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All Texts in Chronological Order


All historical and literary texts, maps, works of art, and items of material culture,
in chronological order by publication date or, in some cases, by the date of a depicted or narrated event.

Date
Title
Theme/
Source

Online Source
1759 Benjamin West, The Death of General Wolfe (Battle of Quebec, 1759), oil on canvas, created 1770 CRISIS 1 National Gallery of Canada
1759
-1763
COMPILATION: Colonists respond to British victory in the French and Indian War: selections including a news account, a poem, a painting, sermons, and letters of Benjamin Franklin CRISIS 1 National Humanities Center
1764 COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the Sugar & Currency Acts: selections including pamphlets, merchants' appeals, legislative petitions, news accounts of public protests, and a Patriot's history CRISIS 2 National Humanities Center
1764 Thomas Pownall, The Administration of the Colonies: selections on British imperial and commercial policy toward the colonies CRISIS 2 National Humanities Center
1765 Parliamentary debate on the Stamp Act, selections CRISIS 3 National Humanities Center
1765 "A Poetical Dream concerning Stamped Papers," poem (unidentified author) CRISIS 3 National Humanities Center
1765
-1766
COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the Stamp Act: selections including broadsides, pamphlets, letters, news accounts of public protests, editorials, poetry, resolutions, a Loyalist memoir, a Patriot's history, and the Declaration of Rights and Grievances by the Stamp Act Congress CRISIS 3 National Humanities Center
1766 COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the repeal of the Stamp Act: selections including news accounts, sermons, poetry, letters, a Patriot's history, and Paul Revere's engraving A View of the Obelisk CRISIS 3 National Humanities Center
1766
-1767
COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the Quartering Act and the dissolution of the New York assembly: selections including newspaper essays, a legislative petition, and a letter of Benjamin Franklin CRISIS 4 National Humanities Center
1767 John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, Letters 1 & 2 CRISIS 4 National Humanities Center
1767
-1770
COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the Townshend Acts and the arrival of British troops in Boston: selections including nonimportation agreements, newspaper accounts and essays, poetry, letters, an engraving, a Patriot's history, and the Massachusetts Circular Letter CRISIS 4 National Humanities Center
1768 Depictions by Paul Revere & Christian Remick of the arrival of British troops in Boston (created 1768-1770) CRISIS 4 National Humanities Center; Massachusetts Historical Society
1770 COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the violent confrontations with British troops and officials in early 1770: selections including newspaper accounts and essays, poetry, John Adams's diary and autobiography, a Patriot's history, and Paul Revere's engraving The Bloody Massacre CRISIS 5 National Humanities Center
1770
-1771
Benjamin Franklin & Rev. Samuel Cooper, letters on the easing of British-American tensions, selections CRISIS 5 National Humanities Center
1772 Boston Committee of Correspondence (Samuel Adams, et al.), the "Boston Pamphlet," selections CRISIS 6 National Humanities Center
1772 Rev. John Allen, An Oration upon the Beauties of Liberty, sermon on the Gaspée incident, excerpts CRISIS 6 National Humanities Center
1773 Benjamin Franklin, Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One, essay CRISIS 9 National Humanities Center
1773
-1774
COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the Tea Act & the Boston Tea Party: selections including news accounts, letters, citizen resolutions, a newspaper debate, a sermon, a cartoon, poetry and song, and a Patriot's history CRISIS 6 National Humanities Center
1773
-1783
Calls for the abolition of slavery as inconsistent with the ideals in the Declaration of Independence: selections including a slave petition, a sermon, and a judge's remarks to a jury REBELLION 6 National Humanities Center
