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American History I - HIST 2010

Primary Sources Available Online

Finding Primary Sources

You will need to choose primary sources that are relevant to people and events that are within the time frame and place of this course.

  • Place: North America
  • Time: until 1877

Search the library catalog and databases with the following phrases:

  • primary sources
  • autobiography
  • diary
  • letters
  • "a brief history with documents" 

 

Digital Primary Sources 1

A Badger Boy in Blue : The Civil War Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke Chauncey H. Cooke
A Connecticut Yankee in Lincoln’s Cabinet : Navy Secretary Gideon Welles Chronicles the Civil War Gideon Welles
A Damned Iowa Greyhound : The Civil War Letters of William Henry Harrison Clayton Donald C. Elder, III
A fur trader on the Upper Missouri [electronic resource] : the journal and description of Jean-Baptiste Truteau, 1794-1796 Jean-Baptiste Truteau
A Grand Army of Black Men : Letters From African-American Soldiers in the Union Army 1861–1865 Edwin S. Redkey
A Gunner in Lee's Army : The Civil War Letters of Thomas Henry Carter Graham T. Dozier
A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas : Being an Account of the Early Settlements, the Civil War, the Ku-Klux, and Times of Peace William Monks
A Just and Righteous Cause : Benjamin H. Grierson’s Civil War Memoir Bruce J. Dinges
A Man Apart : The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774 - 1781 Harold B. Gill Jr
A Palmetto boy: Civil War-era diaries and letters of James Adams Tillman Bobbie Swearingen Smith
A Quiet Corner of the War : The Civil War Letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862–1863 Gilbert Claflin
A Rebel War Clerk's Diary : At the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2: August 1863-April 1865 J.B Jones
A South Carolina upcountry saga: the Civil War letters of Barham Bobo Foster and his family, 1860-1863 A. Gilbert Kennedy
A Woman's Wartime Journal : An Account of the Passage Over Georgia's Plantation of Sherman's Army on the March to the Sea, As Recorded in the Diary of Dolly Sumner Lunt (Mrs. Thomas Burge) Dolly Sumner Lunt
A Yankee Horseman in the Shenandoah Valley : The Civil War Letters of John H. Black, Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry David J. Coles
A Yankee Scholar in Coastal South Carolina : William Francis Allen's Civil War Journals James Robert Hester
Abraham Lincoln : Letters to His Generals, 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln
Among the Enemy : A Michigan Soldier’s Civil War Journal William Horton Kimball
An extraordinary ordinary woman [electronic resource] : the journal of Phebe Orvis Susan M. Ouellette
An Ulster Slave Owner in the Revolutionary Atlantic : The Life and Letters of John Black Johnathan Jeffrey Wright
Andersonville : A Story of Rebel Military Prisons, Fifteen Months a Guest of the So-called Southern Confederacy: a Private Soldier's Experience in Richmond, Andersonville, Savannah, Millen, Blackshear, and Florence John McElroy
André Michaux in North America : Journals and Letters, 1785–1797 André Michaux
Another Year Finds Me in Texas : The Civil War Diary of Lucy Pier Stevens Vicki Adams Tongate
Army Life of an Illinois Soldier : Including a Day-by-day Record of Sherman's March to the Sea: Letters and Diary of Charles W. Wills Charles Wright Willes
Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk Black Hawk
Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson
Autobiography of John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill
Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826 Lady Wallace
Bloody Engagements : John R. Kelso's Civil War John R. Kelso
Common Sense Thomas Paine
Death Valley in '49 : The Autobiography of a Pioneer William Lewis Manly
Death, Disease, and Life at War : The Civil War Letters of Surgeon James D. Benton, 111th and 98th New York Infantry Regiments, 1862–1865 Christopher Loperfido
Diary of a Confederate Soldier : John S. Jackman of the Orphan Brigade John S. Jackman
Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, by a Lady of Virginia Judith W. McGuire
Double Duty in the Civil War : The Letters of Sailor and Soldier Edward W. Bacon George S Burkhardt
Emilie Davis’s Civil War : The Diaries of a Free Black Woman in Philadelphia, 1863–1865 Judith Giesberg
Everything Worthy of Observation : The 1826 New York State Travel Journal of Alexander Stewart Scott Paul G. Schneider Jr
Federalist Papers James Madison
Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings on Politics, Economics, and Virtue Benjamin Franklin
From That Terrible Field : Civil War Letters of James M. Williams, 21st Alabama Infantry Volunteers James Williams
I belong to South Carolina: South Carolina slave narratives / edited by Susanna Ashton ; with the assistance of Robyn E. Adams Susanna Ashton
I Hope to Do My Country Service: The Civil War Letters of John Bennitt, M.D., Surgeon, 19th Michigan Infantry John Bennitt
In Their Letters, in Their Words : Illinois Civil War Soldiers Write Home Mark Flotow
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs
Inside Lincoln's White House : The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay Michael Burlingame
Journal of an Indian trader : Anthony Glass and the Texas trading frontier, 1790-1810 Anthony Glass
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation 1838-1839 Frances Anne Kemble
Last to Leave the Field : The Life and Letters of First Sergeant Ambrose Henry Hayward, 28th Pennsylvania Volunteers Timothy J. Orr
Lee and Jackson's Bloody Twelfth : The Letters of Irby Goodwin Scott, First Lieutenant, Company G, Putnam Light Infantry, Twelfth Georgia Volunteer Infantry Johnnie Perry Pearson
Letters from America / Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis De Tocqueville
Letters From France : The Private Diplomatic Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin, 1776-1785 Benjamin Franklin
Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade. Paul Erdmann Isert's Journey to Guinea and the Carribean Islands in Columbis  Axelrod Winsnes
Lone star and double eagle : Civil War letters of a German-Texas family Minetta Altgelt Goyne

