Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................... .19
INTRODUCTION . .................................................23
CHAPTER 1: COLUMBUS AND LAS CASAS ......................... .29
The DiarioofChristopher Columbus (October 11-15,1492) ......... 30
Bartolome de Las Casas, Two Readings on the Legacy of Columbus
(1542 and 1550)
Bartolome de Las Casas, The Devastation of
the Indies: A BriefAccount (I542) ........................... 35
Bartolome de Las Casas, In Defense ofthe Indians (1550) ........ .42
Eduardo Galeano, Memory ofFire (1982) .......................... .45
CHAPTER 2: THE FIRST SLAVES . ..................................51
Three Documents on Slave Revolts (1720 to 1793)
Anonymous Letter to Mr. Boone in London Gune 24, 1720) .... 52
Letter from Petersburg, Virginia (May 17, 1792) .............. .52
Secret Keeper Richmond (Unknown) to Secret Keeper
Norfolk (Unknown) (1793) ............................... 53
Four Petitions Against Slavery (1773 to 1777)
"Felix" (Unknown) Slave Petition for Freedom Ganuary 6, 1773) .54
Peter Bestes and Other Slaves Petition for Freedom
(April 20, 1773) ........................................ .55
"Petition of a Grate Number of Blackes" to Thomas Gage
(May 25, 1774) .......................................... 56
"Petition of a Great Number of Negroes" to the Massachusetts
House of Representatives Ganuary 13, 1777) ................ 57
Benjamin Banneker, Letter to Thomas Jefferson (August 19, 1791) .... 58
CHAPTER 3: SERVITUDE AND REBELLION . .........................63
Richard Frethorne on Indentured Servitude
(March 20-April3, 1623) ..................................... 64
A True Narrative ofthe Rise, Progresse, and Cessation ofthe Late
Rebellion in Virginia, Most Humbly and Impartially Reported by
His Majestyes Commissioners Appointed to Enquire into the
Affaires ofthe Said Colony (1677) ............................... 66
10 - CONTENTS
Proclamation of the New Hampshire Legislature
on the Mast Tree Riot (1734) .................................. 69
Letter Written by William Shirley to the Lords of Trade about the
Knowles Riot (December 1, 1747) ............................. 69
Gottlieb Mittelberger, Gottlieb Mittelberger's Journey to
Pennsylvania in the Year 1750 and Return to Germany
in the Year 1754 (1754) ....................................... 72
Account of the New York Tenant Riots Guly 14, 1766) ............... 76
CHAPTER 4: PREPARING THE REVOLUTION ....................... .79
Thomas Hutchinson Recounts the Reaction to the
Stamp Act in Boston (1765) ................................... 80
Samuel Drowne's Testimony on the Boston Massacre
(March 16,1770) ............................................ 82
George Hewes Recalls the Boston Tea Party (1834) ................... 83
New York Mechanics Declaration ofIndependence (May 29, 1776) .... 86
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776) .............................. 87
CHAPTER 5: HALF A REVOLUTION . ................................ 93
Joseph Clarke's Letter about the Rebellion in Springfield
(August 30,1774) ............................................ 94
Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative ofSome ofthe Adventures,
Dangers and Sufferings ofa Revolutionary Soldier (1830) ........... 96
Samuel Dewees Recounts the Suppression ofInsubordination
in the Continental Army after the Mutinies of 1781 (1844) ...... 100
Henry Knox, Letter to George Washington (October 23, 1786) ...... 105
"Publius" Games Madison), Federalist No. 10 (November 23, 1787) ... 107
CHAPTER 6: THE EARLY WOMEN'S MOVEMENT . ................... 115
Maria Stewart, ''An Address Delivered at the Mrican Masonic
Hall, Boston" (February 27, 1833) ............................ 116
Angelina Grimke Weld's Speech at Pennsylvania Hall (May 17, 1838) .. 117
Harriet Hanson Robinson, "Characteristics of the Early
Factory Girls" (1898) ........................................ 121
S. Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845) ... 124
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions," Seneca Falls Convention Guly 19, 1848) .......... 126
Sojourner Truth, ''Ain't I a Woman?" (1851) ........................ 128
Marriage Protest of Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell (May 1, 1855) . 129
CONTENTS
Susan B. Anthony Addresses Judge Ward Hunt in The United States
ofAmerica v. Susan B. Anthony aune 19, 1873) ................. 130
CHAPTER 7: INDIAN REMOVAL. .......... '.' ...................... 133
Tecumseh's Speech to the Osages (Winter 1811-12) .................
Two Documents on the Cherokee Removal (1829 and 1830)
Cherokee Nation, "Memorial of the Cherokee Indians"
(December 1829) .......................................
