APUSH Major Primary Sources Period 3 (1754-1800) Includes paintings, engravings, photographs, political cartoons, speeches, documents with hyperlinks for additional information and video links. Also includes secondary source maps, charts, and historical depictions. Compiled by John Burkowski Jr. Academy for Advanced Academics
Join, or Die Benjamin Franklin 1754
Excerpt from Speech on the Debate on the Repeal of the Stamp Act Lord Mansfield 1766
Excerpt from Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania John Dickinson 1767-1768
The Bloody Massacre in King-Street, March 5, 1770 Paul Revere 1770
Bostonians Paying the Excise Man
Excerpt from Speech to the Virginia Convention ”Give Me Liberty or Give me Death” Patrick Henry 1775
Excerpts from Common Sense Thomas Paine 1776
Declaration of Independence 1776 We hold these Truths to be self–evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers From the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great Britain, is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
Letter to John Adams Abigail Adams March 31, 1776
Excerpt from the Articles of Confederation 1777
Excerpt from Northwest Ordinance 1787
Preamble to the United States Constitution 1787
Excerpt from Federalist 10 James Madison 1787
Excerpt from Federalist 51 James Madison 1788
Excerpt from Brutus I 1787
Excerpt from Brutus II 1787
The Federal Edifice 1788
Bill of Rights 1791
Letter to Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Banneker 1791
The Old Plantation likely John Rose c. 1785-1790
Excerpt from…On the Subject of Manufactures Alexander Hamilton 1791
Farewell Address George Washington 1796
Electoral Map: 1796
Cinque-tetes, or the Paris Monster 1798
Congressional Pugilists Matthew Lyon (D-R) vs Congressional Pugilists Matthew Lyon (D-R) vs. Roger Griswold (Fed) 1798
Excerpts from Alien and Sedition Acts 1798 Naturalization Act Sedition Act Alien Friends Act Alien Enemies Act
Virginia Resolution and Kentucky Resolution James Madison and Thomas Jefferson 1798
Electoral Map: 1800