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The Heroic Slave, Frederick Douglass

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Frederick Douglass based this story on the real-life heroism of Madison Washington, who led the largest successful slave revolt in U.S. history in 1841. His story is told through the eyes and words of two white men. First, Mr. Listwell from Ohio sees Madison enslaved in Virginia, then a fugitive in Ohio, and finally a recaptured returnee bound from Richmond to the slave markets of New Orleans. Lastly, Tom Grant, the mate on the slave transport Creole, describes the ship’s takeover by its human cargo and its passage to the British Bahamas, where 128 men and women stepped out of …

A Lecture On The Railroad To The Pacific [1850], Calvin Colton, Paul Royster (Editor)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

DELIVERED, AUGUST 12, 1850, AT THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON.

Colton delivered this lecture in support of a proposal by New York merchant Asa Whitney (1797–1872) to build a railway from Lake Michigan to the Pacific. Whitney’s proposal called for Congress to sell him a strip of land sixty miles wide and 2,000 miles long through the public domain—a total of about 78 million acres at a price of 10 cents per acre. Whitney had spent time in Europe and in China, and was convinced that a rail link across North America would become the principal commercial route between Europe and …

An Address To The Slaves Of The United States Of America, Henry Highland Garnet

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Brethren and Fellow-Citizens :

Your brethren of the north, east, and west have been accustomed to meet together in National Conventions, to sympathize with each other, and to weep over your unhappy condition. In these meetings we have addressed all classes of the free, but we have never until this time, sent a word of consolation and advice to you. We have been contented in sitting still and mourning over your sorrows, earnestly hoping that before this day, your sacred liberties would have been restored. But, we have hoped in vain. Years have rolled on, and tens of thousands have …

Labor: Its History And Its Prospects [1848], Robert Dale Owen, Paul Royster (Edited By)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN’S MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, OF CINCINNATI, On Tuesday, February 1, 1848.

Owen’s lecture, supplemented with extensive footnotes, describes the condition of the working class in Great Britain and contrasts its situation to the more equitable economy of the late middle ages and to the situation of labor in America, where the presence of the frontier provides a temporary outlet and the existence of the slave labor power presents an extended threat. Owen calculates the tremendous increase in productive power attendent upon industrialization and decries the relative worsening of the position of labor resulting from …

The Past And The Present Condition, And The Destiny, Of The Colored Race (1848), Henry Highland Garnet, Paul Royster (Edited By)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Henry Highland Garnet’s 1848 address to the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, New York, published that year, is an eloquent survey and reclaiming for the race of its share in the Western intellectual tradition. That the ancient Egyptians were Africans, that the Song of Solomon was addressed to an African woman, that the Ethiopians warriors were celebrated by Homer, that Moses’ wife was Ethiopian, that Hannibal, Terence, Euclid, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine all were of African ancestry— these facts are adduced by Garnet to suggest both the heritage and the potential achievements of the Africans in America. Garnet surveys the …

The Past And The Present Condition, And The Destiny, Of The Colored Race, Henry Highland Garnet

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Henry Highland Garnet’s 1848 address to the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, New York, published that year, is an eloquent survey and reclaiming for the race of its share in the Western intellectual tradition. That the ancient Egyptians were Africans, that the Song of Solomon was addressed to an African woman, that the Ethiopians warriors were celebrated by Homer, that Moses’ wife was Ethiopian, that Hannibal, Terence, Euclid, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine all were of African ancestry—these facts are adduced by Garnet to suggest both the heritage and the potential achievements of the Africans in America. Gar-net surveys the origin …

Peace With Mexico, Albert Gallatin

Electronic Texts in American Studies

I.-- THE LAW OF NATIONS.

Il. -- INDEMNITIES TO CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.