Lewis Ross et al., Address of the Committee and
Council of the Cherokee Nation, in General Council
Convened, to the People of the United States auly 17, 1830) ..
Black Hawk's Surrender Speech (1832) ............................
John G. Burnett, "The Cherokee Removal Through the
Eyes of a Private Soldier" (December 11, 1890) .................
Two Statements by Chief}oseph of the Nez Perce (1877 and 1879)
Chief}oseph's Surrender (October 5, 1877) ....................
Chief}oseph Recounts His Trip to Washington, D.C. (1879) .....
Black Elk, "The End of the Dream" (1932) ........................
134
136
139
140
142
146
147
149
CHAPTER 8: THE WAR ON MEXICO . .............................. 153
The Diary of Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock
aune 30, 1845-March 26, 1846) .............................
Miguel Barragan, Dispatch on Texas Colonists (October 31, 1835) ...
Juan Soto, Desertion Handbill aune 6, 1847) ......................
Frederick Douglass, Address to the New England
Convention (May 31, 1849) ..................................
North Star Editorial, "The War with Mexico" aanuary21, 1848) .....
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849) ...................
154
156
158
159
160
164
CHAPTER 9: SLAVERY AND DEFIANCE . ........................... 167
David Walker's Appeal (1830) ..................................... 168
Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Lifo ofa Slave Girl'
Written by Herself(1861) . .................................... 171
James Norcom's Runaway Slave Newspaper Advertisemenr for
Harriet Jacobs aune 30,1835) ...............................
James R. Bradley, Letter to Lydia Maria Child aune 3, 1834) ........
Reverend Theodore Parker, Speech of Theodore Parker at the
Faneuil Hall Meeting (May 26, 1854) .........................
Two Letters from Slaves to Their Former Masters (1844 to 1860)
Henry Bibb, Letter to William Gatewood (March 23, 1844) ....
174
174
176
180
II
12
CONTENTS
Jermain Wesley Loguen, Letter to Sarah Logue (March 28, 1860) ..
Frederick Douglass, "The Meaning oOuly Fourrh
forthe Negro" (July 5, 1852) .................................
John Brown, "John Brown's Last Speech" (November 2, 1859) ........
Osborne P. Anderson, A Voice from Harper's Ferry (1861) .............
Martin Delany's Advice to Former Slaves (July 23, 1865) ............
Henry McNeal Turner, "On the Eligibility of Colored Members
to Seats in the Georgia Legislature" (September 3, 1868) .........
181
183
187
188
191
194
CHAPTER 10: CIVIL WAR AND CLASS CONFLICT . .................. 197
An Eyewitness Account of the Flour Riot in New York
(February 1837) ............................................ 198
Hinton Rowan Helper, The Impending Crisis ofthe South (1857) ...... 200
"Mechanic" (Unknown), "Voting by Classes" (October 13, 1863) .... 202
Joel Tyler Headley, The Great Riots ofNew York (1873) ............... 204
Four Documents on Disaffection in the South During the Civil War
(1864 to 1865)
Report on a Bread Riot in Savannah, Georgia (April 1864) ..... 208
"Exempt" (Unknown), "To Go, Or Not to Go" (June 28, 1864) .. 209
O.G.G. (Unknown), Letter to the Editor (February 17,1865) .. 209
Columbus Sun, "The Class That Suffer" (February 17, 1865) .... 210
J. A. Dacus, Annals ofthe Great Strikes in the United States (1877) ..... 211
CHAPTER 11: STRIKERS AND POPULISTS IN THE GILDED AGE . ..... 215
Henty George, "The Crime of Poverty" (Aprill, 1885) .............. 216
August Spies, "Address of August Spies" (October 7, 1886) ........... 219
Anonymous, "Red-Handed Murder: Negroes Wantonly
Killed at Thibodaux, La." (November 26,1887) ................ 221
Reverend Ernest Lyon et aI., Open Letter from the
New Orleans Mass Meeting (August 22, 1888) ................. 223
Two Speeches by Mary Elizabeth Lease (circa 1890)
"Wall Street Owns the Country" (circa 1890) .................. 226
Speech to the Women's Christian Temperance Union (1890) ..... 226
The Omaha Platform of the People's Party of America (1892) ........ 229
Reverend J. L. Moore on rhe Colored Farmers' Alliance
(March 7, 1891) ............................................ 230
Ida B. Wells-Barnett, "Lynch Law" (1893) ......................... 232
Statement from the Pullman Strikers (June 15, 1894) ............... 234
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000-1887(1888) ............. 237