Drafted for the most part by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence justified breaking the colonial ties to Great Britain by providing a basic philosophy of government and a list of grievances against the Crown. Under the supervision of the Committee of Five who drafted it, the approved Declaration was printed on July 5th.

The Dunlap Broadsides – printed by John Dunlap, the official printer of the Continental Congress – were these first printed versions of the Declaration. Congress kept this copy for itself, and inserted it into the Journal of the Continental Congress’s July 4th entry.

After the Second Continental Congress declared independence on July 4 in Philadelphia, Americans might not have heard the news for several days. Broadsides—large pieces of paper printed to be posted in public spaces—were a common way to spread news. The exact number Dunlap printed is estimated to be around 200, enough to comply with Congress’s orders that the copies be distributed among the new states and troops, read aloud, and posted in public areas. Bearing only the names of John Hancock, president; and Charles Thomson, secretary; these printed copies were distributed to state assemblies, conventions, committees of safety, and commanding officers of the Continental troops.

In justifying independence, the Declaration of Independence asserted an eternal and universal truth about human rights in words that have inspired downtrodden people through the ages and around the world to rise up against their oppressors.

The Jicarilla Apache Nation drafted a constitution which was then approved by tribal members through a vote in 1937. The constitution set forth a framework for the government of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and its independent status. This was a direct result of the 1934 Wheeler-Howard Act, or Indian Reorganization Act.

In 1828, the state of Georgia passed a series of acts taking away rights of Cherokees residing within the state, including Cherokee removal from land that the state wanted. The Cherokee asserted that Georgia did not have the jurisdiction or authority to do these things, since the Cherokee Nation was sovereign and protected under a treaty with the United States.

The Cherokee first tried to negotiate a resolution with President Andrew Jackson; but the negotiations fell apart quickly.

Under the leadership of principal chief John Ross, the Cherokee Nation sought an injunction — or order to stop what the State of Georgia was doing — from the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is the judgment denying the Cherokee Nation an injunction against Georgia laws, and dismissing their bill of complaints. The Supreme Court said they lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, and that an “Indian Nation” is not a “Foreign Nation” for jurisdiction under the Constitution, but instead a “domestic dependent nation.”

The case was dismissed, leaving the Cherokee at the mercy of the laws of the state of Georgia. The issue of "tribal sovereignty" would come up again in Worcester v. Georgia in 1832.

This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2016 summer workshop in Washington, D.C.

Colonial boycotts of imported British goods taxed under the Townshend Acts forces the British Parliament to repeal nearly all of the duties in March 1770. However, it kept the tax on tea as a symbol of Britain's authority over the colonies.

A year later the Pennsylvania Assembly petitioned the King to intervene on his subjects' behalf. Britain's refusal to relent led several dozen Bostonians to take extreme action when they dumped tea into the harbor at the "Boston Tea Party."

Written by the First Continental Congress, this document addressed grievances imposed on the colonies by the Intolerable Acts.  The delegates approved a series of resolves which defined colonists’ rights and justified resistance to British policies that violated them. It also announced Congress’s plan to adopt the Continental Association (commonly known as the  Articles of Association) and prepare addresses to the King and British people. Parliament was excluded since the colonies denied its authority.

In this Declaration of Rights and Grievances against Great Britain, the Continental Congress asserts that the inhabitants of the English colonies are entitled to "life, liberty, and property"  and have rights such as to "peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances and petition the king." In addition, it claims that recent laws of Parliament that imposed taxes and deprived Americans to trial by jury had to be rescinded. 

Several days later, the Continental Congress would agree to the Articles of Association that would impose a trade boycott on British goods.

Much of this language foretells the later Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Bill of Rights in 1789.

Written by the First Continental Congress, this document addressed economic grievances imposed on the colonies. The articles implemented a trade boycott with Great Britain – asserting non-importation and non-exportation sanctions on Great Britain, Ireland, and the East Indies – in reaction to the British Crown’s infamous 1774 Intolerable Acts.

In 1773, the Sons of Liberty, a secret society of American rebels, had dumped a shipload of tea into the Boston Harbor, protesting “taxation without representation.” The following year, two years before the start of the American Revolution, the British Crown responded to the Boston Tea Party by passing what the American Patriots called the Intolerable Acts.

The Intolerable Acts were a series of four legislative acts imposed by Great Britain on the colonies in order to punish them and to quell the rising rebellion.

The acts were comprised of:

• The Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston
• The Massachusetts Government Act, which required that all Massachusetts government positions be appointed by either the Crown itself, the Governor, or Parliament
• The Administration of Justice Act, which asserted that trials against officials of the Crown were to take place in Great Britain and not in Massachusetts if the Crown believed Massachusetts incapable of executing a fair trial
• The Quartering Act, which allowed Royal soldiers to be housed in unoccupied buildings

The Articles of Association asserted that, in order to free themselves economically from Great Britain, the colonies will “encourage frugality, economy, and industry, and promote agriculture, arts and the manufactures of this country.” The authors viewed Great Britain’s authority as tyrannical and understood that they needed to control and use their own resources to survive without Great Britain.  

