Constructing the American Past A Source Book of a People's History, Volume 1

This primary source reader captures the excitement of hands-on history through letters, articles, journalistic sources, photographs and posters. Constructing the American Pastachieves a level of inclusion and depth rarely found in other source books. Each chapter focuses on a particular problem or moment in American history, and provides students with several points of view. The photographs, posters and maps included in the text ask the students to “read” the visual sources of American history. By exposing students to primary sources, the building blocks of history , Constructing the American Pastfosters a solid foundation and invites its readers to build their own understanding of American history.

Elliott J. Gorn teaches history and American studies at Brown University. He is author of The Manly Art, Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America, Dillinger's Wild Ride, and co-author of A Brief History of American Sports.

 

Randy Roberts earned his Ph.D. From Louisiana State University. His area of special interest include modern U.S. history and the history of sports and films in America. He is a faculty member at Purdue University where he has won the Murphy Award for outstanding teaching, the Teacher of the Year Award, and the Society of Professional Journalists Teacher of the Year Award. The books he has authored or co-authored include Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler (1979, expanded ed., 1984), Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes (1983), Heavy Justice: The State of Indiana vs. Michael G. Tyson (1994), My Lai: A Brief History with Documents (1998), John Wayne: American (1995), Where the Domino Fell: America in Vietnam, 1945-1990 (1990, rev. ed., 1996), Winning Is the Only Thing: Sports in America Since1945 (1989), "But They Can't Beat US": Oscar Robertson and Crispus Attucks Tigers (1999), Joe Louis: Hard Times Man (2010). Pittsburg Sports: Stories From the Steel City (2000), and A Line in the Sand: The alamo in Blood and Memory (2001). He edited The Rock, The Curse, and the Hub: A Random History of Boston Sports (2005). Roberts serves as co-editor of the Sports and Society series, University of Illinois Press, and is on the editorial board of theJournal of Sports History.

 

A teacher of American history and world religions, Terry Bilhartz is an associate dean at Sam Houston State University. He is the author of Urban Religion and the Second Great Awakening, Sacred Words: A Source Book on the Great Religions of the World, and co-author of Currents in American History: A Brief History of the United States.

Chapter 1         Contact and Conquest: The Meeting of the Old and New Worlds 

 

Historical Context  

The Documents  

1.         Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus: 1492  

2.         Journal of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage  

3.         Bartolomé de Las Casas, From The Destruction of the Indies:  A Brief Account  

4.         The Aztec Account of the Spanish Conquest, Florentine Codex, as Collected by Bernadino de Sahagún  

Postscript  

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 2         Colonizing North America: The Founding of Virginia and Massachusetts Bay  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents  

1.         Arthur Barlowe, “Narrative of the 1584 Voyage”  

2.         Thomas Harriot, From A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia  

3.         George Percy, “Discourse”  

4.         John Smith, From Journal  

5.         From Laws Divine, Moral and Martial, 1611

6.         Richard Frethorne, An Indentured Servant Describes Life in Virginia in a Letter to His Parents

7.         John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity"

8.         Excerpts from The Trial of Anne Hutchinson

9.         From The Apologia of Robert Keayne

10.       Mary Rowlandson, From The Sovereignty of Goodness and God

11.       Samuel Paris, "Christ Knows How Many Devils There Are," 1692

12.      Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases

13.      Ann Putnam's Confession, 1706

Postscript  

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 3         Eighteenth-Century Voices  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents 

 

            1.         The Diaries of William Byrd  

            2.         Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano  

            3.         The Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards  

            4.         Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Sarah Osborn  

            5.         The Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin  

 

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 4         What Kind of Revolution? Justifications for Rebellion  

Historical Context  

The Documents  

 

