The American Yawp Reader

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  • Abolitionist Sheet Music Cover Page, 1844
  • America Guided by Wisdom Engraving, 1815
  • American Revolution Cartoon
  • Anti-Catholic Cartoon, 1855
  • Anti-immigrant cartoon
  • Anti-Immigrant Cartoon, 1860
  • Anti-Thomas Jefferson Cartoon, 1797
  • Barack Obama, Howard University Commencement Address (2016)
  • Blueprint and Photograph of Christ Church
  • Broadening The American Yawp Reader
  • Broadening the Yawp
  • Burying the Dead Photograph, 1865
  • Casta Painting
  • Civil War Nurses Illustration, 1864
  • Cliff Palace
  • Constitutional Ratification Cartoon, 1789
  • County Election Painting, 1854
  • Drawing of Uniforms of the American Revolution
  • Effects of the Fugitive Slave Law Lithograph, 1850
  • F15 – Manifest Destiny Reader
  • F16 – Colliding Cultures Reader
  • F16 – Colonial Society Reader
  • F16 – Reconstruction Reader
  • Fifteenth Amendment Print, 1870
  • Genius of the Ladies Magazine Illustration, 1792
  • Introduction
  • Johnson and Reconstruction Cartoon, 1866
  • Manifest Destiny Painting, 1872
  • Map of British North America
  • Martin Van Buren Cartoon, 1837
  • Missionary Society Membership Certificate, 1848
  • Painting of Enslaved Persons for Sale, 1861
  • Painting of New Orleans
  • Print of the Slave Ship Brookes
  • Proslavery Cartoon, 1850
  • Royall Family
  • Sectional Crisis Map, 1856
  • Sketch of an Algonquin Village
  • The Fruit of Alcohol and Temperance Lithographs, 1849
  • The Society for United States Intellectual History Primary Source Reader
  • Woody Guthrie, “This Land” (1940-1945)
  • Indigenous America Reader
    • Native American Creation Stories
    • Journal of Christopher Columbus, 1492
    • An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
    • Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542
    • Thomas Morton Reflects on Indians in New England, 1637
    • The story of the Virgin of Guadalupe
    • Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca Travels through North America, 1542
  • Colliding Cultures Reader
    • Richard Hakluyt Makes the Case for English Colonization, 1584
    • John Winthrop Dreams of a City on a Hill, 1630
    • John Lawson Encounters Native Americans, 1709
    • A Gaspesian Man Defends His Way of Life, 1691
    • The Legend of Moshup, 1830
    • Accusations of witchcraft, 1692 and 1706
    • Manuel Trujillo Accuses Asencio Povia and Antonio Yuba of Sodomy, 1731
  • British North America Reader
    • Olaudah Equiano Describes the Middle Passage, 1789
    • Recruiting Settlers to Carolina, 1666
    • Letter from Carolina, 1682
    • Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes his Ocean Voyage, 1684
    • Song about Life in Virginia
    • Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
    • Rose Davis is sentenced to a life of slavery, 1715
  • Colonial Society Reader
    • Boston trader Sarah Knight on her travels in Connecticut, 1704
    • Eliza Lucas Letters, 1740-1741
    • Jonathan Edwards Revives Enfield, Connecticut, 1741
    • Samson Occom describes his conversion and ministry, 1768
    • Extracts from Gibson Clough’s War Journal, 1759
    • Pontiac Calls for War, 1763
    • Alibamo Mingo, Choctaw leader, Reflects on the British and French, 1765
  • The American Revolution Reader
    • George R. T. Hewes, A Retrospect of the Boston Tea-party, 1834
    • Thomas Paine Calls for American independence, 1776
    • Declaration of Independence, 1776
    • Women in South Carolina Experience Occupation, 1780
    • Oneida Declaration of Neutrality, 1775
    • Boston King recalls fighting for the British and for his freedom, 1798
    • Abigail and John Adams Converse on Women’s Rights, 1776
  • A New Nation Reader
    • Hector St. Jean de Crèvecœur Describes the American people, 1782
    • A Confederation of Native peoples seek peace with the United States, 1786
    • Mary Smith Cranch comments on politics, 1786-87
    • James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 1785
    • George Washington, “Farewell Address,” 1796
    • Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, 1798
    • Susannah Rowson, Charlotte Temple, 1794
  • The Early Republic Reader
    • Letter of Cato and Petition by “the negroes who obtained freedom by the late act,” in Postscript to the Freeman’s Journal, September 21, 1781
    • Thomas Jefferson’s Racism, 1788
    • Black scientist Benjamin Banneker demonstrates Black intelligence to Thomas Jefferson, 1791
    • Congress Debates Going to War, 1811
    • Creek headman Alexander McGillivray (Hoboi-Hili-Miko) seeks to build an alliance with Spain, 1785
    • Tecumseh Calls for Native American Resistance, 1810
    • Abigail Bailey Escapes an Abusive Relationship, 1815
  • The Market Revolution Reader
    • James Madison Asks Congress to Support Internal Improvements, 1815
    • A Traveler Describes Life Along the Erie Canal, 1829
    • Blacksmith Apprentice Contract, 1836
    • Maria Stewart bemoans the consequences of racism, 1832
    • Rebecca Burlend recalls her emigration from England to Illinois, 1848
    • Harriet H. Robinson Remembers a Mill Workers’ Strike, 1836
    • Alexis de Tocqueville, “How Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes,” 1840
  • Democracy in America Reader
    • Missouri Controversy Documents, 1819-1820
    • Rhode Islanders Protest Property Restrictions on Voting, 1834
    • Black Philadelphians Defend their Voting Rights, 1838
    • Andrew Jackson’s Veto Message Against Re-chartering the Bank of the United States, 1832
    • Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” 1852
    • Rebecca Reed accuses nuns of abuse, 1835
    • Samuel Morse Fears a Catholic Conspiracy, 1835
  • Religion and Reform Reader
    • Revivalist Charles G. Finney Emphasizes Human Choice in Salvation, 1836
    • Dorothea Dix defends the mentally ill, 1843
    • David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, 1829
    • William Lloyd Garrison Introduces The Liberator, 1831
    • Angelina Grimké, Appeal to Christian Women of the South, 1836
    • Sarah Grimké Calls for Women’s Rights, 1838
    • Henry David Thoreau Reflects on Nature, 1854
  • The Cotton Revolution Reader
    • Nat Turner explains the Southampton rebellion, 1831
    • Harriet Jacobs on Rape and Slavery, 1860
    • Solomon Northup Describes a Slave Market, 1841
    • George Fitzhugh Argues that Slavery is Better than Liberty and Equality, 1854
    • Sermon on the Duties of a Christian Woman, 1851
    • Mary Polk Branch remembers plantation life, 1912
    • William Wells Brown, “Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States,” 1853
  • Manifest Destiny Reader
    • Cherokee Petition Protesting Removal, 1836
    • John O’Sullivan Declares America’s Manifest Destiny, 1845
    • Diary of a Woman Migrating to Oregon, 1853
    • Chinese Merchant Complains of Racist Abuse, 1860
    • Wyandotte woman describes tensions over slavery, 1849
    • Letters from Venezuelan General Francisco de Miranda regarding Latin American Revolution, 1805-1806
    • President Monroe Outlines the Monroe Doctrine, 1823
  • The Sectional Crisis Reader
    • Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 1842
    • Stories from the Underground Railroad, 1855-56
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852
    • Charlotte Forten complains of racism in the North, 1855
    • Margaraetta Mason and Lydia Maria Child Discuss John Brown, 1860
    • 1860 Republican Party Platform
    • South Carolina Declaration of Secession, 1860
  • The Civil War Reader
    • Alexander Stephens on Slavery and the Confederate Constitution, 1861
    • General Benjamin F. Butler Reacts to Self-Emancipating People, 1861
    • William Henry Singleton, a formerly enslaved man, recalls fighting for the Union, 1922
    • Poem about Civil War Nurses, 1866
    • Ambrose Bierce Recalls his Experience at the Battle of Shiloh, 1881
    • Civil War songs, 1862
    • Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, 1865
  • Reconstruction Reader
    • Freedmen discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman, 1865
