VGE2U3 – Civilisation américaine

An Overview of the History of the United States of America.

Instructions for the Virginia Colony (1606)

Mayflower Compact (1620)

A Letter from an Indentured Servant (1623)

Boston Massacre (1770)

Common Sense, Thomas Paine (1776)

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

The Prairie, James Fenimore Cooper (1827)

The Spirit of Abolitionism, William Lloyd Garrison (1831)

Abraham Lincoln to A.G. Hodges (letter - 1864)

Work among the Poor, Jacob A. Riis + Five Cents a Spot

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 Instructions for the Virginia Colony (1606)

As we doubt not but you will have especial care to observe the ordinances set down by the King's
Majesty and delivered unto you under the Privy Seal; so for your better directions upon your first
landing we have thought good to recommend unto your care these instructions and articles following.

When it shall please God to send you on the coast of Virginia, you shall do your best endeavour to
find out a safe port in the entrance of some navigable river, making choice of such a one as runneth
farthest into the land, and if you happen to discover divers portable rivers, and amongst them any one
that hath two main branches, if the difference be not great, make choice of that which bendeth most
toward the North-West for that way you shall soonest find the other sea.
When you have made choice of the river on which you mean to settle, be not hasty in landing your
victuals and munitions; but first let Captain Newport discover how far that river may be found
navigable, that you make election of the strongest, most wholesome and fertile place; for if you make
many removes, besides the loss of time, you shall greatly spoil your victuals and your caske, and with
great pain transport it in small boats.

But if you choose your place so far up as a bark of fifty tuns will float, then you may lay all your
provisions ashore with ease, and the better receive the trade of all the countries about you in the land;
and such a place you may perchance find a hundred miles from the river's mouth, and the further up
the better. For if you sit down near the entrance, except it be in some island that is strong by nature,
an enemy that may approach you on even ground, may easily pull you out; and if he be driven to seek
you a hundred miles [in] the land in boats, you shall from both sides of the river where it is narrowest,
so beat them with your muskets as they shall never be able to prevail against you.

And to the end that you be not surprised as the French were in Florida by Melindus, and the Spaniard
in the same place by the French, you shall do well to make this double provision. First, erect a little
stoure at the mouth of the river that may lodge some ten men; with whom you shall leave a light boat,
that when any fleet shall be in sight, they may come with speed to give you warning. Secondly, you
must in no case suffer any of the native people of the country to inhabit between you and the sea
coast; for you cannot carry yourselves so towards them, but they will grow discontented with your
habitation, and be ready to guide and assist any nation that shall come to invade you; and if you
neglect this, you neglect your safety.

Instructions for the Virginia Colony – questions about the text :

1. Define the title of the document. What can you infer about its author (“we” …)?
2. What do you know about the context ?
3. Who is « you » / the addressee (l.2 …)
4. What is the purpose of the instructions ?
5. Which difficulties are foreseen ?

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 Mayflower Compact
(Modern version).

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread
Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King,
defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our
King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these
presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine
ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance
of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws,
ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and
convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and
obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in
the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the
eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Morison, 75-6.

1- What kind of document is this? When was it written? Who wrote it?
2- Is it a primary source or secondary source?
3- Why have these people undertaken such a great journey?
4- How are they called today?
5- Was Plymouth the first English colony in America?
6- Can you find a synonym for the word “compact”?
7- What is the purpose of this compact? Why did these men choose to ally themselves?
8- Who would rule?
9- Wat is the purpose of the government?
10- How to rule?

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 A Letter from an Indentured Servant.
Virginia, 1623

