Three hundred eyewitnesses--some famous, some anonymous--give their personal accounts of the great moments that make up our past, from Columbus to cyberspace, and infuse them with a freshness and urgency no textbook can duplicate. David Colbert has brought together a multitude of voices to create a singularly rich American narrative. Here are the vivid impressions of men and women who were witnesses to and participants in these and other dramatic moments: the first colony in Virginia, the Salem witch trials, the Boston Tea Party, the Oklahoma land rush, the Scopes Trial, the bombing of Nagasaki, the lunch-counter sit-ins at the outset of the civil rights movement, New York City's Stonewall Riot, the fall of Saigon, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. These excerpts from diaries, private letters, memoirs, and newspapers paint a fascinating picture of the evolving drama of American life.
"A masterpiece. If you're a student of American history, then Eyewitness to America is required reading."
--The Charleston Post & Courier
"Through 300 firsthand impressions gathered from sources such as diaries, letters, interviews, and memoirs, this title looks at many facets, innovations, and changes that have shaped our society.... Presented in chronological order from Columbus's discovery of America to the sending of the first e-mail, this is an excellent resource."
--School Library Journal
"Eyewitness to America is an excellent resource for classroom teachers of American History.... I recommend it highly."
--Gloria Sesso, President, Organization of History Teachers
A SELECTION OF THE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS INCLUDED
Columbus Meets the Native Americans, October 12, 1492 by Christopher Columbus
The Founding of St. Augustine, August 25-September 8, 1565 by Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales
The First Representative Assembly in America/ July 30, 1619 John Twine
The Pilgrims' Landing and First Winter/ November 21, 1620-March 20, 1621
king Philip's War: Mary Rowlandson Is Captured, February 10, 1675 by Mary Rowlandson
Trial of "Witches" Susannah Martin and Mary Lacey, 1692 by Ezekiel Cheever and Cotton Mather
The March of the Acadians during the French and Indian War, August 30-September 5, 1755 by Colonel John Winslow
Lanters in the North Church Steeple, April 18, 1775 by Paul Revere
Young Jefferson Gets Some Advice from Ben Franklin, July 1776 by Thomas Jefferson
Winter at Valley Forge, December 12, 1777-January 8, 1778 by Dr. Albigence Waldo
Jefferson at the White House, 1801 by Margaret Bayard Smith
Aaron Burr Kills Alexander Hamilton, July 11, 1804 by Nathaniel Pendleton and William P. Van Ness
Dolley Madison Saves Washington's Portrait, August 23-24, 1814 by Dolley Madison
America's First Steam Engine Races a Horse, September 18, 1830 by John Hazelhurst Bonval Latrobe
Life with a Slave Breaker, 1833 by Frederick Douglass
The First Telegraph Mesage, March 4, 1843, and May 24, 1844 by Anonymous
The Donner Party, November 20, 1846-March 1, 1847 by Patrick Breen
The Seneca Falls Convention, July 19-20, 1848 by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony
On the Underground Railroad, About 1850 by Levi Coffin
Sojourner Truth at a Woman's Rights Convention, 1851by Marius Robinson
Chief Seattle Speaks, 1854 by Henry A. Smith
Lincoln and Douglas Debate, June-July 1858 by Gustave Koerner
The Confederate Congress, 1862-1863 by Reuben Davis
Lincoln Proclaims Emancipation, September 22, 1862 by Salmon P. Chase
Lincoln Delivers the Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863 by John Russell Young
Freedom, April 26, 1865 by Booker T. Washington
The Great Fire and Its Aftermath, October 8-11, 1871 by Joseph Edgar Chamberlain, Alexander Frear, Lambert Tree, and William A. Croffut
United States v. Susan B. Anthony--and Vice Versa, June 17-18, 1873 by Court Records
The First Telephone Call, March 10, 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell
Massacre at Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890 by Black Elk
The Invention of Basketball, December 1891 by James Naismith
The First Department Store, 1896 by George Stevens
Ellis Island, 1905 by Edward Steiner
The Titanic Sinks, April 14-15, 1912 by Harold Bride
Television is Born, April 7, 1927 by a New York Times reporter
Lindbergh Crosses the Atlantic, May 21, 1927 by Edwin L. James
In the Death House with the Scottsboro Boys, June 1932 by Langston Hughes
Roosevelt's New Deal, March 5, 1933-April 27, 1934 by Harold L. Ickes
Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941by Senator Daniel K. Inouye
Pearl Harbor News Reaches FDR, December 7, 1941by Grace Tully
Evacuation to Manzanar, April 26, 1942 by Yuri Tateishi
D-Day, June 6, 1944 by Lieutenant Robert Edlin
Dropping the Atom Bomb, August 6, 1945 by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr.
Jackie Robinson in the Major Leagues, 1947-1955 by Roger Kahn
First Day of School in Little Rock, September 23, 1957 by Relman Morin
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963 by James Reston
A Dissenter's View of Dr. King's Speech, August 28, 1963 by Malcolm X
The Feminine Mystique and the Women's Rights Movement, 1963 by Betty Friedan
President Kennedy is Assassinated, November 22, 1963 by Merriman Smith
The My Lai Massacre, March 16, 1968 by Varnado Simpson
On the Moon, July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong
Roe v. Wade, December 13, 1971, and October 13, 1972 by Court Records
Living with AIDS, 1985-1990 by Ryan White
The Rodney King Verdict and Riots, April 29-May 1, 1992 by the Staff of the Los Angeles Times
The Quilt, October 11, 1992 by Fern Shen and Michele Norris
Getting Wired: E-Mail from Bill, October 1993-January 1994 by John Seabrook