            1.         Joseph Galloway, “Plan of Union”  

            2.         Samuel Seabury, “An Alarm to the Legislature”  

            3.         Benjamin Franklin on the Galloway Plan and the North Resolution  

            4.         Thomas Paine, From Common Sense  

            5.         John Wesley, From “A Sermon Preached at St. Matthew’s, Bethnal Green, on Sunday, Nov. 12, 1775”  

            6—8.     Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation and Responses  

            9.         Revolutionary Battle Flag  

            10.       “God Arising and Pleading His People’s Cause”  

            11.       Correspondence of Abigail and John Adams  

            12.       The Declaration of Independence  

            13.       Thomas Jefferson, From Notes on the State of Virginia  

            14.       Letter from Benjamin Banneker to Thomas Jefferson  

            15.       Reply of Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Banneker  

 

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 5         Forming a More Perfect Union: Friends, Foes, and the Disfranchised  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents  

 

            1—3.     Selections from The Constitution of 1787  

            4.         From the Speeches of Patrick Henry in the Virginia State Ratifying Convention  

            5.         Mercy Otis Warren, Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Federal and State  Conventions Columbian  Patriot  

            6.         Selections from the Letters of George Washington  

            7.         Selections from The Federalist Papers  

            8.         Report of the Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave Trade, Providence Gazette, February 26, 1789           

            9.          To the Citizens of the State of Rhode Island, Providence Gazette, February 14, 1789

            10.        Petition to the Connecticut State Assembly        

 

Postscript  

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 6         Reflections on Religion: Church, State and Society in the Early Republic  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents 

 

            1.         John Leland, The Excess of Civil Power Exploded

            2.         Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists

            3.         Lyman Beecher on Disestablishment in Connecticut      

            4.         Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely on Forming a Christian Party (1827)          

            5.         Fanny Lewis, "Glory! Glory! This is the Happiest Day I Ever Saw"

            6.         Martin J. Spalding, "A Fanaticism as Absurd as It Was Blasphemous"

            7.         Barton Stone, "The Smile of Heaven Shone"

            8.         "Camp-Meetings and Agricultural Fairs"

            9.          "Plan of the Camp"

            10.         William Otter, "History of My Own Times"

 

Postscript  

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 7         Living and Dying in Bondage: The Slave Conspiracy  of 1822  

 

Historical Context 

The Documents 

 

            1.         The Trials  

            2.         “Gracious Heaven When I Think What I Have Escaped”: Anna Hayes Johnson Letters to Her Cousin  

            3.         “The Conspiracy Had Spread Wider and Wider”: John Potter to Langdon Cheves  

            4.         “White Men, Too, Would Engender Plots”: Newspapers Report the Vesey Conspiracy  

            5.         David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens  of the World  

 

Postscript  

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 8         Leadership In the Age of the "Common Man": The Scope and Limitations of Jacksonian Democracy  

Historical Context  

The Documents  

 

            1-4.                  Political Broadsides  

            5.                     From The Democratic Republican  

            6.                     Ten Reasons for Advocating the Re-Election of General Jackson

            7.                     Selections from George Bancroft’s The Office of the People in Art, Government and Religion: An Oration   Delivered Before the Adelphi Society of Williamstown College, in August 1835

            8.                     Selections from Jackson’s Farewell Address entitled “The Cause of Freedom Will Continue to Triumph Over All Its Enemies”

            9.                     Headline: Rights of Women

            10.                   Why, What Evil Hath He Done?

            11.                   Reasons for Not Supporting the Democrats: A Satire

            12.                   Selections from "Radicalism"

 

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 9         Remembering the Alamo

                                   

