Documenting American violence: a sourcebook

1. Crime as social drama

Hugh Stone, a convicted murderer, on the sin of murder, 1698

Jereboam O. Beauchamp confesses to murdering Solomon P. Sharp, 1825

Harry Thaw's account of his murder of Stanford White, 1906

Rev. Madison Peters justifies the murder of Stanford White, 1907

Jeffrey Toobin on the O. J. Simpson trial, 1995

2. conquest of America

Virginia's capital laws : laws of the colony of Virginea, 1610-1611

Pequot War : Capt. John Underhill's account of the mystic massacre, 1637

Kieft's war : David De Vries describes the beginnings of Kieft's war, 1642

Bacon's rebellion : an anonymous account of the rebellion in Virginia, 1676

Pueblo uprising and its suppression : Governor Antonio de Otermin's report on the uprising in New Mexico, 1680

Spanish officials question the Pueblo Indian Josephe, 1681

Don Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora describes the reconquest of New Mexico, 1692

Salem Witchcraft trials : Thomas Brattle's account of Witchcraft, 1692

paxton boys : Benjamin Franklin's narrative of the massacres, 1763

3. Revolutionary violence

North Carolina regulators : the petition from the inhabitants of Orange County, North Carolina, 1770

Judge Richard Henderson confronts a riot in Hillsborough, North Carolina, 1770

Virginia Gazette reports on the battle of Alamance, 1771

Boston massacre : the town of Boston presents its version of the massacre, 1770

American revolution begins : reverend Jonas Clark describes the encounter at Lexington, 1775

Ensign Henry De Bernicre offers the British view of Lexington and concord

Revolutionary institutions : Major General Steuben on the opportunities of war, 1779

Colonel George Rogers Clark on the conquest of the West, 1779

General Nathanael Greene on the difficulties of sustaining the war, 1781

Battling dissent : Rivington's Gazette on the harassment of loyalists, 1775

Wm. Christian, Col. William Preston, Capt. Patrick Lockhart, and Col. Charles Lynch on the revolutionary origins of Lynching, 1779-1780

Shays's rebellion : General William Shephard on the confrontation at Springfield, Massachusetts, 1787

town of Coleraine petitions for mercy for the Shaysites, 1787

General Benjamin Lincoln crushes Shays's rebellion, 1787

Thomas Jefferson on the need for the occasional revolution, 1787

4. Slavery

Slave law : Colonial Virginia slave laws

Mississippi's slave code, 1848

North Carolina's Supreme Court considers the murder conviction of the slave Caesar, 1849

Slave revolt in Virginia : Nat Turner describes his rebellion, 1831

slave insurrection in Mississippi : the vigilantes of Madison County, Mississippi, justify their actions, 1835

Dueling : White Mississippians debate dueling, 1844

daily experience of cruelty : Frederick Douglass searches for the meaning of violence in a slave regime, 1855

5. Civil War

Harpers Ferry : the national intelligencer describes events at Harpers Ferry, 1859

experience of battle : Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on the nature of warfare, 1861, 1862, 1864

battle of Gettysburg : the British officer James A. L. Fremantle observes the battle of Gettysburg, 1863

New York City draft riots : David M. Barnes records the violence of the New York City riots, 1863

Andersonville : excerpts from the diary of POW John L. Ransom, 1864

assassination of Abraham Lincoln : Thomas M. Harris documents the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, 1865

6. new south

Black codes : Mississippi's black code, 1865

New Orleans race riot : J. D. O'Connell's testimony before the house of representatives, 1866

Ku Klux Klan : Henry Lowther's testimony before a congressional committee, 1871

Vicksburg massacre : James M. Batchelor describes the massacre, 1874

Testimony of Andrew Owen before the house of representatives, 1874

James M. Batchelor writes of the thrill of violence, 1875

Calls for a black defense force : Timothy Thomas fortune's speech calling for self-defense, 1884

Carrollton massacre : James K. Vardaman justifies the Carrollton tragedy, 1886

Lynching : Ida B. Wells documents the violence against black Americans, 1895

Wilmington race riots : Colonel Alfred M. Waddell justifies a race riot, 1898

White opposition to mob violence : John Gordon Cashman Warns of the danger of lawlessness, 1902, 1904

Tulsa race riots : the Oklahoma commission to study the Tulsa race riot of 1921 seeks reparations, 2001

7. wild west in myth and reality

Mexican war : a group of Mexican editors blame U.S. aggression for an unnecessary war, 1850

little Bighorn massacre : the Chicago tribune reports custer's defeat, 1876

Hamlin Garland records the Cheyenne two moon's version of the battle, 1876

Billy the kid : Pat Garrett's version of the Lincoln County War, 1877

Popular tribunals : Hubert Howe Bancroft defends vigilance committees, 1887

Virginian : Owen Wister creates the standard image of the wild west, 1902

Wounded knee : James Mooney documents the ghost dance religion and its consequence, 1890

8. industrialization of violence

strike of 1877 : Allan Pinkerton on putting down the great strike of 1877

haymarket trials : Michael J. Schaack remembers "the red terror" in Chicago, 1886

Class war in Coeur d'Alene : the spokane weekly review reports on the violence in Coeur d'Alene, 1892

assassination of Frank Steunenberg : Harry Orchard on making a bomb, 1905

Ludlow massacre : the United States commission on industrial relations charges the Colorado National Guard with inciting violence, 1913

Hawk's nest tunnel : Philippa Allen, Arthur Peyton, Rush Dew Hole, and John W. Finch testify before the house of representatives on America's worst industrial disaster, 1936

9. Violence as a means of crime control

problem with due process : Justice David J. Brewer downplays the importance of due process, 1903

problem of class : the final statements of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti to the court sentencing them to death, 1927

problem with the police : the Wickersham Commission documents police brutality, 1931

problem of organized crime : testimony of Claude A. Follmer before a congressional committee, 1950

problem of race : the California governor's commission looks for the causes of the Watts riot of 1965

independent commission on the Los Angeles police department looks for the causes of the Los Angeles riot of 1992

death penalty : the Supreme Court considers the electrocution of convicted criminals, In re Kemmler, 1890

Supreme Court considers the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia, 1972

10. Civil rights

law against lynching : Walter White meets with Attorney General Homer Cummings, 1936

Walter White appeals to Eleanor Roosevelt, 1936

Victor Rotnem argues for a civil right "not to be lynched," 1943

Justice Frank Murphy's notes on the Supreme Court debate over a right not to be lynched, 1944

Emmett Till : William Bradford Huie describes "the shocking story of approved killing in Mississippi," 1956

Freedom rides : James Farmer leads the freedom riders, 1961

FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe, Jr. participates in Klan violence, 1961

Confrontation at Ole Miss : the Mississippi National Guard confronts rioters at the University of Mississippi, 1962

Jail as a temple of freedom : Aaron Henry's testimony before the house judiciary committee, 1963

president speaks in favor of civil rights : President Lyndon B. Johnson calls for an end to racist violence, 1965

Supreme Court places civil rights above states' rights : the Supreme Court on the murder of Michael Schwerner, James Goodman, and James Chaney, in United States v. price, et al., 1966

11. Lost to history

Living with domestic violence : Abigail Bailey describes her husband's violent ways, 1767-1789

Incidents in the life of a slave girl : Harriet Jacobs, a slave, is raped by her owner, 1861

rights of the victim : Maria Hanson's testimony before the senate judiciary committee, 1990.