Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

90,945 items

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Henry Knox’s Order of March to Trenton, 1776

Geography, Government and Civics, World History

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On Christmas Day in 1776 the American Revolution was on the verge of collapsing. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American forces had been driven from New York City to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and reduced...

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George Washington on the abolition of slavery, 1786

Economics, Government and Civics

Of the nine presidents who were slaveholders, only George Washington freed all his own slaves upon his death. Before the Revolution, Washington, like most White Americans, took slavery for granted. At the time of the Revolution, one...

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Two versions of the Preamble to the Constitution, 1787

Government and Civics

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On May 25, 1787, the fifty-five delegates to the Constitutional Convention began meeting in a room, no bigger than a large schoolroom, in Philadelphia’s State House. They posted sentries at the doors and windows to keep their "secrets...

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George Washington’s reluctance to become president, 1789

Government and Civics

8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

From 1787 to 1789, as the Constitution was submitted for ratification by the states, most Americans assumed that George Washington would be the first president. In this April 1789 letter to General Henry Knox, his friend from the...

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The duel: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 1804

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Alexander Hamilton, former secretary of the treasury, and Aaron Burr, sitting vice president of the United States, had feuded publicly for years. Their long-standing enmity came to a head in the spring of 1804. After an exchange of...

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A map of the Louisiana Territory, 1806

Geography, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

6, 7, 8

The 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France during Thomas Jefferson’s first term as president more than doubled the size of the United States. Jefferson’s next step was to learn all about this new territory of the United States. He chose...

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Jefferson on British aggression, 1815

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In this letter in defense of American nationalism, Thomas Jefferson denounced the blustering of certain members of the British House of Lords who blamed the War of 1812 on US aggression. Jefferson’s letter followed a report from James...

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John Quincy Adams and the Amistad case, 1841

Government and Civics

On July 1, 1839, fifty-three Africans, recently kidnapped into slavery in Sierra Leone and sold at a Havana slave market, revolted on board the schooner Amistad . They killed the captain and other crew and ordered the two Spaniards...

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John Brown’s final speech, 1859

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On Sunday evening, October 16, 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a party of twenty-one men into the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with the intention of seizing the federal arsenal there. Encountering no resistance, Brown’s...

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The Gettysburg Address, 1863

Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

On November 19, 1863, four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, a ceremony was held at the site in Pennsylvania to dedicate a cemetery for the Union dead. The battle had been a Union victory, but at great cost—about 23,000 Union...

Site Search

90,945 items

Henry Knox’s Order of March to Trenton, 1776

George Washington on the abolition of slavery, 1786

Two versions of the Preamble to the Constitution, 1787

George Washington’s reluctance to become president, 1789

The duel: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 1804

A map of the Louisiana Territory, 1806

Jefferson on British aggression, 1815

John Quincy Adams and the Amistad case, 1841

John Brown’s final speech, 1859

The Gettysburg Address, 1863

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