                                      1.       José María Sánchez, A Trip to Texas in 1828

                                      2.       Manuel Mier y Terán, A Mexican General Describes the Borderlands, 1828 and 1829

                                      3.       Petition from the Committee of Vigilance and Public Safety for the Municipality of San Augustin, 1835

                                      4.       Sam Houston to his Soldiers, January 15, 1863

                                      5.       Proclamation of Acting Governor James W. Robinson, January 19, 1863

                                      6.       William Barret Travis to Governor Henry Smith, February 13, 1836, From the Alamo

                                      7.       General Antonio López de Santa Anna to the Army, February 17, 1836

                                      8.       William Travis to the Public, February 24, 1836

                                      9.       William Travis to Sam Houston, February 25, 1836

                                      10.     Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836

                                      11.     General Santa Anna to General Urrea, March 3, 1836

                                      12.     William Travis to Jesse Grimes, March 3, 1836

                                      13.     William Travis to David Ayers, March 3, 1836

                                      14.     General Santa Anna to his Staff, March 5, 1836

                                      15.     General Santa Anna to Secretary of War José Maria Tornel y Mendivil, March 6, 1836

                                      16.     General Santa Anna to the Citizens of Texas, March 7, 1836

                                      17.     Sam Houston to Colonel H. Raguet, March 13, 1836

                                      18.     Benjamin Goodrich to Edmund Goodrich, March 15, 1836

                                      19.     Eyewitness to the Alamo, José Enrique de la Peña

                                      20.     President David G. Barnet, Proclamation on Being Sworn in as President

                                       21.     Governor Joaquín Muñoz y Muñoz to the Citizens of Veracruz, March 23, 1836

                                      22.     General Thomas Rusk to President Burnet, April 22, 1836

                                      23.     Public Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, May 11, 1836

                                      24.     Mexican Secretary of War José Maria Tornel y Mendivil, 1837

                                      25.     Juan Seguín’s Eulogy for the Defenders of the Alamo, February 25, 1837

             

Questions 

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 10       Women in Antebellum America  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents  

 

            1.         A. J. Graves, “Religious Women”  

            2.         Catharine Beecher, “The Peculiar Responsibilities of American Women”  

            3.         Sarah M. Grimké, “On the Condition of Women  in the United States”  

            4.         Harriet Jacobs, From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl  

            5.         Words from a Native-American Female  

            6.         Declaration of Sentiments  

            7.         Lucy Larcom, From A New England Girlhood  

            8.         Malenda Edwards and Mary Paul Letters  

 

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 11       A House Divided: Free Labor, Slave Labor  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents  

 

            1.         Opinion of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney,  March 6, 1857, in the case of Dred Scott v.  John Sandford  

            2.         Dissenting Opinion, Justice John McClean,  March 6, 1857  

            3.         George Fitzhugh, From Cannibals All!  

            4.         Hinton Rowan Helper, From The Impending Crisis  of the South  

            5.         The Lincoln-Douglas Debates  

            6.         Harriet Beecher Stowe, From Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or Life Among the Lowly  

            7.         Frederick Douglass, Open Letter to Thomas Auld  

 

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 12       A War Within a War: The New York City Draft Riots  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents

 

            1.         Enrollment Act of 1863  

            2.         Ellen Leonard, “Three Days of Terror”  

            3.         From The Diary of George Templeton Strong  

            4.         To the Laboring Men of New York  

            5.         Dearly Beloved!  

            6.         “The Raging Riot–Its Character, and the True Attitude Toward It”  

            7.         A Letter from One of the Rioters  

            8.         The $300 Exemption  

            9.         Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address  

 

Questions  

Defining Terms

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources 

Additional Reading  

 

Chapter 13       Reconstruction and the Rise of the Ku Klux Klan  

 

Historical Context  

The Documents  

 

            1.         Initiation Oath of the Knights of the White Camelia  

            2.         Testimony of Victims of the Ku Klux Klan  

            3.         Congressional Inquiry into Klan Activities  

            4.         Hon. Job E. Stevenson of Ohio, Speech to the House  of Representatives  

            5.         Benjamin Bryant, From Experience of a Northern Man Among the Ku-Klux  

            6.         W. H. Gannon, “How to Extirpate Ku-Kluxism from the South”  

 

Questions  

Defining Terms  

Probing the Sources  

Interpreting the Sources  

Additional Reading  

Credits 

Index