Exploration and contact to 1600
Before Columbus: Native American cultures
The origin myth of Acoma ...
The Winnebago trickster cycle
The origin of stories (Seneca)
Pre-Columbian literatures of the Quiche
Anonymous Quiche author (sixteenth century): Popol Vuh
Excerpts from the Mayan Chilam Balam
from The letter of Columbus on the discovery of America / Christopher Columbus
The history of the Indies / Bartolome de Las Casas
from Book I, Chapter XXXVII: On the natural law of God in His world / Bartolome de Las Casas
Book I, Chapter XL: Of the island which lay before them, and its people / Bartolome de Las Casas
from Book III, Chapter LXXVIII: Of the labors of the Indians in Cuba / Bartolome de Las Casas
from The letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha to King Manuel I, May 1, 1500 / Pero Vaz de Caminha
from The voyage of Verrazzano, Florentine Noble in the service of Francois I, King of France, 1524 / Giovanni da Verrazzano
from Chapter 12: The Indians bring us food / Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
from Chapter 15: What befell us among the people of Mahado / Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
from Chapter 22: The coming of other sick to us the next day / Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
History of the conquest of New Spain / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from Chapter 37: Of how Dona Marina was a great lady and daughter of great lords, and mistress over towns and vassals, and how she was brought to Tabasco / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from Chapter 88: Of the great and solemn Montezuma's great and solemn reception of Cortes and of all of us on our entrance into Mexico / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from Chapter 89: Of how Montezuma came to our quarters with many chieftains, and the conversation he had with our Captain
from Chapter 90: Of how soon thereafter our Captain went to see the great Montezuma, and of certain conversations they had / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
Chapter 91: Of the manner and appearance of Montezuma
from Chapter 93: Of how we made our Church and altar in our quarters, and a cross outside our quarters, and other events, and of how we found the antechamber and chamber where Montezuma's father's treasure is kept, and how it was agreed that Montezuma should be detained / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from Chapter 95: Montezuma's arrest
from Chapter 97: Of how when Montezuma was held prisoner, Cortes and all of our soldiers treated him with affection, and even allowed him to go to his temples / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from Chapter 107: Of Cortes and Montezuma
from Chapter 150: The Siege of Mexico / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from Chapter 152: Of how the Indians took seventy-two live prisoners to be sacrificed / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
from Chapter 156: Guatemoc's arrest / Bernal Diaz del Castillo
Native views of the conquest of Mexico
The omens described by Munoz Camargo
A Macehual arrives from the Gulf Coast
The story of the conquest as told by the anonymous authors of Tlatelolco
The massacre in the Main Temple
The Tlatelolcas are invited to make a treaty
Epic description of the besieged city
Flowers and songs of sorrow.
from Account of things in Yucatan / Diego de Landa
XV: Cruelties of the Spaniards toward the Indians / Diego de Landa
XLI: Cycle of the Mayas. Their writing / Diego de Landa
LII: Conclusion / Diego de Landa
from The true history of his captivity, 1557 / Hans Staden
from Part I: The true history and description of a country of savages, a naked and terrible people, eaters of man's flesh, who dwell in the New World called America ... : Chapter 1; from Chapter XVIII; Chapter XXII; Chapter XXIII; Chapter XXIV; Chapter XXVII; from Chapter XLII; from Chapter XLIII / Hans Staden
from Part II: A true and brief account of all that I learnt concerning the trade and manners of the Tuppin Inbas, whose captive I was / Hans Staden
Chapter XXIII: How they turn the women into soothsayers / Hans Staden
from Chapter XXV: Why one enemy eats another / Hans Staden
Chapter XXVIII: Of their manner of killing and eating their enemies. Of the instrument with which they kill them and the rites which follow / Hans Staden
from The concluding address / Hans Staden
Dialogue for the Conversion of the Indians / Manuel Da Nobrega
from A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia / Thomas Harriot
from The first part of merchantable commodities / Thomas Harriot
Of the nature and manners of the people / Thomas Harriot
from Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, 1604-1618 / Samuel de Champlain
The voyages of 1604-7 / Samuel de Champlain