Loving and kind father and mother,

My most humble duty remembered to you, hoping in God of your good health, as I myself at the
making hereof.
This is to let you understand that I, your child, am in a most heavy case, by reason of the nature of
the country, [which] is such that it causes me much sickness (…), which make the body very poor
and weak. And when we are sick, there is nothing to comfort us. For since I came out of the ship, I
never ate anything but peas and water gruel1. As for deer or venison2, I never saw any since I came
into this land. There is indeed some fowl3, but we are not allowed to go and get it, but must work hard
both early and late for a mess of water gruel and a mouthful of bread and beef. A mouthful of bread,
for a penny loaf must serve four men, which is most pitiful, if you did know as much as I, when
people cry out day and night, O that they were in England without their limbs 4, and would not care
to lose any limbs to be in England, yea though they beg from door to door.
For we live in fear of the enemy every hour, yet we have had a combat with them on Sunday (…).
And we took two alive and made slaves of them. But it was by policy, for we are in great danger, for
our plantation is very weak, by reason of death and sickness of our company. For we came but twenty,
(…) and they are half dead just. And we look every hour when two or more should go. Yet there came
some other men to live with us, of which there is but one alive (…), so that we are fain [we need] to
get other men to plant with us, and yet we are but thirty-two to fight against three thousand if they
should come. And the closest help that we have is ten miles of us. And when the rogues overcame
this place last, they slew eighty persons.
And I have nothing to comfort me, nor is there nothing to be gotten here but sickness and death,
except [unless] one had money to lay out in some things for profit. But I have nothing at all, no, not
a shirt on my back, but two rags, nor no clothes, but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, but one
pair of stockings, but one cap. My cloak5 was stolen by one of my own fellows, and to his dying hour
he would not tell me what he did with it. But some of my fellows saw him have butter and beef out
of a ship, which my cloak I [don't] doubt paid for. So that I have not a penny, nor a penny worth to
help me to either spice, or sugar, or strong waters [alcohol], without the which one cannot live here.
For as strong beer in England does fatten and strengthen you, so water does wash and weaken here,
only keeps life and soul together.
For I am not half a quarter as strong as I was in England, and all is for want of 6 victuals, for I do
protest unto you that I have eaten more in a day at home than I have allowed me here for a week. You
have given more than my day's allowance to a beggar at the door.
Mr Jackson [who works on a boat and is very kind with Richard] much marveled that you would send
me a servant to the company. He said I had been better knocked on the head, and indeed I find it now
to my grief and misery, and say that if you love me you will redeem me suddenly, for which I do
entreat and beg. And if you cannot get the merchant to redeem me for some little money, then for
God's sake get a gathering, or entreat some folks to lay out some little sum of money, in meals, and
cheese and butter, and beef...

1
Gruel: a food made by boiling crushed grain in water or milk, often eaten by poor people in the past
2
Venison: the meat from a deer
3
Fowl : a bird that is kept on a farm for its eggs and meat, for example a chicken or a duck
4
Limb: an arm, or a leg
5
Cloak : a long thick loose coat without sleeves, that fastens around your neck
6
Want of : lack of
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Wherefore for God's sake pity me. I pray you to remember my love to all my friends and kindred. I
hope all my brothers and sisters are in good health, and as for my part, I have set down my resolution
that certainly will be: that the answer to this letter will be life or death to me.
Richard (Frethorne)

1. Define « indentured servant »

2. What do we learn about the context in Virginia in 1623?
3. What do we learn about Frethorne’s living conditions?
4. Why does Frethorne compare Virginia to England?
5. Why is Frethorne writing to his parents?
6. Who is Mr Jackson and why does he mention him?

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 Boston Massacre – 1770.

A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston. Printed by Order of the Town of Boston. Re-
published with Notes and Illustrations hy John Doggett, Jr., (New York, 1849), vp. 13-19; 21- 22; 28-
30.

THE HORRID MASSACRE IN BOSTON, PERPETRATED IN THE EVENING OF THE FIFTH

DAY OF MARCH, 1770, BY SOLDIERS OF THE TWENTY-NINTH REGIMENT WHICH WITH
THE FOURTEENTH REGIMENT WERE THEN QUARTERED THERE; WITH SOME
OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THINGS PRIOR TO THAT CATASTROPHE.

It may be a proper introduction to this narrative, briefly to represent the state of things for some time
previous to the said Massacre; and this seems necessary in order to the forming a just idea of the
causes of it.

At the end of the late [French and Indian] war, in which this province bore so distinguished a part, a
happy union subsisted between Great Britain and the colonies. This was unfortunately interrupted by
the Stamp Act; but it was in some measure restored by the repeal of it. It was again interrupted by
other acts of parliament for taxing America; and by the appointment of a Board of Commissioners,
in pursuance of an act, which by the face of it was made for the relief and encouragement of
commerce, but which in its operation, it was apprehended, would have, and it has in fact had, a
contrary effect. By the said act the said Commissioners were "to be resident in some convenient part
of his Majesty's dominions in America." This must be understood to be in some part convenient for
the whole. But it does not appear that, in fixing the place of their residence, the convenience of the
whole was at all consulted, for Boston, being very far from the centre of the colonies, could not be
the place most convenient for the whole. […]
The residence of the Commissioners here has been detrimental, not only to the commerce [greatly
reduced from the embarrassments of their presence], but to the political interests of the town and
province; and not only so, but we can trace from it the causes of the late horrid massacre. Soon after
their arrival here in November, 1767, instead of confining themselves to the proper business of their
office, they became partisans of Governor Bernard in his political schemes; and had the weakness
and temerity to infringe upon one of the most essential rights of the house of commons of this province
– that of giving their votes with freedom, and not being accountable therefor but to their constituents.
One of the members of that house, Capt. Timothy Folgier, having voted in some affair contrary to the
mind of the said Commissioners, was for so doing dismissed from the office he held under them.

