British imperial attempts to reassert control over its colonies and the colonial reaction to these attempts produced a new American republic, along with struggles over the new nation’s social, political, and economic identity. Topics may include:
Image Source: A detail from A View of Part of the Town of Boston in New-England and Brittish Ships of War Landing Their Troops, 1768, a broadside by Paul Revere and Christian Remick, printed in Boston, 1770. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02873)
3.1: British attempts to assert tighter control over its North American colonies and the colonial resolve to pursue self-government led to a colonial independence movement and the Revolutionary War.
3.2: The American Revolution’s democratic and republican ideals inspired new experiments with different forms of government.
3.3: Migration within North America and competition over resources, boundaries, and trade intensified conflicts among peoples and nations.
Maryland Gazette, May 22, 1755. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC08719.
George III. Proclamation, October 7, 1763. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05214.
Leonard, Ephraim. "To Joseph Hall, 'Captain of a military foot Company in the Town of Taunton,'" August 11, 1757. Manuscript. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01450.199.01.
The American Revolution
The American Revolution
Revere, Paul. The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King-Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Reg. Boston, 1770. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01868.
Unidentified Artist. A Portrait of Phyllis Wheatley. 1773, Engraving on Paper. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC06154.
Dawe, Philip. The Bostonian's Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring & Feathering. London, 1774. Engraving. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04961.01.
Trumball, John. Declaration of Independence. Washington D.C., 1826. Oil on Canvas, U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
Stamp Act, 1765, 5 Geo. 3, c. 1. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00769. Hinshelwood, Archibald. Letter to Joshua Mauger, August 19, 1765. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC03902.061.
US Congress. Instructions to the Commanders of private Ships or Vessels of War, which shall have Commissions or Letters of Marque and Reprisal, authorising them to make Captures of British Vessels and Cargoes, April 3, 1776. s.l., ca. 1777-1778. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00038.02.
Russell, Ezekiel. Bloody Butchery by the British Troops. Salem, MA, 1775. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04810.
Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, No. 1674 (January 4, 1774) - No. 1725 (December 27, 1775) [with gaps]. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01706_00124.
Continental Congress. Declaration of Independence, 1776. Washington DC, 1823. Facsimile engraving by William J. Stone. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00154.02.
George III. Proclamation, October 7, 1763. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05214.
Baillie, James S. Surrender of Cornwallis. New York, 1845. Lithograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02918.02.
Pendleton, Edmund. Letter to James Madison, April 17, 1765. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00099.026.
Godefroy, François. Recueil d'estampes représentant les différents evenémens de la Guerre qui a procuré l'indépendance aux Etats Unis de l'Amérique. Paris, ca. 1784. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC06551.
Locke, John. Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. London: Eliz. Holt, 1690. The Gilder Institute of American History. GLC00320.
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation
Continental Congress. Articles of Confederation. Lancaster, PA, 1777. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04759.
Continental Congress. Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Boston, MA, 1777. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00268.
The Creation and Ratification of the Constitution
The Creation and Ratification of the Constitution
Washington, George. Letter to Henry Knox, February 3, 1787. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02437.09410.
Constitutional Convention. Committee of Detail. US Constitution [printing of first draft], August 6, 1787. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00819.01.
Constitutional Convention. US Constitution. Albany, NY, 1788. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC07866.
Carrington, Edward. Letter to Henry Knox, March 13, 1788. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02437.03821.
Pendleton, Edmund. Letter to James Madison, August 12, 1787. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00099.123.
Régnier, Claude, engraver. Life of George Washington--The Farmer. Lemercier. Paris, ca. 1853. Lithograph based on a painting by Junius Brutus Stearns. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Unidentified artist, engraver. Mercy Warren. s.l., n.d. Engraving based on a painting by John Singleton Copley. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC08878.0726.