New World identities: exploration and settlement to 1700
from The Florida of the Inca / El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
The Inca's dedication / El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
The Inca's preface / El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
from A letter to a King / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
Royal administrators / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
At Wayside Inns / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
Spaniards / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
Proprietors / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
The fathers / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
Negroes / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
The King's questions / Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
History of New Mexico / Gaspar Perez de Villagra
from Canto I: Which sets forth the outline of the history and the location of New Mexico, and the reports had of it in the traditions of the Indians, and of the true origin and descent of the Mexicans / Gaspar Perez de Villagra
Canto XXI: How Zutacapan called an assembly of the Acoma Indians and the discord there was among them, and of the treason they made / Gaspar Perez de Villagra
from Canto XXXIII: How Zutancalpo was found by his four sisters and of the end and death of Gicombo and Luzcoija / Gaspar Perez de Villagra
The happy captivity / Francisco Nunez de Pineda y Bascunan
from Book I, Chapter IX: The beginning of the captivity / Francisco Nunez de Pineda y Bascunan
Book III, Chapter XXXI: a feast / Francisco Nunez de Pineda y Bascunan
The misadventures of Alonso Ramirez / Carlos Siguenza y Gongora
from Chapter I: The motives he had for leaving his country. Work and travel through New Spain: his presence in Mexico until leaving for the Philippines / Carlos Siguenza y Gongora
from Chapter II: His departure from Acapulco for the Philippines; the route of this voyage and how he passed the time until captured by the English / Carlos Siguenza y Gongora
from Chapter III: A brief summary of the thievery and cruelty of these pirates on land and sea until arriving in America / Carlos Siguenza y Gongora
Number 48: In reply to a gentleman from Peru, who sent her clay vessels while suggesting she would better be a man / Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Number 92: A philosophical satire / Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Number 94: Which reveals the honorable ancestry of a high-born drunkard / Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Number 145: She attempts to minimize the praise occasioned by a portrait of herself inscribed by truth, which she calls ardor / Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Number 146: She laments her fortune, she hints of her aversion to all vice, and justifies her diversion with the muses / Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Number 317: Villancico VI, from "Santa Catarina" / Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Number 367: Loa for the Auto sacramental The Divine Narcissus through allegories / Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
History of the miraculous apparition / The Miraculous Apparition of the Beloved Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, at Tepeyacac, near Mexico City
A Nahuatl song to Holy Mary / The Miraculous Apparition of the Beloved Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, at Tepeyacac, near Mexico City
Records of the Spanish Inquisition, New Mexico, 1664
Excerpts from the trial of Bernardo de Mendizabal
Letter on the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 / Don Antonio de Otermin.
The earthquake / Jerome Lalemant
from Description of Louisiana, recently discovered Southwest of New France, by order of His Majesty / Louis Hennepin
His Majesty / Louis Hennepin
Letter to King Louis XIV / Louis Hennepin
From the manners of the Indians / Louis Hennepin
On the fertility of the Indian country / Louis Hennepin
Origins of the Indians / Louis Hennepin
Physical condition of the Indians / Louis Hennepin
Marriages of the Indians / Louis Hennepin
The obstacles to the conversion of the Indians / Louis Hennepin
Indifference of the Indians / Louis Hennepin
from New Relation of Gaspesia / Chretian Le Clercq
The sun wept in grief / Chretian Le Clercq
"I am astonished that the French have so little wit" / Chretian Le Clercq
Middle Atlantic: the Chesapeake and the Indies
The generall historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles / John Smith
from The third book, the proceedings and accidents of the English colony in Virginia / John Smith
from A Description of New England / John Smith
