See “Paper 2: Directions” for your professor’s instructions on how to use these research kits.

1741 New York Slave Uprisings

Primary Sources: Original Documents from the Time

“‘Fire, Fire, Scorch, Scorch!’: Testimony from the Negro Plot Trials in New York, 1741.” History Matters. George Mason University. >> Read  (Testimony from Peggy, a white prostitute)

“A List of White Persons taken into Custody on Account of the 1741 Conspiracy.” Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery. PBS. >> Read

“The New York Conspiracy of 1741.” History Now. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. >> Read (requires 4×4 login)

Horsmanden, Daniel. A Journal of the Proceedings in the Detection of the Conspiracy Formed by Some White People, in Conjunction with Negro and Other Slaves, for Burning the City of New-York in America, and Murdering the Inhabitants… New York: James Parker, 1744. >> Read

Secondary Sources: What Historians Have Written

Plaag, Eric W. “New York’s 1741 Slave Conspiracy in a Climate of Fear and Anxiety.” New York History 84, no. 3 (2003): 275–99. >>  Read

Bond, Richard. “Shaping a Conspiracy: Black Testimony in the 1741 New York Plot.” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 5, no. 1 (May 3, 2007): 63–94. >> Read

Lepore, Jill. “Preface, Prologue, and Chapter 2.” In New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan, 5-14. 40-63. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. >> Read (requires 4×4 login)

“The ‘Strange Case of Mary Burton’—The Scotch Irish.” The American Catholic Historical Researches 2, no. 3 (1906): 264. >> Read

Szasz, Ferenc M. “The New York Slave Revolt of 1741: A Re-Examination.” New York History 48, no. 3 (1967): 215–30. >> Read

Starting the American Revolution? The 1775 “Siege” of Boston or the Boston Massacre

Primary Sources: Original Documents from the Time

“Siege of Boston: Eyewitness Accounts from the Collections.” Massachusetts Historical Society.” >> Read

Haslewood, Captain William. “A British Officer’s Diary, 1775” in Kellogg, Louise Phelps. “Journal of a British Officer During the American Revolution.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 7, no. 1 (1920): 51–58. >> Read

Cheever, William. “A Boston Merchant’s, Diary, 1775-1776.” Massachusetts Historical Society. >> Read

Adams, Samuel. “Letter to Samuel Purviance,” May 19, 1775. Siege of Boston: Eyewitness Accounts from the Collections. Massachusetts Historical Society. >> Read

Warren, Mercy Otis. The Blockheads: Or, The Affrighted Officers. A Farce. Boston: John Gill, 1776. >> Read (requires 4×4 login)

“Letters between Mercy Otis Warren and Hannah Winthrop,” 1774-1775. Massachusetts Historical Society.

“Boston Town Meeting Minutes,” April 22, 1775. Massachusetts Historical Society. >> Read

Secondary Sources: What Historians Have Written

Reid, John Phillip. “A Lawyer Acquitted: John Adams and the Boston Massacre Trials.” The American Journal of Legal History 18, no. 3 (1974): 189–207. >> Read

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Excerpt from Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, 274–77. New York: Viking, 2013. >> Read (requires 4×4 login)

Becker, Ann M. “Smallpox in Washington’s Army: Strategic Implications of the Disease during the American Revolutionary War.” The Journal of Military History 68, no. 2 (2004): 381–430. >> Read

Kachun, Mitch. “From Forgotten Founder to Indispensable Icon: Crispus Attacks, Black Citizenship, and Collective Memory, 1770-1865.” Journal of the Early Republic 29, no. 2 (2009): 249–86. >> Read

Stuart, Nancy Rubin. “Conscience of the Revolution.” American History 43, no. 3 (August 2008): 50–55. >> Read

Stern, Jermey A. “Jane Franklin Mecom: A Boston Woman in Revolutionary Times.” Early American Studies 4, no. 1 (2006): 147–91. >> Read

Creating A New Nation: The Constitutional Convention, 1786-1789

Primary Sources: Original Documents from the Time

“The Rules of the Convention.” Constitutional Convention, May 28, 1787. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

Hamilton, Alexander (Publius). “Federalist No. 84,” July 16, 1788. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

Randolph, Edmund. “The Virginia Plan,” May 29, 1787. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

“The Revised Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan.” Constitutional Convention, June 13, 1787. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

Hamilton, Alexander. “Speech on the Compromises of the Constitution,” June 20, 1788. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

Lee, Richard Henry. “Letter to Edmund Randolph with Objections to the Constitution,” October 16, 1787. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

Federal Farmer. “Federal Farmer IV,” October 12, 1787. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

“Gerry, Mason, and Randolph Decline to Sign the Constitution.” Constitutional Convention, September 10, 12, 15, 17, 1787. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

