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Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877

Eighth Edition ©2020 Michael P. Johnson

With five carefully selected documents per chapter, this popular two-volume primary source reader presents a wide range of documents representing political, social, and cultural history in an accessible way. Expertly edited by Michael Johnson, co-author of The American Promise, the readings can be u...

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Home Features New to This Edition

Features

Documents in each chapter focus on themes and events related to the parent textbook. Each chapter of Reading the American Past contains five to six primary source documents focused on themes and events related to the corresponding chapter in The American Promise. Delving into unique perspectives, each source will connect the specific experiences of Americans throughout the past to the broader context of U.S. history.

A brief introduction provides just the right amount of context for each chapter. Every chapter in the reader begins with an introduction that provides context and primes students to engage productively with the sources that follow.

A headnote introduces students to each document and encourages them to draw their own conclusions. Brief introductions to each source provide the provenance of the document, orient the student to the historical context, and provide a starting place for their own interpretations. Plentiful gloss notes help students with unfamiliar vocabulary.

Questions for Reading and Discussion follow each document and encourage students to return to the source. The Questions for Reading and Discussion that follow each source are useful as in-class, essay, or study questions. They prompt students to enhance their own understanding by engaging critically with each document.

Comparative Questions concluding each chapter place documents in conversation. The Comparative Questions at the end of each chapter prompt students to consider the broader implications of individual sources on U.S. history.

New to This Edition

New visual sources provide a window into the American past. One new visual source per chapter gives students snapshots into U.S. history and provides them with opportunities to augment their analytical skills. Complete with new Questions for Reading and Discussion, these images connect students with the people who experienced America in the past and encourage students to consider U.S. history in a new way.

Focus on science and technology New sources and updated Questions for Reading and Discussion emphasize the role of science and technology in U.S. history. From ancient American tools and colonial medicine, to the development of railroads and the growing need to protect the environment, new and updated documents trace the role of innovation in the United States.

Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877

Michael P. Johnson

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Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877

Eighth Edition 2020

Michael P. Johnson

1. ANCIENT AMERICA: BEFORE 1492
1-1 Ancient American Spear Point
Chaco Spear Point
1-2 A Taino Origin Story
Ramón Pané, On Taino Religious Practices
1-3 A Penobscot Origin Narrative
Joseph Nicolar, The Life and Traditions of the Red Men, 1893
1-4 Genesis: The Christian Origin Narrative
“In the Beginning”
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

2. EUROPEANS ENCOUNTER THE NEW WORLD, 1492–1600
2-1 Columbus Describes His First Encounter with “Indians”
The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to
       America, 1492–1493
2-2 A Conquistador Arrives in Mexico, 1519–1520
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, 1632
2-3 A Mexican Description of the Conquest of Mexico
Mexican Accounts of Conquest from the Florentine Codex
2-4 Rebuilding Mexico City after Conquest
Il Palazzo di Città del Messico del XVI secolo
2-5 Cabeza de Vaca Describes His Captivity among Native Americans in Texas and the Southwest, 1528–1536
Cabeza de Vaca, Narrative, 1542
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

3. THE SOUTHERN COLONIES IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY, 1601–1700
3-1 Richard Frethorne Describes Indentured Servitude in Virginia

Letter to Father and Mother, March 20, April 2, 3, 1623
3-2 Opechancanough’s 1622 Uprising in Virginia
Edward Waterhouse, Declaration, 1622
3-3 A European Tobacco Shop
Johan van Beverwijck, A Dutch Tobacco Shop
3-4 Bacon’s Rebellion
Nathaniel Bacon, Declaration, 1676
3-5 Pedro Naranjo Describes Pueblo Revolt
Declaration of Pedro Naranjo of the Queres Nation,
     December 19, 1681
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

4. THE NORTHERN COLONIES IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY, 1601–1700
4-1 The Arbella Sermon
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity, 1630
4-2 Puritan Lessons for Boston Babes
John Cotton, Puritan Lessons for Boston Babes, 1656
4-3 Wampanoag Grievances at the Outset of King Philip’s War
John Easton, A Relation of the Indian War, 1675
4-4 A Provincial Government Enacts Legislation
The Laws of Pennsylvania, 1682
4-5 Words of the Bewitched

