Primary

Primary source documents are writings by a person who witnessed the events they are writing about. Included below are a few links for general primary documents about American History which add to the understanding of topics included in our history pages, and documents with a particular regional or local interest.

Those which are local or regional are marked with an asterisk (*).

Primary Document Collection Websites

A few of the best sources for primary documents of American history are:

The Making of America

The Avalon Project at Yale University

U.S. Historical Document Archive

The Colonial Era

*Elder James Benedict by Mrs. Elizabeth C. Van Duzer contains primary document quotes.

The Revolutionary War

*Selected letters and documents of Col. John Hathorn

Pitt's Speech on the Stamp Act

The Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress

The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, drawn up by the Continental Congress

The Inevitability of War, a speech by Patrick Henry

The Civil War

*"The 124th New York State Volunteers" has loaded primary documents about this local unit.

*Notes and quotes from Charles Weygant's History of the 124th NYSV Please note: Only the text shown in quotes is considered 'primary' material

* Report of the Special Committee on Volunteering, dated 1864, details the process of responding to one of the President's calls for more volunteers in the County of New York.