Hamilton, Alexander. “Letter to James Madison,” July 19, 1788. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

United States Senate. “Bill of Rights, The Senate Version,” August 25, 1789 and September 9, 1789. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

United States House of Representatives. “Bill of Rights, The House Version,” July 28, 1789, August 13, 1789, August 24, 1789. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. Ashland University. >> Read

Secondary Sources: What Historians Have Written

Holton, Woody. “Did Democracy Cause the Recession That Led to the Constitution?” The Journal of American History 92, no. 2 (2005): 442–69. >> Read

Spencer, Mark G. “Hume and Madison on Faction.” The William and Mary Quarterly 59, no. 4 (2002): 869–96. >> Read

Holton, Woody. “‘Rebel against Rebel’: Enslaved Virginians and the Coming of the American Revolution.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 105, no. 2 (1997): 157–92. >> Read

Finkelman, Paul. “A Well Regulated Militia: The Second Amendment in Historical Perspective. Symposium on the Second Amendment: Fresh Looks.” Chicago-Kent Law Review, no. 1 (2000-2001): 195–236. >> Read

Politics and Family Life in the Early US, John and Abigail Adams, 1796-1797

Primary Sources: Original Documents from the Time

“Thirty-Two Letters between John and Abigail Adams During His Presidency,” 1796-1797. Adams Family Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society.

  1. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 27 November 1796
  2. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 November 1796
  3. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 December 1796
  4. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 4 December 1796
  5. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 4 December 1796
  6. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 7 December 1796
  7. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 December 1796
  8. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 December 1796
  9. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 9 December 1796
  10. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 December 1796
  11. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 14 December 1796
  12. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 December 1796
  13. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 December 1796
  14. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 18 December 1796
  15. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 19 December 1796
  16. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 20 December 1796
  17. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 December 1796
  18. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 23 December 1796, “I received by the last post…”
  19. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 23 December 1796, “Mr. Beals will deliver this…”
  20. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 December 1796
  21. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 December 1796, “The inclosed extract of a Letter…”
  22. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 27 December 1796, “I received yours of the 14…”
  23. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 30 December 1796
  24. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 December 1796
  25. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 1 January 1797
  26. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 1 January 1797
  27. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 January 1797
  28. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 January 1797, “I dined Yesterday…”
  29. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 5 January 1797, “Mrs. Swan and her Daughters,…”
  30. Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 7 January 1797
  31. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 January 1797
  32. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 11 January 1797

Secondary Sources: What Historians Have Written

Lewis, Jan. “The Republican Wife: Virtue and Seduction in the Early Republic.” The William and Mary Quarterly 44, no. 4 (1987): 689–721. >> Read

Garbaye, Linda. “Women and Politics in North America: The Experience of Abigail Adams.” Nuevo Mundo – Mundos Nuevos, April 1, 2014. >> Read

Barker-Benfield, G. J. “Stillbirth and Sensibility: The Case of Abigail and John Adams.” Early American Studies 10, no. 1 (2012): 2–29. >> Read

Holton, Woody. “Abigail Adams, Bond Speculator.” The William and Mary Quarterly 64, no. 4 (2007): 821–38. >> Read

Scobie, Ingrid Winther. “American First Ladies and the Question of Identity.” Journal of Women’s History 7, no. 4 (1995): 137–50. >> Read

Crane, Elaine Forman. “Political Dialogue and the Spring of Abigail’s Discontent.” The William and Mary Quarterly 56, no. 4 (1999): 745–74. >> Read

Sailors, Slaves, and Ship Captains in the Early United States, 1790-1840s

Primary Sources: Original Documents from the Time

Newton, John. The Life of John Newton, Once a Sailor, Afterwards Captain of a Slave Ship, and Subsequently Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London. “An Authentic Narrative,” Written by Himself; to Which Some Further Particulars Are Added. New York: Printed for the American Tract Society by Pudney, Hooker & Russell, 1854. >> Read

Porter, David. Journal of a Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean by Captain David Porter, in the United States Frigate Essex, in the Years 1812, 1813, and 1814. New York: Wiley & Halsted, 1822. >> Read

Dodds, George. “Ship’s Log for the Snow Susana,” December 21, 1799. MSS 097, Item 022. Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. >> Read

Howell, Charles. “Charles Howell’s Journey at Sea on Board the Ship Marcus of Sag Harbor, B. Green Master,” March 24, 1830. MSS 097, Item 040. Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. >> Read

Allen, John. “Journal of a Voyage from Boston to Calcutta,” 1833-1835. MSS 097, Item 088. Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. >> Read

Equiano, Olaudah, Charles F. Heartman, W. Cock, and Trathan Penaluna & Co. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Penryn: England: Printed by and for W. Cock, 1815.  >> Read