       Cotton Mather, Testimony against Accused Witch Bridget
       Bishop, 1692
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

5. COLONIAL AMERICA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 1701–1770
5-1 Elizabeth Ashbridge Becomes an Indentured Servant in New York

        Some Account of the Early Part of the Life of Elizabeth
        Ashbridge, Who Died in . . . 1755 (1807)
5-2 Poor Richard’s Advice
Benjamin Franklin, Father Abraham’s Speech from Poor
       Richard’s Almanac, 1757
5-3 Lenape Chiefs Who Agreed to Pennsylvania Walking Purchase

Gustavus Hesselius, Portraits of Tishcohan and Lapowinsa,
        1735
5-4 An Anglican Criticizes New Light Baptists and Presbyterians in the South Carolina Backcountry
Charles Woodmason, Sermon on the Baptists and the
       Presbyterians, ca. 1768
5-5 Advertisements for Runaway Slaves
South Carolina Gazette and Virginia Gazette, 1737-1745
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

6. THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE COLONIAL CRISIS, 1754–1775
6-1 Mary Jemison Is Captured by Seneca Indians during the Seven Years’ War
James E. Seaver, A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison,
       1824
6-2 British Troops Occupy Boston, 1768
Paul Revere, “A View of Part of the Town of Boston in New England and British Ships of War Landing Their Troops! 1768”
6-3 An Oration on the Second Anniversary of the Boston Massacre

      Joseph Warren, Boston Massacre Oration, March 5, 1772
6-4 A Boston Shoemaker Recalls British Arrogance and the Boston Tea Party
George R. T. Hewes, Memoir, 1834
6-5 Daniel Leonard Argues for Loyalty to the British Empire
To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay,
       1774–1775
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

7. THE WAR FOR AMERICA, 1775–1783
7-1 Thomas Paine Makes the Case for Independence
Common Sense, January 1776
7-2 Letters of John and Abigail Adams

Correspondence, 1776
7-3 J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur Describes the Distresses of a Frontier Farmer during the Revolution
Distresses of a Frontier Man, 1782
7-4 British Cartoon Depicts Surrender at Yorktown, 1781
James Gillray, “The American Rattle Snake,” 1782
7-5 Boston King Seeks Freedom by Running Away to the British Army

Memoir, 1798
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

8. BUILDING A REPUBLIC, 1775–1789
8-1 Richard Allen Founds the First African Methodist Church
Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours, 1833
8-2 Thomas Jefferson on Slavery and Race
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782
8-3 Backcountry Homestead
Carolina Home
8-4 Making the Case for the Constitution
James Madison, Federalist Number 10, 1787
8-5 Mercy Otis Warren Opposes the Constitution
Observations on the New Constitution, 1788
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

9. THE NEW NATION TAKES FORM, 1789–1800
9-1 Alexander Hamilton on the Economy
Report on the Subject of Manufactures, 1791
9-2 Mary Dewees Moves West to Kentucky
Journal, 1788–1789
9-3 Flatboat on the Ohio River
Alfred Waud, “Flatboat on the Ohio River,” 1916
9-4 Judith Sargent Murray Insists on the Equality of the Sexes

On the Equality of the Sexes, 1790
9-5 President George Washington’s Parting Advice to the Nation

Farewell Address to the People of the United States, 1796
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

10. REPUBLICANS IN POWER, 1800–1824
10-1 President Thomas Jefferson’s Private and Public Indian Policy
Letter to Governor William H. Harrison, February 27, 1803
10-2 Meriwether Lewis Describes the Shoshone
The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1805
10-3 A Slave Demands That Thomas Jefferson Abolish Slavery

A Slave to Thomas Jefferson, November 30, 1808
10-4 The British and their Indian Allies, 1812
William Charles, “A Scene on the Frontiers as Practiced by the ‘Humane’
British and their ‘Worthy’ Allies,” 1812
10-5 James Hamilton’s Path to Enlistment during the War of 1812