    • Jourdon Anderson Writes His Former Enslaver, 1865
    • Charlotte Forten Teaches Freed Children in South Carolina, 1864
    • Mississippi Black Code, 1865
    • General Reynolds Describes Lawlessness in Texas, 1868
    • A case of sexual violence during Reconstruction, 1866
    • Frederick Douglass on Remembering the Civil War, 1877
  • 16. Capital and Labor
    • William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism (ca.1880s)
    • Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Selections (1879)
    • Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth (June 1889)
    • Grover Cleveland’s Veto of the Texas Seed Bill (February 16, 1887)
    • The “Omaha Platform” of the People’s Party (1892)
    • Dispatch from a Mississippi Colored Farmers’ Alliance (1889)
    • Lucy Parsons on Women and Revolutionary Socialism (1905)
  • 17. Conquering the West
    • Chief Joseph on Indian Affairs (1877, 1879)
    • William T. Hornady on the Extermination of the American Bison (1889)
    • Chester A. Arthur on American Indian Policy (1881)
    • Frederick Jackson Turner, “Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893)
    • Turning Hawk and American Horse on the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890/1891)
    • Helen Hunt Jackson on a Century of Dishonor (1881)
    • Laura C. Kellogg on Indian Education (1913)
  • 18. Life in Industrial America
    • Andrew Carnegie on “The Triumph of America” (1885)
    • Henry Grady on the New South (1886)
    • Ida B. Wells-Barnett, “Lynch Law in America” (1900)
    • Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1918)
    • Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” (1913)
    • Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890)
    • Rose Cohen on the World Beyond her Immigrant Neighborhood (ca.1897/1918)
  • 19. American Empire
    • William McKinley on American Expansionism (1903)
    • Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)
    • James D. Phelan, “Why the Chinese Should Be Excluded” (1901)
    • William James on “The Philippine Question” (1903)
    • Mark Twain, “The War Prayer” (ca.1904-5)
    • Chinese Immigrants Confront Anti-Chinese Prejudice (1885, 1903)
    • African Americans Debate Enlistment (1898)
  • 20. The Progressive Era
    • Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois on Black Progress (1895, 1903)
    • Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements” (1892)
    • Eugene Debs, “How I Became a Socialist” (April, 1902)
    • Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907)
    • Alice Stone Blackwell, Answering Objections to Women’s Suffrage (1917)
    • Woodrow Wilson on the New Freedom (1912)
    • Theodore Roosevelt on “The New Nationalism” (1910)
  • 21. World War I & Its Aftermath
    • Woodrow Wilson Requests War (April 2, 1917)
    • Alan Seeger on World War I (1914; 1916)
    • The Sedition Act of 1918 (1918)
    • Emma Goldman on Patriotism (July 9, 1917)
    • W.E.B DuBois, “Returning Soldiers” (May, 1919)
    • Lutiant Van Wert describes the 1918 Flu Pandemic (1918)
    • Manuel Quezon calls for Filipino Independence (1919)
  • 22. The New Era
    • Warren G. Harding and the “Return to Normalcy” (1920)
    • Crystal Eastman, “Now We Can Begin” (1920)
    • Marcus Garvey, Explanation of the Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1921)
    • Hiram Evans on the “The Klan’s Fight for Americanism” (1926)
    • Herbert Hoover, “Principles and Ideals of the United States Government” (1928)
    • Ellen Welles Page, “A Flapper’s Appeal to Parents” (1922)
    • Alain Locke on the “New Negro” (1925)
  • 23. The Great Depression
    • Herbert Hoover on the New Deal (1932)
    • Huey P. Long, “Every Man a King” and “Share our Wealth” (1934)
    • Franklin Roosevelt’s Re-Nomination Acceptance Speech (1936)
    • Second Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937)
    • Lester Hunter, “I’d Rather Not Be on Relief” (1938)
    • Bertha McCall on America’s “Moving People” (1940)
    • Dorothy West, “Amateur Night in Harlem” (1938)
  • 24. World War II
