Writing the American Past: Working with Primary Documents to 1865

Writing the American Past reproduces dozens of untranscribed, handwritten documents, offering students the opportunity to transcribe, decipher, and interpret primary sources.

• Documents include diary entries from Massachusetts in the 1690s, a woman detailing the Great Awakening, an eighteenth-century treaty with Native Americans, a journal describing antebellum train travel, and a letter by a slave
• Skillfully teaches students to engage with the raw material of pre-1877 US history: the written document
• An introduction and headnotes to each document contextualize the sources and provide a foundation from which the student can explore the material

Writing the American Past reproduces dozens of untranscribed, handwritten primary documents: diary entries from Massachusetts in the 1690s, a woman detailing the Great Awakening, an eighteenth-century treaty with Native Americans, a letter by a slave, all of which capture the essence of the American past and introduce students to the raw material of pre-1877 US history: the written document.

Expertly introduced and edited by Mark M. Smith, this unique textbook offers students the rare opportunity to engage directly with original documents, teaching them how to transcribe, decipher, and interpret primary sources while providing a foundation and a template for understanding the American past.

Mark M. Smith is Carolina Distinguished Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. He is the author or editor of a dozen previous books including the award-winning Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery, and Freedom in the American South (1997) and he has served or currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Southern History, the Journal of Social History, the Journal of American History, and The Senses and Society.