Confession, 1818
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

11. THE EXPANDING REPUBLIC, 1815–1840
11-1 President Andrew Jackson’s Parting Words to the Nation
Farewell Address, March 4, 1837
11-2 Famers Nooning, 1836
William Sidney Mount, “Farmers Nooning,” 1836
11-3 Cherokees Debate Removal
John Ross, Answer to Inquiries from a Friend, 1836
       Elias Boudinot, A Reply to John Ross, 1837
11-4 David Walker Demands Emancipation
Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, 1829
11-5 Sarah Grimké on the Status of Women
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, 1838
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

12. THE NORTH AND THE WEST, 1840–1860
12-1 Abraham Lincoln Explains the Free-Labor System
Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 30, 1859
12-2 The Anxiety of Gain: Henry W. Bellows on Commerce and Morality
The Influence of the Trading Spirit upon the Social and Moral
Life of America, 1845
12-3 “The Drunkard’s Progress, from the First Glass to the Grave, 1846”
“The Drunkard’s Progress, from the First Glass to the Grave,
        1846”
12-4 Gold Fever
Walter Colton, California Gold Rush Diary, 1849–1850
12-5 That Woman Is Man’s Equal: The Seneca Falls Declaration
Declaration of Sentiments, 1848
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

13. THE SLAVE SOUTH, 1820–1860
13-1 Madison Hemings Recalls Life as Thomas Jefferson’s Enslaved Son
Interview, 1873
13-2 “After the Sale: Slaves Going South from Richmond,” 1854 Eyre Crowe, “After the Sale: Slaves Going South from Richmond,” 1854
13-3 Plantation Rules
Bennet Barrow, Highland Plantation Journal, May 1, 1838
13-4 Fanny Kemble Learns about Abuses of Slave Women
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838–1839
13-5 Nat Turner Explains Why He Became an Insurrectionist
The Confessions of Nat Turner, 1831
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

14. THE HOUSE DIVIDED, 1846–1861
14-1 The Kansas–Nebraska Act
Abraham Lincoln, Speech in Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854
14-2 “Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler,” 1856
John L. Magee, “Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Free-
       Soiler,” 1856
14-3 The Antislavery Constitution
Frederick Douglass, The Constitution of the United States: Is It Proslavery or Antislavery? 1860
14-4 The Proslavery Constitution
Jefferson Davis, Speech before the U.S. Senate, May 1860
14-5 Levi Coffin Describes Margaret Garner’s Attempt to Escape Slavery
Reminiscences, 1880
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

15. THE CRUCIBLE OF WAR, 1861–1865
15-1 President Lincoln’s War Aims
             Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
             The Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
            The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
15-2 A Former Slave’s War Aims

Statement from an Anonymous Former Slave, New Orleans,
              1863
15-3 The New York Draft Riots
        Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People
        Suffering from the Late Riots in the City of New York, 1863
15-4 “In Search of Freedom,” 1863
         Edwin Forbes, “In Search of Freedom,” 1863
15-5 General William T. Sherman Explains the Hard Hand of War
Correspondence, 1864
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

16. RECONSTRUCTION, 1863–1877
16-1 Carl Schurz Reports on the Condition of the Defeated South
Report on the Condition of the South, 1865
16-2 Former Slaves Seek to Reunite Their Families
Advertisements from the Christian Recorder, 1865–1870
16-3 Planter Louis Manigault Visits His Plantations and Former Slaves

A Narrative of a Post–Civil War Visit to Gowrie and East Hermitage Plantations, March 22, 1867
16-4 Klan Violence against Blacks
Elias Hill, Testimony before Congressional Committee Investigating the Ku Klux Klan, 1871
16-5 The Ignorant Vote and the Election of 1876
Thomas Nast, “The Ignorant Vote,” 1876
COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS

Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877

Eighth Edition 2020

Michael P. Johnson

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Michael P. Johnson

Michael P. Johnson (Ph.D., Stanford University) is professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. His publications include Toward a Patriarchal Republic: The Secession of Georgia; Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War: Selected Speeches and Writings; and Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, the documents reader for The American Promise. He has also coedited No Chariot Let Down: Charleston’s Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War with James L. Roark.

Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877

Eighth Edition 2020

Michael P. Johnson