1774 David Ramsay, A Sermon on Tea, essay, excerpts CRISIS 6 National Humanities Center
1774 COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the Coercive Acts & the First Continental Congress: selections including newspaper accounts, letters, sermons, a satire, a Patriot-Loyalist pamphlet war, a Loyalist-exLoyalist pamphlet war, a Loyalist's memoir, and a Patriot's history CRISIS 6 National Humanities Center
1774 First Continental Congress –Petition to King George III
–Bill of Rights; letters to the Americans & to the people of Great Britain
CRISIS 7 National Humanities Center
1774 Francis Hopkinson, A Pretty Story Written in the Year of Our Lord 2774, allegory, excerpts CRISIS 9 National Humanities Center
1774
-1775
Anti-Loyalist violence: incidents compiled by Peter Oliver in Origin and Progress of the American Revolution, 1781 REBELLION 2 National Humanities Center
1774
-1777
Nicholas Cresswell (English traveller in America), travel journal, selections on the treatment of Loyalists in Virginia REBELLION 3 National Humanities Center
1775 Janet Schaw (Scottish traveller in America), travel letters, selections on the treatment of Loyalists in North Carolina REBELLION 3 National Humanities Center
1775 Edmund Burke, speech to Parliament on reconciliation with America, excerpts WAR 1 National Humanities Center
1775 Virginia Committee of Correspondence, announcement of the Battle of Lexington & Concord (19 April 1775), pamphlet CRISIS 8 National Humanities Center
1775 Second Continental Congress
–Olive Branch Petition
–Declaration . . . Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms
CRISIS 8 National Humanities Center
1775 COMPILATION: Colonists respond to the outbreak of war: selections including newspaper accounts, a newspaper debate, letters, sermons, Loyalist appeals, poetry and song, and a Patriot's history CRISIS 8 National Humanities Center
1775 Sermons on the outbreak of war and the justifiability of rebellion: selections from six sermons, May-July 1775 CRISIS 8 National Humanities Center
1775 Rev. Myles Cooper (Loyalist), The Patriots of North America: A Sketch, poem, excerpts REBELLION 1 National Humanities Center
1775 Reports to the South Carolina Council of Safety from William Henry Drayton & Rev. William Tennent, selections on the recruitment of backcountry settlers to the Patriot cause REBELLION 4 National Humanities Center
1775
-1776
Benjamin Franklin, letters to friends in America & England on the prospects of reconciliation and the beginning of war, selections WAR 1 National Humanities Center
1775
-1776
Loyalists at the outbreak of war: selections from Loyalist, Patriot, and British letters and commentary REBELLION 1 National Humanities Center
1775
-1776
Anti-Loyalist broadsides & blank forms for affirming allegiance to the United States REBELLION 2 National Humanities Center
1775
-1776
Diary of Matthew Patten, New Hampshire, selections focusing on the Battle of Lexington and Concord (19 April 1775) and aftermath CRISIS 8 National Humanities Center
1775
-1778
George Washington, correspondence & general orders as Commander in Chief, selections WAR 3 National Humanities Center
1775
-1778
Military broadsides of the Revolution (9) WAR 3 National Humanities Center
1775
-1779
Appeals of religious pacifists for tolerance of their beliefs and understanding of their refusal to join the war effort: selections from documents of Quakers, Moravians, Mennonites, Schwenkfelders, German Baptists (Dunkers), and Sandemanians REBELLION 5 National Humanities Center
1776 Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Pt. III-IV, excerpts REBELLION 7 National Humanities Center
1776 Commentary from American newspapers in praise of Thomas Paine's Common Sense REBELLION 7 National Humanities Center
1776 Rev. Charles Inglis, The Deceiver Unmasked; Or, Loyalty and Interest United: In Answer to a Pamphlet Entitled Common Sense, excerpts REBELLION 7 National Humanities Center
1776 Hannah Griffitts, "Upon Reading a Book Entitled Common Sense," poem REBELLION 7 National Humanities Center
1776 The slave-trade clause in Thomas Jefferson's draft for the Declaration of Independence (omitted from final draft) REBELLION 6 National Humanities Center
