Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

90,976 items

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Harriet Beecher Stowe sends Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1852

Literature

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 inspired her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin . The novel, first serialized in newspapers and then published in 1852 as a two-volume work, enjoyed tremendous success in...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

George Washington from Valley Forge on the urgent need for men and supplies, 1777

George Washington’s words in this letter represent a stirring plea for help at the darkest moment of the American Revolution. As few other documents do, this letter illustrates Valley Forge as an icon of American perseverance and...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Mary Todd Lincoln on life after the White House, 1870

Economics

Mary Todd Lincoln’s years in the White House were a combination of triumph and tragedy. Never fully accepted by the public and vilified by the press for overspending, her tenure as First Lady was unstable at best. After the death of...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Lincoln on the execution of a slave trader, 1862

This stunning document, a refusal of clemency for a convicted slave trader, stands out among the papers of Abraham Lincoln, a man renowned for his mercy and willingness to pardon. In November 1861, Nathaniel Gordon was convicted of...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

John Winthrop describes life in Boston, 1634

Between 1629 and 1640, 20,000 Puritans left England for America to escape religious persecution. They hoped to establish a church free from worldly corruption founded on voluntary agreement among congregants. This covenant theory...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Alexander Hamilton’s "gloomy" view of the American Revolution, 1780

Government and Civics

By October 1780, in the midst of the American Revolution, Alexander Hamilton was discouraged by the apparent apathy of the American people and the ineffectuality of their elected representatives, as well as by the recent discovery of...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Thomas Jefferson's opposition to the Federalists, 1810

Government and Civics

The Federalist Party evolved from the core of Federalists, like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, who wrote and defended the US Constitution in 1787–1788. The political party advocated a strong central government and supported...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

General Sherman on the "March to the Sea," 1865

In the fall of 1864, Gen. James H. Wilson took command of Gen. William T. Sherman’s cavalry. Sherman and Wilson met and discussed various operations in Sherman’s “March to the Sea” from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. Wilson’s...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Lucy Knox on the home front during the Revolutionary War, 1777

Like many others before and after her, Lucy Knox performed a continuous juggling act as a busy wife and mother. Born into an aristocratic family, she had the advantage of a good education. At the age of seventeen she was disowned by...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Robert E. Lee’s message to his troops before the Battle of Spotsylvania, 1864

Just after the devastating fighting in Virginia at the Battle of the Wilderness and prior to the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864, Confederate General Robert E. Lee drafted this inspirational message to his troops on the back of a...