To apply maximum pressure on the British economy (and Parliament), the articles also called for the establishment of local committees to enforce the Continental Association throughout the colonies. The policy was highly effective. In the first six months of 1775, the value of British imports to America fell from ￡3 million to ￡220,000. America’s economic independence would lead to its political independence. The Articles of Association later inspired the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

This is a copy of a print attributed to Philip Dawe, printed for the firm of Robert Sayer and John Bennett. The image appeared in a London newspaper soon after the Boston Tea Party, on November 19, 1774.  The sailors in this political cartoon represent the colonies coming to the aid of Bostonians suffering under Parliament’s Coercive Acts.

After Boston’s “tea party,” the British Parliament passed a series of Coercive Acts in 1774 to punish the city and reassert its authority over the colonies. Deemed “intolerable” by Americans, the colonies responded by sending delegates to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to devise a united response to the Coercive Acts.

Known today as the First Continental Congress, delegates debated and adopted policies aimed at defending colonial rights in the British Empire. Although the Congress met in the hope of peacefully repairing the fracturing imperial relationship, the measures it passed failed to avert war and a complete break with Great Britain.

A copy of this print was gathered as part of the George Washington Bicentennial Commission in 1931-1932. The Commission's purpose was to celebrate the birth and accomplishments of Washington, and to collect, preserve, and publish writings, artworks, and photographs pertinent to his life and times.

This anti-American mezzotint, created by Philip Dawe, satirized the widespread use of physical violence in 18th century American colonial society. 

Printed in London on Februrary 16, 1775, the cartoon depicts a scene in Williamsburg, when Patriots erected a scaffold from which they hung a cask of tar and a barrel of feathers. The Patriots compelled merchants to appear and sign an endorsement of the Articles of Association, agreeing to the embargo – nonimportation, nonexportation, and nonconsumption – against England.

This satirical cartoon depicts a diverse crowd of common people pressuring elite Virginians to sign the Continental Association (commonly known as the Articles of Association). The presence of women reflects their centrality—as conspicuous nonconsumers—to the boycott. Some wealthy colonists who profited from the British trade were reluctant to join the Association.

Text adapted from “"The Alternative of Williamsburg": A British Cartoon on Colonial American Violence” in the April/May 1996 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.

A women's military unit passese in front of President Harry Truman and Vice-President Alben Barkley (seated behind the flag) during the inaugural parade.

Selected from 500 applicants, the Mercury Seven were to be the first Americans in space. Introduced to the world on April 10, 1959, the men considered themselves to be military test pilots but became instant national heroes. However, the men were caught in the middle of the larger Cold War rivalry and space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

NASA, concerned about the growing competition between the two countries, sent this memo regarding the exchange of visits with Russian astronauts, proposing to publicly work with Russia. It said: “Propaganda-wise, we apparently stand to gain a great deal and could lose little or nothing.” Two of the Mercury Seven, Walter M. Schirra and Donald K. Slayton, in an apparent protest to this, crossed their names out and did not sign.

This manifest shows 41 enslaved people who were shipped to New Orleans, Louisiana, from Richmond, Virginia. Among them was Solomon Northup, who was listed as Plat Hamilton on line 33. A free person of color in New York, Northup had been kidnapped and sold into slavery; he was given the name Plat Hamilton aboard the ship. Years later, after he regained his freedom, he told his life story in his autobiography Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana.

It had became illegal to import enslaved people from other countries to the United States in 1808. The domestic slave trade, however, remained legal. With the rise of cotton as a southern commodity, thousands of enslaved people were shipped from the upper south to the lower south regularly from 1808–1860.

Slave manifests were required by law for each ship transporting slaves and needed to include every slave's name, sex, height, and complexion or class. In addition, slave manifests required the names of the slave owners or shippers and their residence, plus the names of the individuals the slaves were consigned to if necessary. Two copies of these manifests were required, one would be filed with the customs agent at the port of departure, and the other manifest would be filed at the port of arrival. The customs agents were required to sign these manifests.

This item is a presidential election prediction by Johnson Kelly Duncan, Chief Engineer of the Louisiana State Board of Public Works, and Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, Superintendent of Construction for the New Orleans Custom House. Duncan predicted Stephen A. Douglas to win a majority of the 33 states; Beauregard predicted John C. Breckinridge to win by a slimmer margin. Both were wrong, as Abraham Lincoln was elected President.

From 1853 to 1860, Beauregard was superintendent engineer of the U.S. Custom House in New Orleans. Less than a year later, as a General for the Confederate Army, Beauregard ordered the first shots of the American Civil War to be fired. 

Draft Release announcing the O'Connor Supreme Court nomination