Secondary Sources: What Historians Have Written

Schermerhorn, Calvin. “Capitalism’s Captives: The Maritime United States Slave Trade, 1807–1850.” Journal of Social History 47, no. 4 (June 1, 2014): 897–921. >> Read

Vlessides, Michael. “Emptying the Seas: The History of Commercial Whaling.” Canadian Geographic 118, no. 1 (February 1998): 30–31. >> Read

Luecke, Mirelle. “‘American’ Tars: Impressment, Citizenship and Labour in Early Republican New York City.” International Journal of Maritime History 30, no. 4 (November 1, 2018): 663–80. >> Read

Mustakeem, Sowande’. “‘I Never Have Such a Sickly Ship Before’: Diet, Disease, and Mortality in 18th-Century Atlantic Slaving Voyages.” The Journal of African American History 93, no. 4 (2008): 474–96. >> Read

Gilje, Paul A. “‘Free Trade and Sailors’’ Rights”: The Rhetoric of the War of 1812.’” Journal of the Early Republic 30, no. 1 (2010): 1–23. >> Read

Slavery in Texas, 1836-1861

Primary Sources: Original Documents from the Time

“Houston Runaway Slave Ads.” Texas Runaway Slave Project. East Texas Digital Archives. Stephen F. Austin State University. >> Read

“Journal of the Proceedings of the General Council of the Republic of Texas,” January 1, 1836. Texas Slavery Project. >> Read

“Slave Population from the Census,” Texas Slavery Project. >> Read

‘Ten Letters,” James Perry Papers, 1830s. Texas Slavery Project. >> Read

Secondary Sources: What Historians Have Written

Kelley, Sean. “‘Mexico in His Head’: Slavery and the Texas-Mexico Border, 1810-1860.” Journal of Social History 37, no. 3 (2004): 709–23. >> Read

Waldstreicher, David. “Reading the Runaways: Self-Fashioning, Print Culture, and Confidence in Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century Mid-Atlantic.” The William and Mary Quarterly 56, no. 2 (1999): 243–72. >> Read

Carrigan, William D., and Clive Webb. “The Lynching of Persons of Mexican Origin or Descent in the United States, 1848 to 1928.” Journal of Social History 37, no. 2 (2003): 411–38. >> Read

Hamilton, Matthew K. “‘To Preserve African Slavery’: The Secession Commissioners to Texas, 1861.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 114, no. 4 (2011): 354–76. >> Read

Lewis, Danny. “An Archive of Fugitive Slave Ads Sheds New Light on Lost Histories.” Smithsonian.Com (Smithsonian Magazine), May 25, 2016. >> Read

Families and Goldrushers on the Overland Trail, 1849-1851

Primary Sources: Original Documents from the Time

Watson, William J. Journal of an Overland Journey to Oregon Made in the Year 1849. Jacksonville: E.R. Roe, 1851. >> Read

Duniway, David, and Kenneth L. Holmes. “Diary of Mariett Foster Cummings, June, 1852.” In Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails. North American Women’s Letters and Diaries Database. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. >> Read

Delano, Alonzo. Life on the Plains and among the Diggings, Being Scenes and Adventures of an Overland Journey to California with Particular Incidents of the Route, Mistakes and Sufferings of the Emigrants, the Indian Tribes, the Present and Future of the Great West. New York: Miller, Orton and co, 1857. >> Read

Allen, Eleanor. “Diary of Esther Belle Hanna, March 1852.” In Canvas Caravans. North American Women’s Letters and Diaries Database. Portland, Or: Bingords & Mort, 1946. >> Read

Swain, William, and Swain, Sabrina. “Letters,” 1849-1851 . New Perspectives on the West. PBS.org. >> Read

Secondary Sources: What Historians Have Written

Carter, Robert W. “‘Sometimes When I Hear the Winds Sigh’: Mortality on the Overland Trail.” California History 74, no. 2 (1995): 146–61. >> Read

Keyes, Sarah. “‘Like a Roaring Lion’: The Overland Trail as a Sonic Conquest.” The Journal of American History 96, no. 1 (2009): 19–43. >> Read

Johnson, Susan Lee. “Bulls, Bears, and Dancing Boys: Race, Gender, and Leisure in the California Gold Rush.” Radical History Review 1994, no. 60 (October 1, 1994): 5–37. >> Read

Reid, John Phillip. “Punishing the Elephant: Malfeasance and Organized Criminality on the Overland Trail.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 47, no. 1 (1997): 2–21.  >> Read

Holliday, J. S. “Preface.” In The World Rushed in: The California Gold Rush Experience, 2–12. Red River Books. Norman University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. >> Read

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