The Schlager Anthology of Early America offers a modern, original sourcebook covering a pivotal era in U.S. history.

Table of Contents

• Reader's Guide
• Contributors
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Motivations for Exploration and Colonization
• Christopher Columbus: Letter to Raphael Sanxis on the Discovery of America
• Hernán Cortés: Second Letter to Charles V
• Lope de Aguirre: Letter to King Philip of Spain
• “A True and Sincere Declaration of the Purpose and Ends of the Plantation Begun in Virginia”
• Samuel de Champlain: Voyages
• Fray Antonio de la Ascension: A Brief Report of the Discovery in New Spain
• John Smith: The Generall Historie of Virginia
• Father Paul Le Jeune: “Brief Relation of the Journey to New France”
• Adriaen Van der Donck: Description of the New-Netherlands
• Chapter 2: Culture, Contact, and Contest
• Iroquois Thanksgiving Address
• Requerimiento
• The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
• Hernando Pizarro: Letter to the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo
• Bartolomé de las Casas: A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
• Bernal Díaz del Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain
• John White: “America pars, nunc Virginia dicta”
• Johannes Megapolensis Jr.: A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians
• Declaration of Pedro Naranjo of the Queres Nation
• Chapter 3: Founding Ideals
• Letter of Edward Winslow to a Friend
• Margaret Brent's Request for Voting Rights
• Maryland Toleration Act
• Habeas Corpus Act of the Restoration
• By the King, a Proclamation for the More Effectual Reducing and Suppressing of Pirates and Privateers in America
• Declaration of the Gentlemen, Merchants and Inhabitants of Boston, and the Country Adjacent
• English Bill of Rights
• John Locke: Second Treatise on Civil Government.
• William Byrd II: Representation Concerning Proprietary Governments
• Benjamin Franklin: “Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America”
• Benjamin Franklin: “The Way to Wealth”
• John Carwitham: “A South East View of the Great Town of Boston in New England in America”
• Chapter 4: Experiments in Government
• New Laws of the Indies
• For the Colony in Virginea Britannia: Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall
• Mayflower Compact
• An Ordinance and Constitution of Treasurer and Company in England for a Council and Assembly in Virginia
• Frame of Government of Pennsylvania
• Edmund Andros: Report of His Administration
• Letters of Governor Alexander Spotswood
• Benjamin Franklin: “Exporting of Felons to the Colonies”
• Roger Sherman: A Caveat against Injustice
• Benjamin Franklin: Letter to Peter Collinson on the Plan of Union
• Benjamin Franklin: Albany Plan of Union
• Chapter 5: Wars and Empires
• Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
• Father le Petit: Letter to Father d'Avaugour, Procurator of the Missions in North America
• John Mason: A Brief History of the Pequot War
• Henry Bouquet: Letter to William Allen in the Expedition to Fort Duquesne
• Simeon Ecuyer: Journal from Fort Pitt
• Proclamation of 1763
• Chapter 6: Rank, Raids, and Rebellions
• Richard Frethorne: Letter to His Parents
• Charles I: Speech on the Scaffold
• Oliver Cromwell: Speech at the Opening of the Protectorate Parliament
• Virginia's Act V: An Act for Punishment of Scandalous Persons
• Nathaniel Bacon: Manifesto
• Daniel Horsmanden: The New-York Conspiracy
• Elizabeth Sprigs: Letter to Her Father
• Benjamin Franklin: The Paxton Boys’ Murder of the Conestoga India
• “A Few Lines on Magnus Mode, Richard Hodges & J. Newington Clark”
• Chapter 7: Slavery and the Slave Trade
• John Rolfe: “Letter to Sir Edwin Sandys”
• Virginia's Act XII: Negro Women's Children to Serve according to the Condition of the Mother
• Virginia's Act III: Baptism Does Not Exempt Slaves from Bondage
• Richard Ligon: A True & Exact History of the Island of Barbados
• “A Minute against Slavery, Addressed to Germantown Monthly Meeting”
• James Oglethorpe: “An Account of the Negroe Insurrection in South Carolina”
• South Carolina Slave Code
• John Woolman: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes
• Briton Hammon: A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, a Negro Man
• Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: “Reflections on Slavery”
• Chapter 8: Religion and Social Order
• John Winthrop: “A Model of Christian Charity”
• Massachusetts Bay Colony Trial against Anne Hutchinson
• Roger Williams: The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience
• Anne Bradstreet: “Before the Birth of One of Her Children”
• Anne Bradstreet: “To My Dear and Loving Husband”
• Declaration of Protestant Subjects in Maryland
• Cotton Mather: Late Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions
• Answer of Mary Bradbury and Testimony of Thomas Bradbury
• Ann Putnam: Confession
• Benjamin Colman: Some Observations on Receiving the Small-Pox by Ingrafting or Inoculating
• Jonathan Edwards: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
• Samson Occom: “A Short Narrative of My Life”
• List of Documents by Category