Digital Primary Sources 2

Lost Creeks: collected journals Alexander Posey
More of a Man : Diaries of a Scottish Craftsman in Mid-Nineteenth-Century North America Andrew C. Holman
My Story of the War: A Woman's Narrative of Four Years Personal Experience Livermore, Mary A.
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself Henry Bibb
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass
Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave: Written by Himself William Wells Brown
On to Atlanta : The Civil War Diaries of John Hill Ferguson, Illinois Tenth Regiment of Volunteers John Hill Ferguson
One of Lee's best men : the Civil War letters of General William Dorsey Pender / edited by William Woods Hassler ; with a new foreword by Brian Wills. William Dorsey Pender
Pedagogues and Protesters: The Harvard College Student Diary of Stephen Peabody, 1767-1768 Stephen Peabody
Practicing medicine in a black regiment: the Civil War diary of Burt G. Wilder, 55th Massachusetts Richard M. Reid
Rambles of a Runaway from Southern Slavery Henry Goings
Rebel brothers : the Civil War letters of the Truehearts Charles William Trueheart
Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee
Refugitta of Richmond : The Wartime Recollections, Grave and Gay, of Constance Cary Harrison Nathaniel Cheairs, Jr. Hughes
Resisting Sherman : A Confederate Surgeon's Journal and the Civil War in the Carolinas, 1865: Based on the Diary of Francis Marion Robertson, M.D F.M Robertson
Rise and Fall of the Confederacy : The Memoir of Senator Williamson S. Oldham, CSA Williamson Simpson Oldham
Soldier Boy : The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa Barry Popchock
Speeches & Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865 Abraham Lincoln
Stonewall's Prussian Mapmaker : The Journals of Captain Oscar Hinric Richard Brady Williams
The Adams-Jefferson Letters : The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams Lester J. Cappon
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin
The Civil War diary of Gideon Welles, Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy William E. Gienapp
The Civil War Diary of Rev. James Sheeran, C.Ss.R. Patrick J. Hayes
The Civil War in North Carolina, Volume 1: The Piedmont : Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865 Christopher M. Watford
The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell : A Chaplain's Story Joseph Hopkins Twichell
The Civil War Memoirs of a Virginia Cavalryman Robert T. Hubard
The Greatest Trials I Ever Had : The Civil War Letters of Margaret and Thomas Cahill Ryan W. Keating
The Invasion of Canada by the Americans, 1775-1776 : As Told Through Jean-Baptiste Badeaux's Three Rivers Journal and New York Captain William Goforth's Letters Mark R. Anderson
The Journal of Ann McMath : An Orphan in a New York Parsonage in the 1850s Ann McMath
The Journals of Jeffery Amherst, 1757-1763, Volume 1: The Daily and Personal Journals Robert J. Andrews
The Journals of Josiah Gorgas, 1857–1878 Josiah Gorgas
The Letters of Abigaill Levy Franks, 1733-1748 Abigail Franks
The Letters of General Richard S. Ewell : Stonewall’s Successor Donald C. Pfanz
The Letters of George Long Brown : A Yankee Merchant on Florida's Antebellum Frontier James M. Denham
The Letters of Mark Twain and Joseph Hopkins Twichell  
The Letters of Mary Penry : A Single Moravian Woman in Early America Moravian Pietist
The Ojibwe journals of Edmund F. Ely, 1833-1849 Edmund F. Ely
Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 : Printed From the Original Manuscripts in the Library of the American Philosophical Society and by Direction of Its Committee on Historical Documents, Together with Manuscript Material of Lewis and Clark From Other Sources, Including Note-books, Letters, M  Lewis, Meriwether, Floyd, Charles, Whitehouse, Joseph, Clark, William, Thwaites, Reuben Gold, American Philosophical Society