1776 Second Continental Congress, The Declaration of Independence (annotated) REBELLION 8 National Humanities Center
1776 Delegates to the Second Continental Congress, letters on the Declaration of Independence, July 1776 REBELLION 8 National Humanities Center
1776 Newspaper accounts of official celebrations of the Declaration of Independence REBELLION 8 National Humanities Center
1776 Thomas Hutchinson, Strictures upon the Declaration of the Congress at Philadelphia, excerpts REBELLION 8 National Humanities Center
1776 Peter Oliver, "An Address to the Soldiers of Massachusetts Bay Who Are Now in Arms Against the Laws of Their Country," The Massachusetts Gazette & Boston Weekly News-Letter, 11 January 1776, excerpts WAR 2 National Humanities Center
1776 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776 WAR 2 National Humanities Center
1776
-1777
Margaret Hill Morris, Quaker widow in New Jersey, journal selections on the presence of British and Continental forces in Burlington [journal published 1920] WAR 7 National Humanities Center
1776
-1778
Continental Congress, three documents on pacifying hostile Indians on the frontier, selections WAR 4 Library of Congress
1776
-1781
Continental Congress, Gen. Washington, and others, three documents on recruiting enslaved blacks into the Continental Army, selections WAR 4 Library of Congress
1776
-1783
News broadsides (7) of the Revolutionary War WAR 5 National Humanities Center
1777 Petition of enslaved black men to the Massachusetts legislature to end slavery REBELLION 6 History Matters (George Mason Univ. & CUNY)
1778 Benjamin Franklin and the American commissioners (negotiators) in France, three letters on the successful conclusion of an alliance with France, selections WAR 4 National Humanities Center
1778 British satirical rebuses (2) on the U.S. alliance with France WAR 8 National Humanities Center
1779 Molly Gutridge, Marblehead, Massachusetts, "A New Touch of the Times," poem on the hardships of civilian life during the war WAR 7 National Humanities Center
1779
-1785
Portraits of George Washington as Commander in Chief, by Charles Willson Peale (1779), John Trumbull (1780), and Robert Edge Pine (1785) WAR 3 National Humanities Center
1780 Gen. George Washington, letter to Gov. Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania seeking aid for the Continental Army, 28 May 1780 WAR 4 Library of Congress
1780 Gen. George Washington, official statement to the Continental Army on the treason of Benedict Arnold, 26 Sept. 1780 WAR 4 Library of Congress
1780 Broadside depicting a parade condemning the treason of Benedict Arnold, with explanatory text and a poem, titled A Representation of the Figures exhibited and paraded through the Streets of Philadelphia, on Saturday, the 30th of September, 1780, Philadelphia WAR 5 National Humanities Center
1780 Esther De Berdt Reed, wife of Gov. Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania, The Sentiments of an American Woman, broadside on the Philadelphia women's fundraising campaign to benefit the Continental Army WAR 7 National Humanities Center
1780 Eliza Yonge Wilkinson, planter's daughter in South Carolina during the 1780 siege & occupation of Charleston; letters written 1782, selections WAR 7 National Humanities Center
1780
& 1781
Governors' appeals to urge citizen rededication to the war effort: proclamations by Gov. Joseph Reed (Pennsylvania, 1780) and Gov. John Trumbull (Connecticut, 1781), selections WAR 9 Library of Congress
1780
-1787
Founders on the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation: correspondence selections CONSTITUTION 1 National Humanities Center
1780
-1791
Founding documents of societies to promote national identity and progress in the new nation, selections INDEPENDENCE 3 National Humanities Center
1780
-early
1790s
Portraits of the Founders (11); portraits of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin; by portraitists Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull, Edward Savage, Robert Edge Pine, and Joseph-Siffrid Duplessis CONSTITUTION 7 National Humanities Center
