Voices of freedom : a documentary history / edited by Eric Foner.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Foner, Eric, 1943-

Arthur Wofsy, Class of 1937, Acquisitions Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy.

History.

Liberty.

United States--History--Sources.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--Sources.

Politics and government.

Liberty--History--Sources.

Civil rights--United States--History--Sources.

Civil rights.

Democracy--United States--History--Sources.

United States--Social conditions--Sources.

Social conditions.

Genre:

Sources.

Physical Description:

2 volumes ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, [2005]

Summary:

Here is a rich collection of documentary voices addressing a central theme in American history-freedom. The documents show that although in some ways universal, the idea of freedom has never been a fixed, timeless concept with a single, unchanging definition. In fact, the history of the United States is in part a story of debates and struggles over freedom. Crises like the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Cold War have permanently transformed the meaning of freedom. So too have demands by various groups of Americans for greater freedom.

The primary-source selections include presidential proclamations and letters by runaway slaves, famous court cases and obscure manifestos, prevailing ideas and dissenting ones. The voices range from Las Casas and Pontiac through Jefferson, Thoreau, Douglass, and Lincoln to Stanton, Sanger, Du Bois, Luce, Friedan, and the authors of the recent National Security Strategy.

Each document is introduced with a contextual headnote and is followed by critical questions for students. The book is organized as a companion to the textbook Give Me Liberty! An American Historyby Eric Foner. It can also be used with other texts in the American history survey and other courses.

Contents:

1 New World

1 Bartolome de las Casas on Spanish Treatment of the Indians, from History of the Indies (1528) 3

2 / Richard Hakluyt An Argument for Colonization, from A Discourse Concerning Western Planting (1584) 7

3 The Levellers, The Agreement of the People Presented to the Council of the Army (1647) 10

4 / Henry Care English Liberties, or the Free-Born Subject's Inheritance (1680) 14

2 American Beginnings, 1607-1650

5 Complaint of an Indentured Servant (1756) 17

6 Maryland Act Concerning Religion (1644) 19

7 Slave Conspiracy in Virginia (1709) 22

8 / John Winthrop Speech to the Massachusetts General Court (1645) 25

9 The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637) 28

3 Crisis and Expansion: North American Colonies, 1650-1750

10 The Pueblo Revolt (1680) 36

11 New York Charter of Liberties and Privileges (1683) 40

12 William Penn on Religious Liberty, from England's Present Interests Discovered (1675) 44

13 Nathaniel Bacon on Bacon's Rebellion (1676) 48

14 Letter by an Immigrant to Pennsylvania (1769) 53

4 Slavery, Freedom, and the Struggle for Empire, to 1763

15 Olaudah Equiano on Slavery (1789) 56

16 The Independent Reflector on Limited Monarchy and Liberty (1752) 61

17 The Trial of John Peter Zenger (1735) 65

18 Pontiac, Two Speeches (1762-1763) 69

5 The American Revolution, 1763-1783

19 Virginia Resolutions on the Stamp Act (1765) 73

20 Petition of North Carolina Regulators (1769) 76

21 Association of the New York Sons of Liberty (1773) 80

22 Farmington, Connecticut, Resolutions on the Intolerable Acts (1774) 84

23 / Thomas Paine Common Sense (1776) 86

6 The Revolution Within

24 Abigail and John Adams on Women and the American Revolution (1776) 94

25 The Right of "Free Suffrage" (1776) 97

26 / Thomas Jefferson An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom (1785) 100

27 Liberating Indentured Servants (1784) 103

28 Petition of Slaves to the Massachusetts Legislature (1777) 105

7 Founding a Nation, 1783-1789

29 Petition of Inhabitants West of the Ohio River (1785) 108

30 / James Madison The Federalist, No. 51 (1787) 110

31 James Winthrop on the Anti-Federalist Argument (1787) 114

32 A July 4th Oration (1800) 118

8 Securing the Republic, 1790-1815

33 William Manning on the Nature of Free Government (1799) 122

34 Address of the Democratic-Republican Society of Pennsylvania (1794) 127

35 / Judith Sargent Murray "On the Equality of the Sexes" (1790) 130

36 / George Washington Farewell Address (1796) 135

37 George Tucker on Gabriel's Rebellion (1801) 140

38 Tecumseh on Indians and Land (1810) 143

9 The Market Revolution

39 / Josephine L. Baker "A Second Peep at Factory Life" (1840) 146

40 / Ralph Waldo Emerson "The American Scholar" (1837) 149

41 / Henry David Thoreau Walden (1854) 154

42 / Charles G. Finney "Sinners Bound to Change Their Own Hearts" (1836) 158

43 / Orestes Brownson "The Laboring Classes" (1840) 163

10 Democracy in America, 1815-1840

44 "The Memorial of the Non-Freeholders of the City of Richmond" (1829) 167

45 John Quincy Adams on the Role of the National Government (1825) 171

46 John C. Calhoun on the Concurrent Majority (ca. 1845) 176

47 Appeal of the Cherokee Nation (1830) 179

48 / Andrew Jackson Veto of the Bank Bill (1832) 182

11 The Peculiar Institution

49 / John C. Calhoun Speeches in Congress (1837-1838) 186

50 Frederick Douglass on the Desire for Freedom (1845) 190

51 Letter by a Fugitive Slave (1840) 193

52 The Confessions of Nat Turner(1831) 195

12 An Age of Reform, 1820-1840

53 / Robert Owen "The First Discourse on a New System of Society" (1825) 201

54 Philip Schaff on Freedom as Self-Restraint (1855) 205

55 Opening Editorial of The Liberator (1831) 209

56 Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July (1852) 212

57 Angelina Grimke on Women's Rights, from The Liberator (1837) 218

58 Declaration of Sentiments of the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) 222

13 A House Divided, 1840-1861

59 / Henry David Thoreau "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849) 227

60 / George Henry Evans "Freedom of the Soil" (1844) 232

61 / William Henry Seward "The Irrepressible Conflict" (1858) 234

62 The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) 238

63 South Carolina Ordinance of Secession (1860) 242

14 A New Birth of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865

64 / Marcus M. Spiegel Letter of a Civil War Soldier (1864) 247

68 / Abraham Lincoln The Gettysburg Address (1863) 250

66 Frederick Douglass on Black Soldiers (1863) 252

67 / Abraham Lincoln Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore (1864) 256

68 Mary Livermore on Women and the War (1883) 259

15 "Wat Is Freedom?": Reconstruction, 1865-1877

69 Colloquy with Colored Ministers (1865) 263

70 Petition of Committee in Behalf of the Freedmen to Andrew Johnson (1865) 267

71 Sidney Andrews on the White South and Black Freedom (1866) 270

72 / Elizabeth Cady Stanton "Home Life" (ca. 1875) 274

73 Robert B. Elliott on Civil Rights (1874) 278.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Arthur Wofsy, Class of 1937, Acquisitions Fund.

ISBN:

039392503X

0393925048

OCLC:

54826107