For Additional Resources See:

 Collections of Resources

 Resources Grouped by Author

 Collections of E-Texts

 Collections of Art

American Identity

 

"Letters from an American Farmer," Crevecoeur

In the second part of the eighteenth century, Frenchman Michel-Guillalaum-Jean de Crevecoeur spent some years travelling and living in America. These letters describe his impressions of America.

 

"Way to Wealth," Benjamin Franklin

Franklin's description of how he achieved success.

 

Gender

 

Catherine Beecher, Selections from Domestic Economy

 

Civil War Women - On-line Archival Exhibits at Duke University

 

Pioneering Women in American Memory

Exhibit on women as pioneers in American life sponsored by the Library of Congress. Includes "California as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900

 

Scribbling Women

Resources on Willa Cather's "A Wagner Matinee," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," and Susan Glaspell's "A Jury Of Her Peers."

Women in America

This site allows you to read accounts of the lives of American women written by eighteen visitors from Ireland, Scotland, England, and France.

 

Woman in American Literature

An essay written by Helen Gray Cone and published in the Century Magazine in 1890
Volume 40

 

 

Immigrants and Diversity

 

Excerpt from the M. Kleg's Encyclopedia of Hate, Racism, and Ethnic Violence in American

Offers a brief history of anti-Catholic attitudes and includes a short essay describing The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, as Exhibited in aNarrative of Her Sufferings, During a Residence of Five Years as a Novice, an inflammatory book which enjoyed a wide circulation in the nineteenth century

 

The Native American Mutual Protection Association: An 1836 Questionnaire

This New York circular is part of an attempt to collect information about and limit the involvement of "foreigners" in American political offices.

 

Newspaper report of an attack by Catholics on the Protestant Association

A reprisal for the burning of a convent in Charlestown, Massachussetts.

 

"Rioting," The New England Galaxy, Boston, Saturday, March 21, 1835

This editorial argues that the attack is worse than the event which inspired it--the famous burning of the Charlestown convent by an anti-Catholic mob.

 

The Secret Oath of the American Protective Association (1893)

 

Thomas Nast cartoon "St. Patrick's Day 1868: The Day We Celebrate"

 

Cartoon captioned "Impoverished Irish headed for American shores"

 

Mary Ann Sadlier Archive

 

Progress and Technology

 

America's Superiority at the Centennial Exposition

Speeches and editorials about America's participation in the Crystal Palace Exposition of 1850 .

 

The Autobiography of Charles Harding, Recollections of a Methodist Minister (1807-1869)-

Describes a debate at a local lyceum, life in a Massachusetts community during first year of the Civil War, the temperance movement, and the changes brought by technology.

 

World's Fairs and Expositions--

 

Race, Slavery, Abolitionism

 

African-American Mosaic Exhibition

This exhibit from the Library of Congress offers annotated images and some texts illustrating key issues in the debate over slavery.

 

African American Pamphlets Home Page

 

American Slave Narratives--an online anthology at the University of Virginia's Crossroads Project (WPA oral histories)

 

amistad

 

The Amistad Research Center

"The nation's largest minority manuscript library"

 

Civil War Women - On-line Archival Exhibits at Duke University

 

Documenting the American South

 

Excerpts from Slave Narratives

 

Frederic Douglass's "Heroic Slave"

American Literature Research and Analysis Web Site produced by students at the University of South Florida which includes the full text of Douglass's short story.

 

Toward Racial Equality: Harper's Weekly Reports on Black America, 1857-1874

 

Secession Era Editorials Project

Transcriptions of newspaper editorials on four key issues related to slavery and secessionism.

 

Slavery: A Sample of Anti-Slavery Arguments

Excerpts from pieces by William Lloyd Garrison, William Ellery Channing, and Frederick Douglass.

 

Slavery: A Sample of Pro-Slavery Arguments

 

Voices From the Gaps--Women of Color Web Site at the University of Minnesota

 

Work, Wealth, and Worth

 

"Acres of Diamonds"

Nineteenth century Americans packed the lecture halls to hear this speech which argued that the accumulation of wealth was consistent with the message of the gospel.

 

The American Experience/Andrew Carnegie

 

The American Experience/Carnegie/Carnivals of Revenge

 

Chicago: 1886 The Haymarket Riot

 

CPL Chicago: 1886, May 4: Haymarket Tragedy

 

"Editor's Easy Chair," Harper's New Monthly Magazine , April, 1853

Editorial on how wealth and speed are changing the quality of life.

 

"The Great Homes of America's Gilded Age"

 

The Haymarket Martyrs

 

Harriet Hosmer,"Boston and Boston People in 1850"

An excerpt from a poem describing the relationship between wealth, acquisition and art in Boston at the middle of the nineteenth century.

 

Horatio Alger, Jr. Resources

 

Labor-Management Conflict in American History

This page at Ohio State University offers links to newspaper accounts and other contemporary reports of late nineteenth century labor conflicts.

 

"Lectures on the Elevation of the Labouring Portion of the Community," William Ellery Channing,

Part of the lecture delivered by the famous Boston Unitarian minister when he was asked to give the opening address at a new lyceum for mechanics.

 

"Our First Men: " A Calendar of Wealth and Gentility

The introduction and a few sample entries from a biographical directory of the richest citizens of Boston in 1846.

 

Poems celebrating "the Mechanic."

Originally published as part of the program for the Annual Election of the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers in 1800.

 

Tristam Burges,"The Spirit of Independence: An Oration Delivered Before the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers at their Annual Election, April 14, 1800,"

 

George D. Herron, "The Message of Jesus to Men of Wealth," Christian Union 42 (December 11, 1890)

 

Henry George, "Progress and Poverty", 1879

 

Rev. B. St. J. Fry, D.D., Communism in America", May, 1871

 

Edward W. Bemis, "Socialism"

 

The West

 

World's Fairs

Focuses on the art, history, and culture of the American West; a particularly good source of information about the treatment of Native Americans and Western themes at the expositions.

 

Perspectives on the West

 

Pioneering Women in American Memory

An exhibit on women as pioneers in American life sponsored by the Library of Congress. Be sure to visit "California as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900

 

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This page was constructed by Dr. Lucia Knoles, Department of English, Assumption College