    • Charles A. Lindbergh, “America First” (1941)
    • A Phillip Randolph and Franklin Roosevelt on Racial Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941)
    • The Atlantic Charter (1941)
    • FDR, Executive Order No. 9066 (1942)
    • Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga on Japanese Internment (1942/1994)
    • Harry Truman Announcing the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima (1945)
    • Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945)
  • 25. The Cold War
    • The Truman Doctrine (1947)
    • NSC-68 (1950)
    • Joseph McCarthy on Communism (1950)
    • Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Atoms for Peace” (1953)
    • Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” (1950)
    • Lillian Hellman Refuses to Name Names (1952)
    • Paul Robeson’s Appearance Before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1956)
  • 26. The Affluent Society
    • Juanita Garcia on Migrant Labor (1952)
    • Hernandez v. Texas (1954)
    • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
    • Richard Nixon on the American Standard of Living (1959)
    • John F. Kennedy on the Separation of Church and State (1960)
    • Congressman Arthur L. Miller Gives “the Putrid Facts” About Homosexuality” (1950)
    • Rosa Parks on Life in Montgomery, Alabama (1956-1958)
  • 27. The Sixties
    • Barry Goldwater, Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (1964)
    • Lyndon Johnson on Voting Rights and the American Promise (1965)
    • Lyndon Johnson, Howard University Commencement Address (1965)
    • National Organization for Women, “Statement of Purpose” (1966)
    • George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran, Oral Interview (1969/2012)
    • The Port Huron Statement (1962)
    • Fannie Lou Hamer: Testimony at the Democratic National Convention 1964
  • 28. The Unraveling
    • Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1968)
    • Statement by John Kerry of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (1971)
    • Nixon Announcement of China Visit (1971)
    • Barbara Jordan, 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address (1976)
    • Jimmy Carter, “Crisis of Confidence” (1979)
    • Gloria Steinem on Equal Rights for Women (1970)
    • Native Americans Occupy Alcatraz (1969)
  • 29. The Triumph of the Right
    • First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan (1981)
    • Jerry Falwell on the “Homosexual Revolution” (1981)
    • Statements of AIDS Patients (1983)
    • Statements from The Parents Music Resource Center (1985)
    • Pat Buchanan on the Culture War (1992)
    • Phyllis Schlafly on Women’s Responsibility for Sexual Harassment (1981)
    • Jesse Jackson on the Rainbow Coalition (1984)
  • 30. The Recent Past
    • Bill Clinton on Free Trade and Financial Deregulation (1993-2000)
    • The 9/11 Commission Report, “Reflecting On A Generational Challenge” (2004)
    • George W. Bush on the Post-9/11 World (2002)
    • Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)
    • Pedro Lopez on His Mother’s Deportation (2008/2015)
    • Chelsea Manning Petitions for a Pardon (2013)
    • Emily Doe (Chanel Miller), Victim Impact Statement (2015)

The American Yawp Primary Source Readers

BEFORE 1877

1. Indigenous America | 2. Colliding Cultures | 3. British North America | 4. Colonial Society | 5. The  American Revolution | 6. A New Nation | 7. The Early Republic | 8. The Market Revolution | 9. Democracy in America | 10. Religion and Reform | 11. The Cotton Revolution | 12. Manifest Destiny | 13. The Sectional Crisis | 14. The Civil War | 15. Reconstruction

AFTER 1877

16. Industrial America | 17. Conquering the West | 18. Capital and Labor | 19. American Empire | 20. The Progressive Era | 21. World War I & Its Aftermath | 22. The New Era | 23. The Great Depression | 24. World War II | 25. The Cold War | 26. The Affluent Society | 27. The Sixties | 28. The Unraveling | 29. The Rise of the Right | 30. The Recent Past

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