This list
is a small selection of the books on American history available in the
Special Collections. The list is arranged chronologically roughly following
the time periods used in the Library's catalog. Each entry gives author,
title, publication data and call mark. You may scroll down to see the
entire list, or click on any time period to jump to that section of the
list. For a similar list arranged by subject, click here.
Period
of European discovery and initial exploration
(includes
King William's War, 1689-1697; Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713; King George's
War, 1744-1748; and French and Indian Wars, 1755-1773)
European discovery and exploration
Casas,
Bartholomé de las, 1474-1566.
An account of the first voyages and discoveries made by the Spaniards
in America, containing the most exact relation hitherto publish'd of their
unparallel'd cruelties on the Indians, in the destruction of above forty
millions of people ; with the propositions offer'd to the King of Spain
to prevent the further ruin of the West-Indies. London : printed by
J. Darby for D. Brown, 1699.
- call
number: F 1411 C42513
This is
a translation of portions of Las Casas' work "Brevísima relación
de la destruycion de las Indias..." written in 1542. In was an influential
and controversial work in which Las Casas decried the enslavement of the
natives by the Spanish landowners as contrary to Christian teaching. The
work was frequently printed and widely translated (including Dutch 1578,
French 1630, English 1650 and Italian 1643).
In 1944 historian Rómulo Carbia linked Las Casas' work to the "black
legend", that body of work which portrays the Spanish as uniquely
cruel, bigoted and ignorant. Carbia felt that Las Casas had exaggerated
the brutality of the Spanish in order to advance his own agenda, and in
so doing had provided Spain's enemies with an excellent source of propaganda.
Whatever the truth, Las Casas spent the last forty years of his life trying
to improve the conditions of the native inhabitants in the lands under
Spanish control, both through advocating changes in the law and through
exhortation and example.
Le Moyne
de Morgues, Jacques, d. 1588.
Brevis narratio eorvm qvae in Florida Americae provicia Gallis
acciderunt, secunda in illam nauigatione, duce Renato de Laudoniere classis
pr‘fecto: anno MDLXIIII. Qvae est secvnda pars Americae ... ; nunc
primùm Gallico sermone à Theodoro de Brÿ Leodiense
in lucem edita; Latio verò donata a C.C.A. Francoforti ad Moenum
: typis Ioanis Wecheli, sumtibus vero T. de Brÿ, venales reperiutur
in officina S. Feirabedii, 1591 [i.e., 1609]
- call
number: F83A +9L54
Colonial period
Ogilby,
John, 1600-1676.
America : being the latest, and most accurate description of the
New world : containing ... the conquest of the vast empires of Mexico
and Peru, and other large provinces and territories, with the several
European plantations in those parts : also, their cities, fortresses,
towns, temples, mountains, and rivers : their habits, customs, manners,
and religions ... London : printed by the author ... , 1671.
- call
number: E 143 O33 1671b X-Folio
Burke,
Edmund, 1729-1797.
An account of the European settlements in America : in six parts.
I. A short history of the discovery of that part of the world. II. The
manners and customs of the original inhabitants. III. Of the Spanish settlements.
IV. Of the Portuguese. V. Of the French, Dutch, and Danish. VI. Of the
English. London : printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1757.
- call
number: E 143 B96 1757 v.1-2
Rogers,
Robert, 1731-1795
A concise account of North America: containing a description of
the several British colonies on that continent, including the islands
of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, &c. Also of the interior, or westerly
parts of the country, upon the rivers St. Laurence, the Mississipi, Christino,
and the Great lakes. To which is subjoined, an account of the several
nations and tribes of Indians residing in those parts, as to their customs,
manners, government, numbers, &c. London : printed for the author,
and sold by J. Millan, 1765.
- call
number: F83A 9R63
Seaver,
James E.
Deh-he-wa-mis, or, The narrative of the life of Mary Jemison :
otherwise called The white woman, who was taken captive by the Indians
in MDCCLV; and who continued with them seventy-eight years ; containing
an account of the murder of her father and his family; her marriages and
sufferings; Indian barbarities, customs and traditions, carefully taken
from her own words. ... Devon : published by S. Thorne ; London :
W. Tegg, 1847.
- call
number: F80V Se19
Seaver wrote
this account based on an interview with Mary Jemison held in Nov. 1823,
several years before her death. Her parents were Scots-Irish immigrants
who settled on the frontier in central Pennsylvania. In 1758, when she
was about 16, her family was killed and she was captured by a group of
Shawnee and French and taken to the Ohio River. There she was adopted
by a Seneca family and became legally and culturally one of them. She
remained with the Seneca until her death in 1833. Her descendants, many
still bearing the name Jemison, may be found among the Senecas and among
other Iroquois tribes. She is the only women signatory to an Iroquois
treaty and was personally granted the Gardeau Reservation in New York.