III. -- ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

IV. -- NEGOTIATIONS AND WAR.

V. -- THE CLAIM OF TEXAS TO THE RIO DEL NORTE, AS ITS BOUNDARY, EXAMINED

VI. -- RECAPITULATION.

VII. -- THE MISSION OF THE UNITED STATES.

VIII. -- TERMS OF PEACE

At present the only object is Peace, immediate peace, a just peace, and no acquisition of territory, but that which may be absolutely necessary for effecting the great object in view. The most simple terms, those which will only provide for the adjustment of the …

Address Delivered Before The Queens County Agricultural Society, At Its Third Anniversary, At Jamaica, Thursday, October 10th, 1844, Gabriel Furman

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Furman’s Address includes discussions of pre-Columbian agriculture, the Norse discovery and settlement of North America, the state of New York as it appeared to its first settlers, the manifest destiny of the United States, the early societies to promote agriculture and scientific invention, the promotion of the potato, the growth of population in America, the developments of water and steam power, the prevalence of sugar, the progress of astronomy and geology, cosmological reasons for historical climate change, the discoveries of tropical fossils in the northern latitudes, the growth of wheat from ancient Egyptian seeds, and the role of the educated …

"Introduction" And "Notes" To 1845 Gowans Edition Of Daniel Denton's A Brief Description Of New-York (1670), Gabriel Furman, Daniel Denton, Paul Royster (Transcriber & Depositor)

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Furman’s introduction and notes to Daniel Denton’s A Brief Description of New York (1670) are less an attempt to elucidate that original work than an occasion for disquisitions on a variety of subjects; not, however, without their own charm and intrinsic interest.

Gabriel Furman (1800-1854) was a Brooklyn lawyer, justice, and state senator, as well as an antiquarian, collector, and lecturer. He published Notes, Geographical and Historical Relative to the Town of Brooklyn in 1824, and was a lifelong compiler of research, manuscripts, and documents, many of which were edited for publication after his death as Antiquities of Long Island …

History Of The Indian Tribes Of North America, With Biographical Sketches And Anecdotes Of The Principal Chiefs. Embellished With One Hundred And Twenty Portraits, From The Indian Gallery In The Department Of War, At Washington. Volume Iii., Thomas L. M'Kenney, James Hall

Electronic Texts in American Studies

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

History of the Indian Tribes of North America [44 pp]

An Essay on the History of the North American Indians by James Hall, Parts I-IV

The Genuineness of the Portrait of Pocahontas, by D. M. Randolph

Localities of all the Indian Tribes of North America in 1833

Statement showing the number of each tribe of Indians, whether natives of, or emigrants to, the country west of the Mississippi, with items of emigration and subsistence. 1842 & 1843.

Present Localities of the Indian Tribes west of the Mississippi.

Signatures (of subscribers)

Plates:

Encampment of Piekann Indians near …

Primitive Christianity, Theodore Parker, Paul Royster (Annotator)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

"Primitive Christianity was a very simple thing, apart from the individual errors connected with it; two great speculative maxims set forth its essential doctrines, “Love man,” and “Love God.” It had also two great practical maxims, which grew out of the speculative, “we that are strong ought to bear the burthens of the weak,” and “we must give good for evil.” These maxims lay at the bottom of the apostles’ minds, and the top of their hearts. These explain their conduct; account for their courage; give us the reason of their faith, their strength, their success. The proclaimers of these …

A Discourse Of The Transient And Permanent In Christianity, Theodore Parker

Electronic Texts in American Studies

PREACHED AT THE ORDINATION OF MR. CHARLES C. SHACKFORD, IN THE HAWES PLACE CHURCH IN BOSTON, MAY 19, 1841.

Parker's controversial sermon is an essential document in the history of American Unitarianism and Transcendentalism. In it, he applies the lessons gleaned from the "higher criticism" of the Bible to the history of organized Christianity in a reinterpretation of the persona of the historical Jesus of Nazareth. As might be expected, Parker valorizes the Spirit over the variety of religious forms promulgated at different times by different Christian sects, and "presentizes" the Gospel message in a way that many conventional Christians …

Strauss’S Life Of Jesus, Theodore Parker, Paul Royster (Depositor)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

David Strauss’s Das Leben Jesu (1835) was one of the most influential and controversial theological works of the nineteenth century. It was first translated into English by Mary Ann Evans (“George Eliot”) in 1860, and is said to have been an important early influence on Friedrich Nietzsche. Strauss (1808-1874) applied the methods of German “higher criticism” or textual criticism to the Gospels, and argued that their accounts of Jesus’ miracles and prophecies were to be understood “mythically”—as products of the early church's use of Jewish messianic ideas and expectations to underscore the conviction that Jesus was the Messiah.

