The Early American Republic

With voices ranging from those of presidents to slaves, from both men and women, and from Native Americans and white settlers, this book tells the story of the first half-century of the United States.

• Provides students with over 50 essential documents from the Early Republic: the first five decades of the USA
  
  
• Includes lesser-known documents, for example Thomas Jefferson’s rules for ‘republican etiquette’
  
  
• Incorporates eyewitness testimony from major historical figures, alongside that of ordinary people from the period
  
  
• Includes an introduction, document headnotes and questions at the end of each chapter designed to encourage students to engage with the material critically
  
  

Sean Patrick Adams is Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida, where he teaches courses in Nineteenth-Century U.S. History. He is the author of numerous publications, most notably Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America (2004).