Developing an American Identity
Developing an American Identity
Régnier, Claude, engraver. Life of George Washington--The Farmer. Lemercier. Paris, ca. 1853. Lithograph based on a painting by Junius Brutus Stearns. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Hamilton, Alexander. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, on the Subject of Manufactures. New York, 1791. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00891.
Washington, George. Farewell Address. In Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, September 19, 1796. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00185.
Washington, George. Letter to Henry Knox, April 1, 1789. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02437.09410.
Washington, George. First Inaugural Address. Gazette of the United States, May 2, 1789. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC03518.
Warren, Mercy Otis. Letter to Catharine Macaulay, December 29, 1774. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01800.01.
Harris & Ewing. Supreme Court Justices. Washington DC, ca. 1940. Photograph. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02929.01.
Rogers, J., engraver. Moll Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth. New York, 1856. Engraving based on a painting by D. M. Carter. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC08878.0067.
Trumbull, John, painter, Washington Lays Down His Sword. Washington D.C., 1826. Oil on Canvas. Capital Rotunda, Architect of the Capital.
Cusick, David (Tuscarora). Three Iroquois: Atotárho Protected by Black Snakes, Flanked by Deganawida(?) Offering Wampum and Hiawatha(?). ca. 1827. Watercolor and ink over graphite on paper. Collections of the New-York Historical Society.
Immigration to and Migration within America
Immigration to and Migration within America
Sadd, Henry S., engraver. The First Prayer in Congress. New York, John Neale, 1848. Engraving based on a painting by T. H. Matteson. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Iroquois Nation. Six Nations. Receipt for land sale signed with the totems of fourteen Indigenous leaders. [Lancaster, PA], 1769. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC02548.
Sahagún, Bernardino de. Historia general de las coasas de nueva España [General History of the Things of New Spain]: The Florentine Codex. s.l., 1577. Library of Congress.
Martinez, Julian. Buffalo Hunter, ca. 1920-1925, watercolor, ink, and pencil on paperboard, sheet: 11 1/8 x 14 1/4 in. (28.4 x 36.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Corbin-Henderson Collection, Gift of Alice H. Rossin, 1979.144.84
Lazarus, Emma. "The New Colossus." 1883. Manuscript bound in journal. Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society, New York and Newton Centre, Massachusetts.
Declaration of Independence, 1776
Declaration of Independence, 1776
A Spotlight on a Primary Source by
Continental Congress
Declaration of Independence, Charleston, South Carolina, August 2, 1776. (Gilder Lehrman Collection)During the spring of 1776, colonies, localities, and groups of ordinary Americans—including New York mechanics, Pennsylvania militiamen, and South Carolina grand juries—adopted resolutions endorsing independence. These resolutions encouraged the Continental Congress to appoint a five-member committee to draft a formal declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the initial draft of this document, which was then edited by other members of the committee and by Congress as a whole.
The most radical idea advanced by the American revolutionaries was the proposition set forth in the Declaration of Independence 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."
In 1776, Peter Timothy of Charleston printed this copy of the Declaration of Independence and brought the news of independence to South Carolina. In doing so, he risked his life. The son of French Huguenots who arrived in 1731, Timothy inherited the press after the death of his father. In 1738, he became publisher of the Gazette of South Carolina.
Peter Timothy became an ardent supporter of the patriot cause. Fearing the British would confiscate his press, Timothy temporarily suspended publication from 1775 to 1777. Yet, when news of the Declaration reached Charleston in early August of 1776, he quickly rebuilt his press to spread the news. He paid a high price for his patriotism. He was arrested in 1780 on charges of treason and spent time on a British prisoner-of-war ship before being sent to a prison in St. Augustine, Florida. His family was exiled by the British to Philadelphia. After the war, Peter was sailing to Antigua when he was lost at sea. His wife inherited the printing business.
This broadside is not only the earliest printing of the Declaration in Charleston; it is also the only known existing copy of the document printed by Peter Timothy.
Excerpt
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.