Parker’s long …

History Of The Captivity And Providential Release Therefrom Of Mrs. Caroline Harris, Caroline Harris

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Wife of the late Mr. Richard Harris, of Franklin County, State of New-York; who, with Mrs. Clarissa Plummer, wife of Mr. James Plummer, were, in the Spring of 1835, (with their unfortunate husbands,) taken prisoners by the Camanche tribe of Indians, while emigrating from said Franklin County (N.Y.) to Texas; and after having been made to witness the tragical deaths of their husbands, and held nearly two years in bondage, were providentially redeemed therefrom by two of their countrymen attached to a company of Santa Fe Fur Traders.

It was the misfortune of Mrs. Harris, and her unfortunate female companion …

History Of The Indian Tribes Of North America, With Biographical Sketches And Anecdotes Of The Principal Chiefs. Embellished With One Hundred And Twenty Portraits, From The Indian Gallery In The Department Of War, At Washington. Volume Ii., Thomas L. M'Kenney, James Hall Esq

Electronic Texts in American Studies

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

Buffalo Hunt

Opothle Yoholo

Mistippee

Paddy Carr

Timpoochee Barnard

Makataimeshekiakiah, or Black Hawk

Kishkekosh

Wapella

Appanoose

Taiomah

Notchimine

Keokuk

Neomonni

Keesheswa

Tahrohon

Watchemonne

Tustennuggee Emathla

Menawa

Wabaunsee

Chittee Yoholo

Metea

Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant)

Ahyouwaighs

Neamathla

Markomete

Amisquam

Stumanu

Le Soldat du Chene

Powasheek

Sharitarish

Wakaun Haka

Peskelechaco

Hoowanneka

Wakawn

Katawabeda

Foke Luste Hajo

John Ridge

The Chippeway Widow

Micanopy

Selocta

Kaipolequa

Asseola

Yaha Hajo

Tooan Tuh, or Spring Frog

Tshizunhaukau

Wakechai

Kanapima, an Ottawa Chief

History Of The Indian Tribes Of North America, With Biographical Sketches And Anecdotes Of The Principal Chiefs. Embellished With One Hundred And Twenty Portraits, From The Indian Gallery In The Department Of War, At Washington. Volume I., Thomas L. M'Kenney, James Hall Esq.

Electronic Texts in American Studies

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

War Dance

Red Jacket

Kishkalwa

Mohongo, an Osage Woman

Shingaba W’Ossin, or Image Stone

Pushmataha

Tenskwautawaw, or The Prophet

Eshtahumleah, or Sleepy Eyes

Waapashaw

Meetakoosega, or Pure Tobacco

Weshcubb, or The Sweet

Little Crow

Sequoyah, or George Guess

Nawkaw, or The Wood

Shaumonekusse, or L’Ietan

Hayne Hudjihini, or The Eagle of Delight

Quatawapea, or Colonel Lewis

Payta Kootha, or Flying Clouds

Kiontwagky, or Corn Plant

Pashepahaw, or The Stabber

Caatousee

Chippeway Squaw and Child

Petelasharro

Choncape, or Big Kanzas

Wanata, or The Charger

Peamuska

Catahecassa, or BlackHoof

An Ojibway Mother and her Child

Okeemakeequid

Waemboeshkaa

McIntosh …

Narrative Of The Captivity And Extreme Sufferings Of Mrs. Clarissa Plummer, Clarissa Plummer

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Wife of the late Mr. James Plummer, of Franklin County, State of New-York; who, with Mrs. Caroline Harris, wife of the late Mr. Richard Harris, were, in the Spring of 1835, with their unfortunate families, surprised and taken prisoners by a party of the Camanche tribe of Indians, while emigrating from said Franklin County (N.Y.) to. Texas; and after having been held nearly two years in captivity, and witnessed the deaths of their husbands, were fortunately redeemed from the hands of the savages by an American Fur Trader, a native of Georgia.

Mrs., Plummer was made prisoner and held in …

Eulogy On King Philip, William Apess, Paul Royster (Ed.)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

In the heart of New England, on the virtual doorstep of the Pilgrim founding fathers, William Apess delivered this eulogy honoring their greatest enemy, Metacomet of the Wampanoags, known as King Philip, who led a coalition of Native peoples that came close to destroying the whole English colonial enterprise in 1675–76. In 1836, one hundred sixty years later, Apess chose to re-examine the circumstances of King Philip’s life and death, and pronounced him equal to or even greater than Washington in love for his country, military skill, and personal honor. While redeeming the memory of Philip as a martyr for …

A Synopsis Of The Indian Tribes Within The United States East Of The Rocky Mountains, And In The British And Russian Possessions In North America, Albert Gallatin

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Published in the American Antiquarian Society's Archaeologia Americana, vol. 2, (1836), pp. 1-422.