1781 Anna Rawle, Loyalist's daughter in Philadelphia, journal selections on mob attacks on Loyalists after Cornwallis's surrender [published 1892] WAR 7 National Humanities Center
1781 Philip Freneau, The British Prison Ship, poem, Cantos II-IV WAR 6 National Humanities Center
1781 Peter Oliver (Loyalist), Origin & Progress of the American Rebellion, selections on:
–the Stamp Act, 1765
–the Townshend Acts, 1767
–the Coercive Acts & the First Continental Congress, 1774
–mob attacks on Loyalists in New England, 1774-1775


CRISIS 3
CRISIS 4
CRISIS 7
REBELLION 2
National Humanities Center
1781
-1784
Benjamin Franklin, letters on the peace treaty negotiations with Britain, selections WAR 9 National Humanities Center
1782 Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur (writing as J. Hector St. John), "What Is an American?" Letter III of Letters from an American Farmer, written late 1760s-early 1770s, publ. 1782, selections INDEPENDENCE 6 National Humanities Center
1782 British political cartoons (4) on Britain's defeat in the Revolutionary War WAR 8 National Humanities Center
1782 Epitaph, satirical "epitaph" for King George III, published by Francis Bailey, printer, Philadelphia WAR 9 National Humanities Center
1782 Benjamin Franklin, Information to Those Who Would Emigrate to America, essay, excerpts INDEPENDENCE 8 National Humanities Center
1782 Abbé Claude Robin, New Travels through North America (1781), excerpts INDEPENDENCE 7 National Humanities Center
1782
-1786
Loyalist writings on the aftermath of the Revolution: selections from letters, narratives, petitions, and poetry WAR 8 National Humanities Center
1783 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, #13, essay, 19 April 1783 INDEPENDENCE 1 National Humanities Center
1783 Gen. George Washington, Circular Letter of Farewell Addressed to the Governors of All the States on Disbanding the Army, 8 June 1783, excerpts INDEPENDENCE 1 National Humanities Center
1783
& 1787
Noah Webster, essays (3) on fostering an American identity, selections INDEPENDENCE 3 National Humanities Center
1783 Map (zoomable): The United States of America with the British Possessions of Canada . . . divided with the French . . . , according to the preliminary articles of peace signed at Versailles [France] the 20th of January, 1783, London, printed for Robert Sayer and John Bennett (firm) WAR 9 Library of Congress
1784 Map (zoomable): Bowles's New Pocket Map of the United States of America . . . with the French and Spanish territories . . . as settled by the preliminary articles of peace signed at Versailles [France] the 20th of January, 1783, London, by Carington Bowles WAR 9 Library of Congress
1784 Richard Price, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, excerpts INDEPENDENCE 2 National Humanities Center
1784 Alexander Hamilton and Isaac Ledyard (writing as "Phocion" and "Mentor"), pamphlet war on the postwar treatment of Loyalists, selections INDEPENDENCE 4 National Humanities Center
1784
-1790
Newsboys' new year's greetings to their customers [broadsides distributed annually by newspapers], five poems INDEPENDENCE 1 National Humanities Center
1785 Map (zoomable): The United States of North America, with the British & Spanish Territories according to the Treaty of 1784, London, engraving by William Faden WAR 9 Library of Congress
1785 The Golden Age: Or, Future Glory of North America, allegory, excerpts (author unknown) INDEPENDENCE 5 National Humanities Center
1787 Royall Tyler, The Contrast: A Comedy . . . Written by a Citizen of the United States, play INDEPENDENCE 6 National Humanities Center
1787 James Madison, "Vices of the Political System of the United States," memorandum for George Washington, May 1787 CONSTITUTION 1 National Humanities Center
1787 On the Constitutional Convention: selections from letters, notes, and statements of delegates and non-delegates, May-November 1787 CONSTITUTION 2 National Humanities Center
1787 The United States Constitution, adopted by the Constitutional Convention 17 Sept. 1787 CONSTITUTION 2 National Archives
1787
& 1788
Francis Hopkinson, "The New Roof," allegory and poem (Federalist) CONSTITUTION 3 National Humanities Center
1787
-1788
