The American Yawp Reader

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  • Home
  • 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 – 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, 1641
    • 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, 1819-1920
    • 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)

Anti-Catholic Cartoon, 1855

N. Currier, “The Propagation Society, More Free than Welcome,” 1855, via Library of Congress.

N. Currier, “The Propagation Society, More Free than Welcome,” 1855, via Library of Congress.

Irish immigration transformed American cities. Yet many Americans greeted the new arrivals with suspicion or hostility. Nathanial Currier’s anti-Catholic cartoon reflected the popular American perception that Irish Catholic immigrants posed a threat to the United States. 

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