Listed in chronological order from 1606 through 2002, documents range from the
Mayflower Compact to the Joint Resolution to Authorize the use of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.
We chose a mix of items that students might be asked to research for a test or paper, from the
Mayflower Compact to the War Powers Act, from the Protestant Reformation to Anwar Sadat.
From the Charter of Virginia (1606) and the
Mayflower Compact (1620) to speeches by Ronald Reagan (Tear Down This Wall, 1987) and Bill Clinton (Religious Liberty in America, 1995), students can explore through these primary sources how Americans' ideas about freedom, liberty, and justice have changed through the course of four centuries.
The author also highlights such events as the signing of the
Mayflower Compact, penned during the crossing of the Atlantic; a document that would later provide the underpinning for America's democratic system.
play), My8-16 Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1806, Mr27-18 Legacy of Rosa Parks (play), N28-6 Lewis and Clark Reach the Pacific, N14-16 Man of Many Talents (poster), 031 Marian Anderson: A Voice for Freedom, Mr6-18
Mayflower Compact (play), S5-16 Memories of the Dust Bowl, Ap10-12 Miles to Freedom (slavery), D12-14 Muckrakers, F20-10 New Amsterdam: New World Company Town (play), S19-16 The Other Pioneers: African-Americans on the Frontier, Ja23-18 Our Founding Fathers (play), 031-16 Pennies and a Crust of Bread: Child Labor in America (play), F6-18 Should We Go To War?
The readings span chronologically from the 1620
Mayflower Compact to excerpts of Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 speech on "The New Nationalism.
The more famous
Mayflower Compact has fewer words devoted to religion, more to the civil government, and should be viewed as a means of reconciling strangers and Pilgrims.
Students first worked cooperatively to create a Classroom Compact (similar to the
Mayflower Compact from the Plymouth, Massachusetts, colony in 1620).
Before they landed, 41 male passengers signed a document known as the
Mayflower Compact, which became the basis of their government.
Constitution; consider the
Mayflower Compact, for example.
The immigrant groups could see what the host society and its historians could not and that was that the great divide between "history" and "heritage", to employ David Lowenthal's concepts, was duplicitous: the
Mayflower Compact was as interwoven with teleology as the most "grotesque" filiopietist narrative of contribution history.
Before getting the colony established, the Pilgrims drew up the
Mayflower Compact, a contract that guaranteed equality and united the two groups who had slight religious differences.