from A true and exact history of the Islands of the Barbadoes / Richard Ligon
from A character of the Province of Mary-land / George Alsop
from "A relation of the customs, manners, absurdities, and religion of the Susquehanock Indians in and near Mary-Land" / George Alsop
Instructions to such as shall march upon discoveries into the North American continent / John Lederer
Touching trade with Indians / John Lederer
Manifesto concerning the present troubles in Virginia / Nathaniel Bacon
The Declaration of the People / Nathaniel Bacon
"The poor unhappy transported felon's sorrowful account of his fourteen years of transportation at Virginia in America" / James Revel
New English Canaan / Thomas Morton
from Book I: Containing the originall of the Natives, their manners & customes, with their tractable nature and love towards the English / Thomas Morton
Chapter VII: Of their child-bearing, and delivery, and what manner of persons they are / Thomas Morton
Chapter XVI: Of their acknowledgment of the creation, and immortality of the soule [sic] / Thomas Morton
Chapter XX: That the Salvages [sic] live a contented life / Thomas Morton
from Book II: A description of the beauty of the country / Thomas Morton
Chapter I: The general survey of the country / Thomas Morton
from Book III: Containing a description of the people that are planted there, what remarkable accidents have happened there since they were setled [sic], what tenents they hould [sic], together with the practise of their Church / Thomas Morton
Chapter XIV: Of the revells of New Canaan / Thomas Morton
Chapter XVI: How the 9. worthies put mine host of Ma-re Mount in to the inchaunted Castle at Plimmouth, and terrified him with the Monster Briareus / Thomas Morton
from "A modell of Christian charity" / John Winthrop
from Winthrop's journal: history of New England, 1630-1649 / John Winthrop
Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647 / William Bradford
from Book I, Chapter IX: Of their voyage, and how they passed the sea; and of their safe arrival at Cape Cod / William Bradford
from Book I, Chapter X: Showing how they sought out a place of habitation; and what befell them thereabout / William Bradford
from Book II, Chapter XI: The remainder of Anno 1620: The Mayflower Compact ; The Starving Time; [and] Indian Relations / William Bradford
from Book II, Chapter XIV: Anno Domini 1623: End of the "Common Course and Condition" / William Bradford
from Book II, Chapter XXVIII: Anno Domini 1637: The Pequot War / William Bradford
from Book II, Chapter XXXII: Anno Domini 1642: A horrible case of bestiality / William Bradford
A key into the language of America / Roger Williams
Directions for the use of the language / Roger Williams
from Chapter I: Of salutation / Roger Williams
from Chapter VIII: Of discourse and newes [sic] [Canonicus' speech] / Roger Williams
from Chapter XI: Of travel / Roger Williams
Letter: To the Town of Providence / Roger Williams
from The autobiography of Thomas Shepard / Thomas Shepard
from Several Poems / Anne Bradstreet
"The prologue" / Anne Bradstreet
"In honour of ... Queen Elizabeth ..." / Anne Bradstreet
"The author to her book" / Anne Bradstreet
"The flesh and the spirit" / Anne Bradstreet
"To my dear and loving husband" / Anne Bradstreet
"In memory of my dear grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, who deceased August, 1665, being a year and a half old" / Anne Bradstreet
"Upon the burning of our house, July 10th, 1666" / Anne Bradstreet
To my dear children / Anne Bradstreet
The New England Primer (1683?)
from Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War / Benjamin Church
The Great Swamp Fight / Benjamin Church
Reunion with Awashonks / Benjamin Church
Tactics of Indian warfare / Benjamin Church
Philip's forces routed near Bridgewater / Benjamin Church
Philip killed / Benjamin Church
The capture of Annawon / Benjamin Church
Philip's regalia / Benjamin Church
from Gods determinations / Edward Taylor
The preface / Edward Taylor
The souls groan to Christ for succour / Edward Taylor
The joy of church fellowship rightly attended / Edward Taylor
from "Poetical works" / Edward Taylor
4. Huswifery / Edward Taylor
6. Upon wedlock and death of children / Edward Taylor
from Preparatory meditations / Edward Taylor
First series / Edward Taylor
Meditation 8: John 6.51. I am the Living Bread / Edward Taylor
Meditation 40: 1 John 2.2. He is a propitiation for our sin / Edward Taylor
Second series / Edward Taylor
Meditation 43: Rom. 9.5. God blessed forever
Phaenomena quaedam Apocalyptica [Phenomenon concerning the Apocalypse] / Samuel Sewall
The selling of Joseph, a memorial / Samuel Sewall
from Decennium Luctuosum [The captivity of Hannah Dustan] / Cotton Mather
from Magnalia Christi Americana / Cotton Mather
from The Negro Christianized / Cotton Mather.
