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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
Civil War Women - On-line Archival Exhibits at Duke University
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: The Long 19th Century
See the section on 19th Century Feminism
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921: Selections from the American Memory Site at the Library of Congress
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
"She is More to be Pitied than Censured": Women, Sexuality and Murder in 19th Century America
An exhibition produced by the John Hay Library of Brown University.
Women and the American Experience
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.
The Worcester Women's History Project
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
Immigration and Ethnicity in American History (Professor John McClymer)
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--
- Web-Book Columbian Exposition Resource Links Page
- The World's Columbian Exposition:Idea,Experience,Aftermath--master's thesis offering analysis of reactions to the fair and its effects on America.
- 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.
- The World's Columbian Exposition--Facts and figures about exhibits, visitors, and even prices.
- These Excerpts from Speeches and Editorials on the Crystal Palace Exposition Lets you "eavesdrop" on some nineteenth century reactions to an important fair held in the middle of the century.

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
African-American texts from the Modern English Collection -- Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
The American Conversation on Race: The 1850's to the 1930's
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"
"The Roots of American Slavery: A Bibliographic Essay" byPhilip J. Schwarz, Department of History, Virginia Commonwealth University
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.
Harlem Renaissance Poetry as Rhetoric?
Mississippi Black Code (1865): The Civil Rights of Freedmen in Mississippi
Representations of African-Americans in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century America
Revisions of Slavery
An article on the Atlantic Unbound site that comments on recent books, movies, and websites on slavery. See also on the same site: "Forgotten Heroes of Freedom,"
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
Texts about the American Civil War from the Modern English Collection -- Electronic Text Center
Voices From the Gaps--Women of Color Web Site at the University of Minnesota
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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"

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