Synopsis
Volume I. 1. Conquest of Native American Peoples. Excerpt from Letter to the Sovereigns on His First Voyage (1493), Christopher Columbus. Images of the Conquest (Photo Essay). A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1542), Fray Bartolome de Las Casas. The Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons (1632), Father Gabriel Sagard. Relation of What Occurred Most Remarkable in the Missions of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in New France in the Years 1657 and 1658. Letter to King Francis I (1524), Giovanni da Verrazano. 2. An English New World. Letters Patent Granted to John Cabot and His Sons (1496). An Attempt to Raise Subscriptions in Exeter (1586). The 1586 Voyages (1589), Richard Hakluyt. New England's Plantation (1630), The Reverend John Higginson. Letter to the Right Honourable, My Very Good Lad, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln (1631), Thomas Dudley. Letter to His Parents (1631), Pond. 3. The Puritan Commonwealth. A Model of Christian Charity, (1630),John Winthrop. Articles of Agreement, Springfield, Massachusetts (1648). The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts (1648). The Oath of a Freeman (1634). Copy of a Letter from John Cotton to Lord Say and Seal in the year (1636). Little Speech (1645), John Winthrop. Confessions of Faith by Jane Stephenson and Abram Arrington, recorded by the Reverend Thomas Shepard (1648-1649). Some Versus Upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666, Anne Bradstreet. 4. Life and Labor in the Plantation Colonies. The General Historie of Virginia (1631), Captain John Smith. Laws Divine, Morall, and Martiall, Etc.(1612), William Strachey. A Letter (1619), John Pory. Leah and Rachell, or the Two Fruitful Sisters of Virginia and Maryland (1656), John Hammond. Legal Constraints on Indentured Servants and Slaves, Records of the Maryland Provincial Court (1660); Laws of Virginia; Control of Servants and Slaves (1661 - 1680); Letter to His Father and Mother (1623), Richard Frethorne. A Mutiny of Servants (1661). Letter from Governor William Berkeley and Other Members of the Council to the King and Privy Council (1673). 5. Anglo-American Empire of the Eighteenth Century. Letters from America (1770), William Eddis. Letter to John Boyle, Wiliam Byrd II to John Boyle of Broghill (1731), William Byrd II. The Duty of God's People to Pray for the Peace (1746), Hull Abbot. Provincial Accounts of the War for Empire; (Nova Scotia) to Hendry Fox, Secretary of War in London (1755), John Winslow. Itinerarium: Being a Narrative of a Journey (1744), Alexander Hamilton. A Proposal for Promoting Use Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America (1743), Benjamin Franklin. The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry (1741), Gilbert Tennent. Peoples Brains are Turn'd and Bewilder'd, (1768 or 1769), Charles Woodmason. Spiritual Travels (1740), Nathan Cole. 6. Revolution. "What Is An American?" (1782), Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Courtries, &c. (1751), Benjamin Franklin. The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved (1763), James Otis. Virginia Nonimportation Resolutions (1769). Images of Rebellion (Photo Essay). George Robert Twelves Hewes, A Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party (1834), Petition of A Grate Number of Blacks of the Province to Governor Thomas Gage and the Members of the Massachusetts General Court (1774) George Robert. Slave Petition for Freedom (1773). Rights of Women in an Independent Republic; Letters (1776), Letters to Abigail Adams (1776), John Adams. Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion (1781), Peter Oliver. John Adams Adams to Abigail Adams (July 3, 1776). Original Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence (1776),