Digital Primary Sources 3

The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant
The Story of My Campaign : The Civil War Memoir of Captain Francis T. Moore, Second Illinois Calvary Thomas Bahde
The Union on Trial : The Political Journals of Judge William Barclay Napton, 1829-1883 William Barclay Napton
The War Outside My Window : The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865 Janet Elizabeth Croon
The Western journals of Nehemiah and Henry Sanford, 1839-1846 Nehemiah Sanford
The Autobiography of Daniel Parker, Frontier Universalist Daniel Parker
The diary of a Maritimer, 1816-1901 [electronic resource] : the life and times of Joseph Salter  Joseph Salter
Third Alabama! : The Civil War Memoir of Brigadier General Cullen Andrews Battle, CSA Cullen A. Battle
This Day We Marched Again' : A Union Soldier's Account of War in Arkansas and the Trans-Mississippi Mark K. Christ
This war so horrible : the Civil War diary of Hiram Smith Williams Lewis Nicholas Wynne
To Address You As My Friend : African Americans' Letters to Abraham Lincoln Jonathan W. White
To Battle for God and the Right : The Civil War Letterbooks of Emerson Opdycke Glenn V. Longacre
To My Dearest Wife, Lide : Letters From George B. Gideon Jr. During Commodore Perry’s Expedition to Japan, 1853–1855 George B. Gideon Jr.
Troubadour on the Road to Gold : William B. Lorton's 1849 Journal to California LeRoy Johnson
Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853 Solomon Northup
Uncle Tom's Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Reverend Josiah Henson Josiah Henson
Upcountry South Carolina goes to war: letters of the Anderson, Brockman, and Moore families, 1853-1865 Tom Moore Craig
USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast : Willie Leonard's Journal, 1859-1861 Herbert C. Gilliland
Well Satisfied with My Position : The Civil War Journal of Spencer Bonsall Michael A Flannery
While Father Is Away : The Civil War Letters of William H. Bradbury Jennifer Cain Bohrnstedt
Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight : The Civil War Diary of Brigadier General Harris Reynolds, 1861-1865 Robert Patrick Bender

Print Primary Sources

The Adams-Jefferson Letters: the complete correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams John Adams E322 .A29 1971 View book in catalog
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin E302.6 .F7 A2 2003 View book in catalog
Betsy Mix Cowles : champion of equality Stacey M. Robertson E449 .C865 R63 2014 View book in catalog
Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era : a brief history with documents Woody Holton E269 .N3 H65 2009 View book in catalog
Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life: their words, their thoughts, their feelings Bert James Loewenberg E185.96 .B54 1976 View book in catalog
Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861-1868 Stone, Kate E487 .H74 1972 View book in catalog
The California Gold Rush : a brief history with documents Andrew C. Isenberg F865 .I835 2018 View book in catalog
Celine: Remembering Louisiana, 1850-1871 Celine Fremaux Garcia E605 .G26 1987 View book in catalog
The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell : a Chaplain's Story Joseph Hopkins Twichell E605 .T85 2006 View book in catalog
A Civilian's Recollections of the War Between the States H.S. Fulkerson E487 .F88 1939 View book in catalog
Confederate Chaplain: A War Journal James Sheeran E635 .S5 1960 View book in catalog
A Confederate Nurse : the Diary of Ada W. Bacot, 1860-1863 Ada W. Bacot E625 .B33 1994 View book in catalog
The Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 1861-1866 Emma Holmes F279.C453 H643 1979 View book in catalog
Jefferson vs. Hamilton : confrontations that shaped a nation Noble E. Cunningham E310 .C86 2000 View book in catalog
King of the Wild Frontier : An Autobiography Davy Crockett F436 .C95 A3 2010 View book in catalog
Letters from a Civil War surgeon : the letters of Dr. William Child of the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers Child, William E520 5 5th .C46 2001 View book in catalog
Life, Letters, and Papers of William Dunbar: of Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland, and Natchez, Mississippi : Pioneer Scientist of the Southern United States William Dunbar F341 .D89 1930 View book in catalog
The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 Abraham Lincoln E457.4 .L7726 View book in catalog
A Louisiana Confederate: Diary of Felix Pierre Poché Felix Pierre Poché E605 .P63 1972 View book in catalog
Lucy Breckinridge of Grove Hill: The Journal of a Virginia girl, 1862-1864 Lucy Gilmer Breckinridge F234 .G816 B733 1981 View book in catalog
Memoirs of my life : to my son during the years 1803 and after, which I spent in public service in Louisiana as Commissioner of the French Government for the retrocession to France of that colony and for its transfer to the United States Pierre Clement Lassaut F374 .L2613 1978 View book in catalog
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee Davy Crockett F436 .C9395 1987 View book in catalog
Reluctant Rebel: The Secret Diary of Robert Patrick, 1861-1865 Patrick, Robert E605 .P3 1961 View book in catalog
The Salem Witch Hunt : A Brief History with Documents Richard Godbeer BF1576 .G635 2018 View book in catalog
Selected Letters of Cotton Mather Cotton Mather F67 .M42 1971 View book in catalog
The Seven Years' War in North America : a brief history with documents Timothy J. Shannon E199 .S53 2014 View book in catalog
Twelve Years a Slave: A True Story of Betrayal, Kidnap, and Slavery Solomon Northup E444.N87 2013 View book in catalog
Women's Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870 : a brief history with documents Katherine Kish Sklar HQ1418 .S57 2019 View book in catalog

 

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