Cover: Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877, 8th Edition by Michael P. Johnson
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Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877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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ISBN:9781319212032

ISBN:9781319212001

Cover: Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents, Volume 1: To 1877, 8th Edition by Michael P. Johnson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 used to spark discussion in any classroom and will fit into any syllabus.

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.

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Table of Contents

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        

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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.