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HISTORY 17A 
PRIMARY DOCUMENTS

This page contains the primary documents you will be reading throughout the semester.  You must complete the readings by the first session of each week.  Highlighted authors are linked to sites that will give you background material on who wrote each of these passages (but are not part of the required reading).

WEEK 1

columbus.jpg (16890 bytes) LETTER TO LUIS DE SANT' ANGEL

by Christopher Columbus

cabeza.jpg (17250 bytes) "ALL OVER THE LAND NOTHING ELSE WAS SPOKEN OF" (1530s)

by Cabeza de Vaca


WEEK 2

smallpox.jpg (60913 bytes)

SICKNESS AMONG THE NATIVES (1633)

by William Bradford


WEEK 3

sale.jpg (91769 bytes)

OF THE SERVANTS AND SLAVES IN VIRGINIA (1705)

by Robert Beverly

SalemHangings.JPG (73606 bytes)

PETITION OF AN ACCUSED WITCH (1692)

by Mary Esty


WEEK 4

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD (1741)

by Jonathan Edwards

WHAT IS AN AMERICAN? (1770)

by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur


WEEK 5

Sam_Adams.jpg (75183 bytes) THE RIGHTS OF THE COLONIST (1772)

by Samuel Adams

Tar&Feather.JPG (67615 bytes) LOYALIST VIEW OF COLONIAL UNREST (1780)

by Ann Hulton


WEEK 9

millgirl.jpg (88570 bytes) THE LOWELL MILL GIRLS GO ON STRIKE, 1836

by Harriet Hanson Robinson

sewing.gif (24688 bytes) "THEY MUST WORK HARDER THAN EVER":  A WORKING MAN REMEMBERS LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY, 1830s
Trail2_sm.JPG (22622 bytes) ARGUMENT FOR INDIAN REMOVAL (Read the linked web site.)

by Andrew Jackson


WEEK 10

BANK VETO MESSAGE (1832)

by Andrew Jackson

Pass_the_Mustard.JPG (64616 bytes) ELECTIONS IN JACKSONIAN AMERICA (1832)

by Frances Trollope

KingAndrew.jpg (53999 bytes) SPIRIT OF JACKSONISM (1832)

by Alexander Everett


WEEK 11

slave_pen.jpg (46023 bytes) THE CASE FOR REPARATIONS (2002)

by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.


WEEK 12

Richard_Henry_Dana.JPG (52046 bytes) TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST (1840)

by Richard Henry Dana

Chinese_sm.JPG (29544 bytes) THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA, 1851-1854

by J.D. Borthwick

Osullivan.jpg (109475 bytes) MANIFEST DESTINY (1839)

by John O'Sullivan

woman2.JPG (26315 bytes) TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY:  WOMEN'S VOICES FROM THE OREGON TRAIL (Read through the linked web site)


WEEK 14

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1991)

by James McPherson


WEEK 15

AfAmTroops.JPG (67724 bytes) THE NEGRO'S CIVIL WAR (1991)

by James McPherson