A 208-page geographical, historical, and cultural introduction is followed by 214 pages of appendices of linguistic materials.

Sect. I. Indian Tribes north of the United States

Eskimaux.

Kinai, Koluschen, &c., on the Pacific Ocean

Athapascas, (Northern, Cheppeyans, Copper Mine, &c., Sussees, Tacullies)

Sect. II. Algonkin-Lenape and Iroquois,

Algonkin-Lenape

Northern (Knistinaux, Algonkins, Chippeways, Ottowas, Potowotamies, Mississagues)

Northeastern (Labrador, Micmacs, Etchemins, Abenakis)

Eastern (New England, Mohicans, Manhattans, Long Island, Delawares and Minsi, Nanticokes, Susquehannocks, Conoys, Powhatans, Mannahoks, Pamlicoes)

Western, (Menomonies, Sauks, Foxes, Kickapoos and Mascoutins, Miamis and …

An Appeal In Favor Of That Class Of Americans Called Africans, Lydia Maria Child, Paul Royster (Editor)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

The roots of white supremacy lie in the institution of negro slavery. From the 15th through the 19th century, white Europeans trafficked in abducted and enslaved Africans and justified the practice with excuses that seemed somehow to reconcile the injustice with their professed Christianity. The United States was neither the first nor the last nation to abolish slavery, but its proclaimed principles of freedom and equality were made ironic by the nation’s reluctance to extend recognition to all Americans.

“Americans” is what Mrs. Child calls those fellow countrymen of African ancestry; citizenship and equality are what she proposed beyond simple …

Appeal To The Wealthy Of The Land, Ladies As Well As Gentlemen, On The Character, Conduct, Situation, And Prospects Of Those Whose Sole Dependence For Subsistence Is On The Labour Of Their Hands (1833), Mathew Carey, Paul Royster (Transcriber & Depositor)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Mathew Carey’s 1833 pamphlet pleads the case of the paupers, the unemployed, and the working poor in Philadelphia and other Eastern-seaboard cities. He finds it a national disgrace that hard-working seamstresses, spoolers, hod-carriers, canal-diggers, and other manual trades cannot earn enough to support their families and that they live on the edge of economic ruin threatened by temporary unemployment, accident, or illness. He discusses the “welfare system” in both America and England (with a long discussion of the history and abuses of the English poor laws), the price of labor, the cost of living, and the numbers and condition of …

The Confessions Of Nat Turner, Thomas R. Gray, Nat Turner

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Nat Turner (1800–1831) was known to his local “fellow servants” in Southampton County as “The Prophet.” On the evening of Sunday, August 21, 1831, he met six associates in the woods at Cabin Pond, and about 2:00 a.m. they began to enter local houses and kill the white inhabitants. Over the next 36 hours, they were joined by as many as 60 other slaves and free blacks, and they killed at least 10 men, 14 women, and 31 infants and children. By noon of Tuesday, August 23, the insurgents had been killed, captured, or dispersed by local militia. Nat Turner …

The Confessions Of Nat Turner (1831), Thomas R. Gray, Nat Turner, Paul Royster (Depositor)

Electronic Texts in American Studies

Nat Turner (1800–1831) was known to his local “fellow servants” in Southampton County as “The Prophet.” On the evening of Sunday, August 21, 1831, he met six associates in the woods at Cabin Pond, and about 2:00 a.m. they began to enter local houses and kill the white inhabitants. Over the next 36 hours, they were joined by as many as 60 other enslaved and free Negroes, and they killed at least 10 men, 14 women, and 31 infants and children. By noon of Tuesday, August 23, the insurgents had been killed, captured, or dispersed by local militia. Nat Turner …

Walker’S Appeal, In Four Articles; Together With A Preamble, To The Coloured Citizens Of The World, … (Boston, 1830), David Walker, Paul Royster , Editor & Depositor

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Walker’s Appeal ... is a radical antislavery and antiracist manifesto by a free American of African ancestry. Its bold denunciation of European culture was unprecedented, unrestrained, and startling, viz.:

“The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority.”