Anti-Federalist letters (7) to newspapers on the proposed Constitution, selections CONSTITUTION 4 National Humanities Center
1787
-1788
Philadelphiensis [Benjamin Workman], Anti-Federalist essays in opposition to the proposed Constitution, published in the Independent Gazetteer and the Freeman's Journal, Philadelphia, selections CONSTITUTION 4 National Humanities Center
1787
-1789
On adding a bill of rights to the Constitution: selections from correspondence, addresses, and newspaper pieces CONSTITUTION 5 National Humanities Center
1788 Federal Committee of Albany, New York, The 35 Anti-Federal Objections Refuted, pamphlet, excerpts; with excerpts from broadsides of the Albany Anti-Federal Committee, April 1788 CONSTITUTION 3 National Humanities Center
1788
-1795
On establishing the federal government under the new Constitution: selections from correspondence and newspaper pieces CONSTITUTION 6 National Humanities Center
1789 Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen), adopted by the National Assembly of France, 26 August 1789 CONSTITUTION 5 Avalon Project, Yale Law School
1789 The Bill of Rights, submitted by Congress to the states for ratification, 25 Sept. 1789 CONSTITUTION 5 National Archives
1789 On the first inauguration of George Washington, 30 April 1789, in David Ramsay, The History of the American Revolution, 1789 CONSTITUTION 6 National Humanities Center
1789 David Ramsay (Patriot), The History of the American Revolution, selections on the colonists' response to:
–British victory in the French and Indian War, 1763
–the Sugar Act, 1764
–the Stamp Act, 1765, and the repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766
–the Townshend Acts, 1767
–the Boston Massacre, 1770
–the Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party, 1773
–the Coercive Acts and the First Continental Congress, 1774
–the outbreak of war, 1775
–selections on the "advantages and disadvantages" of the Revolution, and "its influence on the minds and morals of the citizens"
–conclusion: on the first inauguration of George Washington, 1789


CRISIS 1
CRISIS 2
CRISIS 3
CRISIS 4
CRISIS 5
CRISIS 6
CRISIS 7
CRISIS 8
INDEPENDENCE 2

CONSTITUTION 6
National Humanities Center
1790 Benjamin Rush, Information to Europeans Who Are Disposed to Migrate to the United States of America, essay, excerpts INDEPENDENCE 8 National Humanities Center
1790 On the death of Benjamin Franklin: selections from reports and tributes CONSTITUTION 7 National Humanities Center
1791 Mercy Otis Warren, "A Survey of the Situation of America on the Conclusion of the War with Britain," Ch. 30 of History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, chapter completed by 1791, history published 1805, excerpts INDEPENDENCE 2 National Humanities Center
1791 Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville, New Travels in the United States of America (1788), excerpts INDEPENDENCE 7 National Humanities Center
1798 "Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, A Black Preacher," The Methodist Magazine 21 (March & April 1798), selections on King's experience as a fugitive slave in the British army WAR 6 History Matters
ca. 1802
-1807
John Adams, autobiography (manuscript), selections on Thomas Paine & Common Sense (1776) REBELLION 7 National Humanities Center
1810 Boyrereau Brinch & Benjamin F. Prentiss, The Blind African Slave, Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace, excerpts on Brinch's service in the Connecticut militia WAR 6 National Humanities Center
1818 John Adams, letter to Hezekiah Niles, excerpts on the American Revolution CRISIS 9 National Humanities Center
1824 A Narrative of the Life of Mary Jemison, compiled by James E. Seaver, excerpts on her experiences as a white Seneca adoptee during Sullivan's campaign against the Indians in New York, 1779-1780 WAR 7 National Humanities Center
1830 Nathaniel Hawthorne, "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," short story depicting anti-British mob violence in Boston in 1730 REBELLION 2 National Humanities Center
1830s Narratives of Revolutionary War veterans in pension applications, selections from sixteen narratives WAR 6 National Humanities Center