 | |
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| Historian George Bancroft Asserts His Faith in the Wisdom of the People, 1835 | |
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| Lieutenant-Colonel Joseacute; Enrique de la Pentilde;na Defends Mexico's Actions Against the Texans, 1836 | |
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| John L. O'Sullivan, a Democratic Newspaperman, Venerates Democracy and the "Democratic Principle," 1837 | |
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| Michel Chevelier, a French Visitor, Marvels at the Pageantry of Politics, 1839 | |
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| John L. O'Sullivan Defines "Manifest Destiny," 1845 | |
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| Senator Thomas Hart Benton Justifies White Supremacy, 1846 | |
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| Senator John Dix Advocates Expansion into Mexico, 1848 | |
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| Walter Colton, a Californian, Describes the Excitement of the Gold Rush, 1848 | |
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| Essays | |
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| Antebellum Politics as Raucous Democracy | |
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| Antebellum Politics as Political Manipulation | |
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| Reform and the Great Awakening in the Early Nineteenth Century | |
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| Documents | |
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| Peter Cartwritht, a Methodist Itinerant Preacher, Marvels at the Power of Religious Revivals, 1801 | |
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| Frances Trollope, an Englishwoman, Views a Religious Meeting in Indiana, 1829< | |