APUSH Major Primary Sources Period 5 (1844-1877) 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
Annexation John L. O’Sullivan 1845
American Progress John Gast 1872
Map of Overland Trails
Electoral Map: 1844
Excerpt from A Letter to Hon Excerpt from A Letter to Hon. Henry Clay Reverend William Ellery Channing 1837
Excerpt from Congressional Globe Senator George McDuffie (D-SC) 1844
Excerpt from Speech in the U.S. Senate Thomas Hart Benton (D-MO) 1844
Legislature of Massachusetts Charles Sumner 1847
Editorial New York Sun 1847
Excerpt from Speech on the Mexican-American War Henry Clay 1847
Excerpt from Spot Resolutions in the House of Representatives Abraham Lincoln 1848
Electoral Map: 1848
Map of Compromise of 1850
“Caution!! Colored People of Boston” 1851
Map of Underground Railroad
Electoral Map: 1852
Excerpt from Speech on Kansas-Nebraska Act Stephen Douglas (D-IL) 1854
Map of Kansas-Nebraska Act
Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Free Soiler 1856
Southern Chivalry – Argument versus Clubs John L. Magee 1856
Electoral Map: 1856
Excerpt from Majority Decision – Scott v Excerpt from Majority Decision – Scott v. Sandford Chief Justice Roger Taney 1857
House Divided Speech Abraham Lincoln 1858
Freeport Doctrine Stephen Douglas 1858
Electoral Map: 1860
The Union is Dissolved! 1861
Excerpt from Corner Stone Speech Alexander Stephens 1861 “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. [Applause.] This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us.”
Scott’s Great Snake J.B. Elliot 1861
Excerpt from Emancipation Proclamation Abraham Lincoln 1863
Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln 1863 "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Africanus I. J.F. Feeks 1864
Compromise With the South Thomas Nast 1864
Electoral Map: 1864
Excerpt from Second Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln 1865
The Freedman’s Bureau! December 31, 1865
Emancipation Thomas Nast 1865
Pardon: “Shall I Trust These Men. ”; Franchise: “And Not This Man Pardon: “Shall I Trust These Men?”; Franchise: “And Not This Man?” Thomas Nast 1865
Excerpts of Black Codes 1865
Awkward Collision on the Grand Trunk Columbia R.R. November, 1866
Speech in Congress Thaddeus Stevens (R-MA) 1866
Map of Southern Military Districts
The First Vote 1867
Electoral Map: 1868
Electoral Map: 1872
The Freedmen’s Bureau Alfred Waud 1868
This Is a White Man’s Government Thomas Nast 1868
The Man with the (Carpet) Bags Thomas Nast 1872
“The Union as it Was / The Lost Cause, Worse Than Slavery” Thomas Nast 1874
Electoral Map: 1876
Compromise - Indeed! Thomas Nast 1877
The ”Strong” Government, 1869-1877 The “Weak” Government, 1877-1881 James Wales
Map of the Southern Resources
Excerpt from The New South Henry Grady 1886
The Graveyard Orator Puck 1887