Middle Atlantic: New Netherland
"The complaint of New Amsterdam" / Jacob Steendam
"Bridal torch" / Henricus Selyns
Middle Atlantic: Pennsylvania
from "Positive information from America, concerning the country of Pennsylvania" / Francis Daniel Pastorius
Letters to Tobias Schumbergius, 1693 / Francis Daniel Pastorius
Powhatan's speech to Captain John Smith, 1609
Narragansett Indians, "Act of Submission," 1644
Mittark, Agreement of Gay Head Indians not to sell land to the English, 1681
Garangula, Speech to New France's Governor La Barre, 1685
The coming of the Spanish and the Pueblo Revolt: a Hopi perspective
Later colonial writers of the Americas
from The Journal of Madame Knight / Sarah Kemble Knight
New voyages to North America ... / Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan
from Volume I: from Preface / Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan
from Volume I: from Letter I: Description of the passage from France to Canada / Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan
from Volume I: Letter II: Description of the plantations in Canada / Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan
from Volume II: A discourse of the habit, houses, complexion and temperament of the Savages of North America / Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan
from Volume II: from A short view of the humors and customs of the Savages / Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan
from Volume II: from An account of the amours and marriages of the Savages / Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan
from The secret history of the line / William Byrd II
from The history of the Dividing Line / William Byrd II
Journal of a voyage to North America, undertaken by the order of the French King / Pierre Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix
from Letter III: Description of Quebec; character of its inhabitants, and the manner of living in the French Colony / Pierre Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix
from Letter XXX: Voyage from the Arkansas to the Natchez. Description of the country. Of the river of the Yasous. Of the customs, manners and religion of the Natchez / Pierre Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix
from Letter XXXI: Description of the capital of Louisiana / Pierre Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix
from Letter XXXII: Reflections on the grants / Pierre Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix
from The Annals of the Hotel-Dieu, Quebec / Marie-Andree Duplessis de Sainte-Helene
The image of hell / Marie-Andree Duplessis de Sainte-Helene
from The correspondence of Madame Begon, 1748-1753 / Elisabeth Begon
A journey from Patapsko to Annapolis, April 4, 1730 / Richard Lewis
from Images of Divine Things / Jonathan Edwards
"Apostrophe to Sarah Pierpont" / Jonathan Edwards
Personal narrative / Jonathan Edwards
from Some Account of the Fore Part of the Life of Elizabeth Ashbridge ... / Elizabeth Ashbridge
El Lazarillo: A Guide for Inexperience Travelers between Buenos Aires and Lima (c. 1775) / Alonso Carrio de la Vandera
Prologue and dedication to those treated herein / Alonso Carrio de la Vandera
from Chapter XVIII: The indolence of the Indians. The opinion of the author. The name Concolorcorvo / Alonso Carrio de la Vandera
from Chapter XXVI: A brief comparison of the cities of Lima and Cuzco. Characteristic aspects. The residents of Lima and Mexico. The dress of Lima women. Reasons for the vitality. Singular features, wedding beds, cradles, and household furnishings / Alonso Carrio de la Vandera
from The Journal of John Woolman / John Woolman
Travels in the Interior of North America, 1751-1762 / Jean-Bernard Bossu
from Letter II / Jean-Bernard Bossu
from Letter XVII / Jean-Bernard Bossu
from Adventure in the Wilderness / Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Rusticatio Mexicana / Rafael Landivar
from The lakes of Mexico / Rafael Landivar
from Processing of silver and gold / Rafael Landivar
from Birds / Rafael Landivar
from Sports / Rafael Landivar.
Contested visions: revolution and nation
Epitaph / Benjamin Franklin
from The Autobiography [part 2] / Benjamin Franklin
A short narrative of my life / Samson Occom
"Bars fight" / Lucy Terry (Prince)
from Letters of Abigail and John Adams / Abigail Smith Adams
from The Adams-Jefferson Letters / Abigail Smith Adams
Letters from an American farmer / J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
from Letter III: What is an American? / J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
from Letter IX: Description of Charles Town; thoughts on slavery; on physical evil; a melancholy scene / J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
from Letter XII: Distresses of a frontier man / J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
A charge, delivered to the African Lodge, June 24, 1797, at Menotomy / Prince Hall
from Common Sense / Thomas Paine
Introduction / Thomas Paine
from III: Thoughts on the present state of American affairs / Thomas Paine
from Autobiography [Declaration of Independence] / Thomas Jefferson
Notes on the State of Virginia / Thomas Jefferson
from Query VI: Productions mineral, vegetable and animal / Thomas Jefferson
from Query XIV: Laws / Thomas Jefferson
from Query XVIII: Manners / Thomas Jefferson
Proclamations and letters / Toussaint L'Ouverture
from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself / Olaudah Equiano
"Desultory thoughts upon the utility of encouraging a degree of self-complacency, especially in female bosoms" / Judith Sargent Murry
"The rising glory of America" / Philip Freneau
"A political litany" / Philip Freneau
"George the Third's soliloquy" / Philip Freneau
"To Sir Toby" / Philip Freneau
"Liberty further extended: or free thoughts on the illegality of slave-keeping" / Lemuel Haynes
from Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral / Phillis Wheatley
"To Maecenas" / Phillis Wheatley
"To the University of Cambridge, in New England" / Phillis Wheatley
"On being brought from Africa to America" / Phillis Wheatley
"On the death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield" / Phillis Wheatley
"To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for North America, &c." / Phillis Wheatley
"A farewell to America. To Mrs. S.W." / Phillis Wheatley
Letter to Samson Occom / Phillis Wheatley
Extant poem not included in Poems, 1773 / Phillis Wheatley
"America" / Phillis Wheatley
from Alcuin Part I / Charles Brockden Brown.