American Visions

The words and images of this time are most powerful when read in their original forms. The Internet Archive and other trusted sources make it possible to explore works as they first appeared.

Chapter One: Revelations • 1800–1829

Heaven
- Charles Grandison Finney:
  Sermons
- Tracts and Sunday School lessons from societies

Chapter Two: Reckonings • 1820–1830

American Books
- Charles Brockden Brown:
  Wieland, Edgar Huntly
- Washington Irving:
  The Sketch Book
- James Fenimore Cooper:
  The Spy
- John Neal:
  Rachel Dyer
- Catharine Sedgwick:
  Hope Leslie
Capturing Nature
- John James Audubon:
  Birds of America
- Thomas Cole:
  “Last of the Mohicans”
Appeals to the World
- David Walker:
  Appeal
- William Apess:
  A Son of the Forest, “The Indian’s Looking Glass”

Chapter Three: Rebellions • 1827–1836

Freedom’s Advocates
- Jarena Lee:
  Religious Experience and Journal
- Maria W. Stewart:
  Address at the African Masonic Hall
- The Liberator
Rebellions Against Slavery
- Nat Turner:
  Confessions
- Thomas R. Dew:
  Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature
Democracy in America
- Alexis de Tocqueville:
  Democracy in America
Native Voices and Faces
- Black Hawk:
  Autobiography
- George Catlin:
  “Indian Gallery”
- Washington Irving:
  Tour on the Prairies
Women in Public
- Lydia Maria Child:
  The American Frugal Housewife, The Girl’s Own Book, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans
- Angelina Grimké:
  Appeal to the Christian Women of the South

Chapter Four: Reflections • 1836–1848

Transcendence
- Ralph Waldo Emerson:
  Nature
- Margaret Fuller:
  The Dial, Summer on the Lakes
School Wars
- Horace Mann:
  Twelfth Report
Living by the Pen and Brush
- New York Sun
- New York Herald
- Godey’s Lady’s Book
- The Token
- Nathaniel Hawthorne:
  Twice-Told Tales
- Southern Literary Messenger
- Edgar Allan Poe:
  Poe’s Tales
- William Gilmore Simms:
  The Yemassee
- Augustus Baldwin Longstreet:
  Georgia Scenes
- Spirit of the Times
Escaping Slavery
- Sarah Grimké:
  Letters on the Equality of the Sexes
- Henry Highland Garnet:
  Statement of the Colored Inhabitants of the State of New York
- Frederick Douglass:
  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Chapter Five: Explorations • 1841–1848

A Search for Heroes
- Davy Crockett:
  The Life and Adventures of Colonel David Crockett of Tennesse, Almanacs
Atlantic and Pacific
- Herman Melville:
  Typee, and Omoo
Overland
- John C. Frémont:
  Reports
- Joseph Smith:
  Book of Mormon
A Nation’s Destiny
- John L. O’Sullivan:
  Manifest Destiny
War
- Currier and Ives:
  Prints of the Mexican War
- Richard Caton Woodville:
  “War News from Mexico”

Chapter Six: Boundaries • 1840–1845

The Body
- Charles Knowlton:
  Fruits of Philosophy
Woman’s Place
- Catharine Beecher:
  A Treatise on Domestic Economy
- Margaret Fuller:
  Woman in the Nineteenth Century
- Dorothea Dix:
  Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States
Secret Chambers
- George Lippard:
  The Quaker City
- Edgar Allan Poe:
  The Raven and Other Poems
The Guiding Clue
- Henry David Thoreau:
  A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Narrative of Freedom
- Frederick Douglass:
  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Christian Against Christian
- Charles Colcock Jones:
  “The Religious Instruction of the Negroes”

Chapter Seven: Voyages • 1845–1850

Rights
- Woman’s Rights Convention:
  Declaration of Sentiments
The Marble Slave
- Hiram Powers:
  “Greek Slave”
Science, Spirits, and Nature
- George R. Gliddon, Josiah Nott, and Louis Agassiz:
  Types of Mankind
- John Bachman:
  The Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race
- George Perkins Marsh:
  Address to the Agricultural Society of Rutland County
- Susan Fenimore Cooper:
  Rural Hours
Shattered Voyages
- Edgar Allan Poe:
  Eureka: A Prose Poem
- Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

Chapter Eight: Confrontations • 1850–1855

The Scarlet Letter, the White Whale, and the Wide World
- Nathaniel Hawthorne:
  The Scarlet Letter
- Herman Melville:
  Moby-Dick
- Susan Warner:
  The Wide, Wide World
- Maria Cummins:
  The Lamplighter
- John Rollin Ridge:
  The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta
Women’s Voices Against Slavery
- Sojourner Truth:
  Narrative
- Harriet Beecher Stowe:
  Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Exposing Slavery to the World
- William Wells Brown:
  Clotel
- Frederick Douglass:
  “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
Witnessing the South
- Frederick Law Olmsted:
  Journey to the Seaboard Slave States
- Solomon Northrup:
  Twelve Years a Slave
- Frederick Douglass:
  My Bondage and My Freedom
Sympathies for the Slave
- Stephen Foster
- Louis Moreau Gottschalk
- Lilly Spencer:
  “Height of Fashion”
- William Sidney Mount
- Eastman Johnson:
  “Negro Life at the South”
- Frances Ellen Watkins:
  Poems

Chapter Nine: Culminations • 1855–1860

Popular America
- Fanny Fern:
  Fern Leaves
- Lilly Spencer:
  “Young Wife”, “Young Husband”
- Robert S. Duncanson
- Herman Melville:
  The Piazza Tales, The Confidence-Man
Song of America
- Walt Whitman
The Throne of the Despot
- Ralph Waldo Emerson:
  “The Fugitive Slave Law”
- Henry David Thoreau:
  “Slavery in Massachusetts”
- James Henry Hammond:
  “Cotton Is King”
- Abraham Lincoln:
  “A House Divided”
- Lincoln–Douglas debate transcripts
- William H. Seward:
  “The Irrepressible Conflict”
- Hinton Rowan Helper:
  Impending Crisis of the South

Chapter Ten: Epilogue • 1859–1861

The Sword and the Noose
- Henry David Thoreau:
  “A Plea for Captain John Brown”
- Lydia Maria Child and Henry Wise:
  Correspondence
- Harriet Jacobs:
  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Original Sources

Chapter One: Revelations • 1800–1829

Heaven

Chapter Two: Reckonings • 1820–1830

American Books

Capturing Nature

Appeals to the World

Chapter Three: Rebellions • 1827–1836

Freedom’s Advocates

Rebellions Against Slavery

Democracy in America

Native Voices and Faces

Women in Public

Chapter Four: Reflections • 1836–1848

Transcendence

School Wars

Living by the Pen and Brush

Escaping Slavery

Chapter Five: Explorations • 1841–1848

A Search for Heroes

Atlantic and Pacific

Overland

A Nation’s Destiny

War

Chapter Six: Boundaries • 1840–1845

The Body

Woman’s Place

Secret Chambers

The Guiding Clue

Narrative of Freedom

Christian Against Christian

Chapter Seven: Voyages • 1845–1850

Rights

The Marble Slave

Science, Spirits, and Nature

Shattered Voyages

Chapter Eight: Confrontations • 1850–1855

The Scarlet Letter, the White Whale, and the Wide World

Women’s Voices Against Slavery

Exposing Slavery to the World

Witnessing the South

Sympathies for the Slave

Chapter Nine: Culminations • 1855–1860

Popular America

Song of America

The Throne of the Despot

Chapter Ten: Epilogue • 1859–1861

The Sword and the Noose