Colonial Period Primary Resources including autobiographical material

Colonial Period

Dr. Diane Howard

Primary Resources
including autobiographical material
Resources gathered by Kathy Harden, UMHB Electronic Research Librarian

(Notes: The majority of these resources can be found simply by using the Google search engine,
http://www.google.com, and typing into the search box ‘primary resources colonial period’.Many of the sites below
repeat the same resources. The sites are very robust and should be explored for the entirety of their content,
not just the few instances mentioned below. All of the resources are free and available to anyone with an Internet connection.)

I. From the Internet Public Library’s Pathfinder for Colonial America:

        A. Archiving Early America – Historic Documents from 18^th century America
            http://www.earlyamerica.com [note this site does contain some advertising], click on:
                Explore The Amazing World of Early America - Through the Media of the Day,
                http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/index.html, then click on

        B. Writings,   http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/writings/index.html,
                to find original writings by Thomas Paine, Benedict Arnold, and a Continental Army Officer.

   C. Pages from the Past, http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/past/index.html ,
                 pages from three newspapers, The Pennsylvania Gazette published by Benjamin Franklin,
                 The Boston Gazette, and the Massachusetts Centinel.

         D. Milestone Historic Events,http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/index.html,
                  including Washington’s Farewell Address, portions of George Washington’s journal, Thomas Paine’s
                  "Common Sense", The Louisiana Purchase, etc.

E. The Lives of Famous Early Americans, http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/index.html,
including the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and the Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon.

F. Early American Bookmarks,
        http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/bookmarks/index.html, including
        Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer, and Benjamin Franklin on an Early Marriage.

G. The History Explorer of Colonial Willamsburg, http://www.history.org. Click on
       History, click on History Explorer, click on Experience Colonial Life. For specific clothing or
       costume information, click on 18^th Century Clothing in Colonial Williamsburg.

II. Avalon Project at the Yale Law School:

          A. Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy,http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm,
                   follow the links to:

                  1. Pre 18^th Century Documents: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/pre18.htm,
                       Examples include Sir Robert Heath’s Patent 5 Charles 1^st; October 30, 1629
                       and Charter of the Dutch West India Company : 1621

                  2. 18^th Century Documents: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/18th.htm,
                        Includes Money and Trade Considered with a Proposal for Supplying the Nation with Money by
                        John Law 1705, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/econ/mon.htm

            B. Patrick Henry – Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death – March 23, 1775,
              http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/patrick.htm

C. Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 Selected Documents,
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/contcong/contcong.htm

D. The American Crisis by Thomas Paine:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/paine/pframe.htm

III. American Memory - Historical Collections for the National Digital Library,
          http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
            (Search in various ways including: clicking on Collection Finder, scrolling down to History,
             typing in the search box "autobiography, " scrolling and using "next page," or typing in the
             titles of the following collections.)

         A. George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799

        B. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and
             Debates, 1774-1873

       C. The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress

IV. The Papers of George Washington, http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers/documents/index.html,
           "The Papers of George Washington, a grant-funded project, was established in 1969 at the
           University of Virginia, under the joint auspices of the University and the Mount Vernon Ladies'
            Association of the Union, to publish a complete edition of Washington's correspondence. The
           correspondence volumes of The Papers of George Washington, 1748-99, published in five series, include
           not only Washington's own letters and other papers but also all letters written to him."

V. A Chronology of US Historical Documents (The University of Oklahoma College of Law),
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/

A. 17th Century

1. The Mayflower Compact, http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/mayflow.html

2. The Charter of Massachusetts Bay, http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/massbay.html

3. The Connecticut Colony Charter, http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/colony.html

B. 18^th Century

1. The Resolution of the Stamp Act (Oct. 9, 1765), http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/stamp.html

2. Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry (March 23, 1775),
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/henry.html

    VI. Thomas – Legislative Information on the Internet , http://thomas.loc.gov/ ,
           scroll down and click on Historical Documents (on the left), http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/mdbquery.html
            includes Early Congressional Documents, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/ccongquery.html

A. The Declaration of Independence, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/declar.html

B. The Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of
Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjhome.html

C. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and
Debates, 1774-1873, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html

VII. NHD National History Day (excellent of online historical resources),
             http://www.thehistorynet.com/NationalHistoryDay/08_others/08_links.html,
             scroll down to Primary Sources on the Web, click on US History Primary Sources and Major Web Sites,
             http://www.thehistorynet.com/NationalHistoryDay/08_others/08_links_c_1.html,
             includes resources such as the following:

         A. Colonial Connecticut Records --a searchable database of images, including all of the
                   Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1636-1776, vols. 1-15,
                   http://www.colonialct.uconn.edu/

         B. Plymouth Colony Archive Project at the University of Virginia,
                    http://etext.virginia.edu/users/deetz/

VIII. Jack Lynch – Rutgers - Eighteenth-Century Resources,
         http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/18th/ , click on History,
           scroll down to American History, includes many links already noted above but also
           the following:

        A. The Leslie Brock Center for the Study of Colonial Currency (Virginia) -
                  Useful primary and secondary documents on early American currency,
                   http://www.virginia.edu/~econ/brock.html

          B.   A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation (Law Library of Congress) -- Records of
                   American legislative bodies from the Continental Congress in 1774 to1873,
                   http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html

        C. Chronology on the History of Slavery 1619 to 1789, (Eddie Becker, Holt House) --
                  A very extensive timeline on American slavery and racism from 1619 to the present,
                  http://innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html

    IX. Rutgers University Libraries - History – American & British: Full-text Documents by
         Period,
         http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/history/by_period.shtml#col_rev_conf,
           scroll down to North American, Colonial, Revolutionary & Confederation,
           http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/history/by_period.shtml#col_rev_conf

    X. Boston-Online, http://www.boston-online.com/History/Colonial/, Colonial Massachusetts and Boston
           history. Click on John Winthrop A Modell of Christian Charity (1630),
         http://history.hanover.edu/texts/winthmod.html

XI.Spy Letters of the American Revolution (Clements Library, University of Michigan),
http://www.si.umich.edu/spies/index-gallery.html