This narrative of her life provides a first-hand account of the Seneca
and other Iroquois people during a significant period in their history.
Revolutionary War and Confederation
An argument
in defence of the exclusive right claimed by the colonies to tax themselves
: with a review of the laws of England, relative to representation and
taxation ; to which is added ... the manner in which the rights of the
subjects within the realm were communicated to those that went to America,
with the exercise of those rights from their first settlement to the present
time. London : printed for the Author, and sold by Brotherton and
Sewell, [et al.], 1774.
- call
number: F83A 9Ar38
Bernard,
Francis, Sir, 1712-1779.
Select letters on the trade and government of America : and the
principles of law and polity, applied to the American colonies, written
... in the years 1763, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 ... ; to which are added The
petition of the assembly of Massachuset's Bay against the governor, his
answer thereto, and the order of the king in Council thereon. London
: printed for T. Payne, 1774.
- call
number: F83A 9B456
Boston
(Mass.)
An appeal to the world; or, A vindication of the town of Boston, from
many false and malicious aspersions contained in certain letters and memorials,
written by Governor Bernard, General Gage, Commodore Hood, the commissioners
of the American Board of Customs, and others, and by them respectively
transmitted to the British ministry. Published by order of the town. Boston
: printed by Edes and Gill ; and London : reprinted for J. Almon, 1770.
- call
number: F83A 9B65
Boston
evening post.
Jan. 29, 1770-Nov. 28, 1774 only.
- call
number: Newspaper
Hamilton,
Alexander, 1757-1804.
The Farmer refuted, or, A more impartial and comprehensive view
of the dispute between Great-Britain and the colonies, intended as a further
vindication of the Congress, in answer to a letter from A.W. Farmer ...
New York : Printed by James Rivington, 1775.
- call
number: F83A 9H18
Macaulay,
Catharine, 1731-1791.
An address to the people of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on
the present important crisis of affairs. London : Printed by R. Cruttwell
; in Bath, for E. and C. Dilly, 1775.
- call
number: F83A 9G76
Raynal,
abbé, 1713-1796.
Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et
du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes. Geneve : J.
L. Pellet, 1780.
- call
number: D 22 R43 1780 v.1,4,7 &10 only
This work,
first published in six volumes in 1770, was both anti-royalist and anti-clerical
and became increasingly radical in subsequent editions. It was very popular,
appearing in 30 editions in 17 years. Although Raynal's name appears as
the author, scholars believe that Diderot actually wrote many passages.
In 1774 the Histoire was placed on the Catholic Church's Index
librorum prohibitorum (Index of forbidden books) and ordered burned
in 1781. The first English translation, Philosophical and political
history of the settlements and trade of the Europeans in the East and
West Indies, appeared in 1776.
Serle,
Ambrose, 1742-1812.
Americans against liberty, or, An essay on the nature and principles
of true freedom, shewing that the designs and conduct of the Americans
tend only to tyranny and slavery. London : sold by J. Mathews, 1775.
- call
number: F83A 9Se6
ca. 1790-1861
Bartlett,
Elisha, 1804-1855.
A vindication of the character and condition of the females employed
in the Lowell mills, against the charges contained in the Boston times,
and the Boston quarterly review. Lowell : L. Huntress, printer, 1841.
- call
number: F83A 9B3
The mill
workers in Lowell Massachusetts were a subject of considerable interest
in the second quarter of the 19th century.
Cherokee
advocate.
Sept. 26, 1844-Sept. 24, 1846 only.
- call
number: Newspaper
Written
in either English or Cherokee, the Cherokee advocate was published
in Tahlequah Oklahoma from 1844 to 1906 with the endorsement of the Cherokee
National Council. Willard Walker in the Handbook of North American
Indians writes that "native literacy is something of a rarity
among American Indians"; even rarer are examples of languages, such
as Cherokee, which are written without the use of the Latin alphabet.