Walker attacks the slave system and its rampant racism from the viewpoint of America’s allegiance to the idea of freedom; he quotes the Declaration of Independence at length, and strikes a recognizably jeremiad note:

“O Americans! Americans!! I call God—I call angels— I call men, to witness, that your destruction …

David Cusick's Sketches Of Ancient History Of The Six Nations, David Cusick

Zea E-Books in American Studies

This very early (if not the first) account of Native American history and myth, written and published in English by an Indian, is valuable on that score alone. This online electronic edition (in pdf format) was transcribed from digital images of the 1828 edition in the Library of Congress. No attempt has been made to correct or regularize spelling and punctuation or to standardize the language of the original; some typographical errors have been corrected, and these are listed in the notes.

The history begins at the Creation, with the twin brothers Enigorio and Enigonhahetgea (the good spirit and evil …

David Cusick’S Sketches Of Ancient History Of The Six Nations (1828), David Cusick, Paul Royster (Editor & Depositor)

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

This very early (if not the first) account of Native American history and myth, written and published in English by an Indian, is valuable on that score alone. This online electronic edition (in pdf format) was transcribed from digital images of the 1828 edition in the Library of Congress. No attempt has been made to correct or regularize spelling and punctuation or to standardize the language of the original; some typographical errors have been corrected, and these are listed in the notes.

The history begins at the Creation, with the twin brothers Enigorio and Enigonhahetgea (the good spirit and evil …

Notes Geographical And Historical, Relating To The Town Of Brooklyn, In Kings County On Long-Island, Gabriel Furman

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Furman’s work is one of the earliest compilations of historical documents (with commentary) about an American city, in this case his native Brooklyn. It is an invaluable source of information on the early Dutch and English settlements of Brooklyn, Flatbush, Bushwick, New Lotts, Canarsie, Bedford, New Utrecht, Jamaica, and New Amsterdam, and their controversies with one another and with the Governors of New York and the crown of England. Included are original documents relative to the Indian purchases, original boundaries, water rights, ferry rights, wood rights, and forms of town government. Sections include: Situation of the Town of Brooklyn, Ancient …

Notes Geographical And Historical, Relating To The Town Of Brooklyn, In Kings County On Long-Island. (1824) An Online Electronic Text Edition., Gabriel Furman, Paul Royster (Transcriber & Depositor)

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Furman’s work is one of the earliest compilations of historical documents (with commentary) about an American city, in this case his native Brooklyn. It is an invaluable source of information on the early Dutch and English settlements of Brooklyn, Flatbush, Bushwick, New Lotts, Canarsie, Bedford, New Utrecht, Jamaica, and New Amsterdam, and their controversies with one another and with the Governors of New York and the crown of England. Included are original documents relative to the Indian purchases, original boundaries, water rights, ferry rights, wood rights, and forms of town government. Sections include: Situation of the Town of Brooklyn, Ancient …

A Knickerbocker Tour Of New York State, 1822: "Our Travels, Statistical, Geographical, Mineorological, Geological, Historical, Political And Quizzical"; Written By Myself Xyz Etc., Johnston Verplanck, Louis Leonard Tucker , Editor

Electronic Texts in American Studies

In late August 1822, at the height of a yellow fever epidemic in New York City, an alarmed resident of the lower city resettled his family in the Bedford section of Brooklyn Village. With two male companions, he then boarded the steamboat Chancellor Livingston on August 28 and sailed up the Hudson River to Newburgh. There they boarded a stage and travelled across New York State to Niagara Falls and the adjoining area. They returned along the "psychic highway" of western and central New York to Albany, thence down the Hudson to New York City by steamboat. In the course …

Narrative Of The Most Extraordinary And Distressing Shipwreck Of The Whale-Ship Essex, Of Nantucket : Which Was Attacked And Finally Destroyed By A Large Spermaceti-Whale, In The Pacific Ocean : With An Account Of The Unparalleled Sufferings Of The Captain And Crew During A Space Of Ninety-Three Days At Sea, In Open Boats, In The Years 1819 & 1820, Owen Chase, Paul Royster, Ed.

Electronic Texts in American Studies

On November 20, 1820, the whale-ship Essex, out of Nantucket, was twice rammed by a sperm whale and sank in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The crew of twenty took refuge in three open whale-boats, and attempted to sail east toward the coasts of South America. The boats were eventually separated by storms and darkness, and after more than 90 days two of them, holding five survivors, were picked up by other ships; the third boat was never found.

First mate Owen Chase dictated this account of the fateful voyage, published in New York four months after his return to Nantucket. …