Many of Mount Holyoke's 19th-century graduates became Christian missionaries;
some went to other countries, some worked with Native American groups
in the United States. The issues of the Cherokee advocate that
we own were given to us by one of these missionaries.
Hartford
Convention (1814-1815 : Hartford, Conn.)
The proceedings of a convention of delegates, from the states of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; the counties of Cheshire
and Grafton, in the state of New Hampshire; and the county of Windham,
in the state of Vermont : convened at Hartford, in the state of Connecticut,
December 15th, 1814. Hartford : printed by Charles Hosmer, 1815.
- call
number: F83A 9H253
Kemble,
Fanny, 1809-1893.
Journal of a residence on a Georgian plantation in 1838-1839. New
York : Harper & Brothers, 1863.
- call
number: F83A 9K31j
Martineau,
Harriet, 1802-1876.
Society in America. New York : Saunders and Otley, 1837.
- call
number: F83A 9M338 v.1-2
Martineau,
an Englishwoman, was a journalist with the London Daily news and
gained fame for her work on economics Illustrations of political economy.
She held radical views on economics, politics, feminism, and society in
general. Society in America is an analytic look at Jacksonian America
written following a two-year journey through the country from Sept. 1834
to July 1836.
Stephens,
John Lloyd, 1805-1852.
Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. London
: John Murray, 1841.
- call
number: F 1432 S83 1841 v.1-2
Stephens'
work was the first to describe the Mayan ruins in the Yucatán,
particularly at Copán.
The War Between the States, 1861-1865
Higginson,
Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911.
Army life in a black regiment. Boston : Fields, Osgood &
Co., 1870.
- call
number: E 492.94 33d H5
Higginson was a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts who began to be involved
in abolition and woman's rights as a young man. When the Civil War began,
he helped to form and train the 51st Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers
and would have marched with that unit if he had not been offered the command
of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. His experiences with the 1st S.C.
Volunteers, the first Black regiment in the Union Army, are described
in this book. The regiment is said to have fought with notable vigor and
valor.
In addition to his work with reformist causes, Higginson wrote books and
articles on contemporary authors, and was one of the editors of Emily
Dickinson's poems after her death.
Hawes,
Joel, 1789-1867.
North and South, or, Four questions considered: What have we done?
What have we to do? What have we to hope? What have we to fear? : a sermon
preached in the First Church in Hartford, on the day of the national fast,
Sept. 26th, 1861. Hartford : Press of Case, Lockwood and Company,
1861.
- call
number: E 458.1 H37
Providence
Society for Abolishing the Slave-Trade.
Constitution of a society for abolishing the slave-trade : with
several acts of the legislatures of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut
and Rhode Island, for that purpose. Providence : printed by J. Carter,
1789.
- call
number: F83A 9P95
One of the
earliest New England organizations dedicated to the abolition of the slave-trade,
among their guiding principles were the "obligations of Christianity,
to extend, by the use of such means as are or may be in their power, the
blessings of freedom to the whole human race ... and in a more particular
manner to such of their fellow-creatures as by the laws and constitution
of the United States are entitled to their freedom, and who by fraud or
violence are or may be detained in bondage".
1900-1945
[Why
women do not want the ballot]
- call
number: JF 853 W32
A collection of 60 pamphlets published between 1884 and 1903 giving reasons
why suffrage should not be given to women. Titles include: Why
I am opposed to woman suffrage by Jeanette L. Gilder; Preamble
and protest of the Brooklyn Auxiliary of the New York State Association
Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women; and The new woman and
the late president of Williams by Charles C. Nott.
National
American Woman Suffrage Association.
Political equality leaflets. [Ohio : Published by the Association].
- call
number: JK 1901 P6 Min.
A collection
of 13 pamphlets published between 1900 and 1910 giving reasons why suffrage
should be given to women. Titles include: The division of labor
by Alice Stone Blackwell; The "unanswerable" argument
by Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain; and Miss Thomas on woman's ballot
by M. Carey Thomas.
[Pamphlets
relating to women in the United States Armed Forces in World War II]
- call
number: UB 418 W65 P3 Folio
A collection
of 35 pamphlets, chiefly published by government agencies, on various
aspects of women's service in the United States military between 1942
and 1945. Most of the pamphlets relate to the WAVES (Women's Naval Reserves)
or the WACs (Women's Army Corps).