These proceedings of theirs, the difficulty of access to them on office-business, and a supercilious
behavior, rendered them disgustful to people in general, who in consequence thereof treated them
with neglect. This probably stimulated them to resent it; and to make their resentment felt, they and
their coadjutor, Governor Bernard, made such representations to his Majesty's ministers as they
thought best calculated to bring the displeasure of the nation upon the town and province; and in order
that those representations might have the more weight, they are said to have contrived and executed
plans for exciting disturbances and tumults, which otherwise would probably never have existed; and,
when excited, to have transmitted to the ministry the most exaggerated accounts of them.

Unfortunately for us, they have been too successful in their said representations, which, in conjunction
with Governor Bernard's, have occasioned his Majesty's faithful subjects of this town and province
to be treated as enemies and rebels, by an invasion of the town by sea and land; to which the
approaches were made with all the circumspection usual where a vigorous opposition is expected.
While the town was surrounded by a considerable number of his Majesty's ships of war, two regiments
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landed and took possession of it; and to support these, two other regiments arrived some time after
from Ireland; one of which landed at Castle Island, and the other in the town.

Thus were we, in aggravation of our other embarrassments, embarrassed with troops, forced upon us
contrary to our inclination-contrary to the spirit of Magna Charta – contrary to the very letter of the
Bill of Rights, in which it is declared, that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom
in time of peace, unless it be with the consent of parliament, is against law, and without the desire of
the civil magistrates, to aid whom was the pretense for sending the troops hither; who were quartered
in the town in direct violation of an act of parliament for quartering troops in America; and all this in
consequence of the representations of the said Commissioners and the said Governor, as appears by
their memorials and letters lately published.

As they were the procuring cause of troops being sent hither, they must therefore be the remote and
a blameable cause of all the disturbances and bloodshed that have taken place in consequence of that
measure.

1. Define what a massacre is.

2. Is there any mention of what actually took place on March 5, 1770 in the text?
3. Find out an account of this event.
4. According to the author / authors of the text, in which state of mind were Bostonians at that
time? What about the dominant lexical field in the second part of the text?
5. How do Bostonians call themselves? And how are they designated by the board of
commissioners?
6. What do you know about the French and Indian war?
7. How is that war considered in the text? Why is it mentioned?
8. Which even altered the relationships? What do you know about it?
9. Which new set of laws came to affect once more the relationships between the colonies and
the mother country?
10. How is the text presented (nature of the document)?
11. What can you infer about the author? How do the authors call themselves?
12. What is denounced? Who is held responsible for the so-called massacre?
13. About the presence of troops in Boston: why are the colonists furious? Which arguments do
they give that justify their demand to have them withdrawn?
14. Who can be the addressee?

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 Common Sense.

[…] The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. ‘Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a
province, or a kingdom, but of a continent – of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. ‘Tis not
the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more
or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental
union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin
on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full
grown characters.
By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new area for politics is struck; a new method of
thinking hath arisen. All plans, proposals, &c. prior to the nineteenth of April, i.e., to the
commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacs of the last year; which, though proper then, are
superseded and useless now. Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question
then, terminated in one and the same point, viz., a union with Great Britain; the only difference
between the parties was the method of effecting it; the one proposing force, the other friendship; but
it hath so far happened that the first hath failed, and the second hath withdrawn her influence.
As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which, like an agreeable dream, hath
passed away and left us as we were, it is but right, that we should examine the contrary side of the
argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries which these colonies sustain, and
always will sustain, by being connected with, and dependent on Great Britain. To examine that
connection and dependance, on the principles of nature and common sense, to see what we have to
trust to, if separated, and what we are to expect, if dependent.
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connection with
Great Britain, that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always
have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well
assert, that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat; or that the first twenty
years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than
is true, for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more,
had no European power had any thing to do with her. The commerce by which she hath enriched
herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.
But she has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is true, and defended the continent at
our expense as well as her own is admitted, and she would have defended Turkey from the same
motive, viz., the sake of trade and dominion.
Alas! We have been long led away by ancient prejudices and made large sacrifices to superstition.
We have boasted the protection of Great Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest
not attachment; that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on
her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always
be our enemies on the same account. Let Britain wave her pretensions to the continent, or the
continent throw off the dependence, and we should be at peace with France and Spain were they at
war with Britain. […]

Thomas Paine, January 1776.

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1. What happened on “the nineteenth of April”, l.9? To which events does that line refer?
2. Before April 19, according to Paine, what was the common position of Americans
regarding Great Britain?
3. To prove Paine’s point: who convened a short time after April 19 and what was then
drawn? What was the ultimate purpose of this document?
4. Sum up the purpose of the 3rd paragraph in one sentence (ll.16-21).
5. To which war is Paine referring ll.36-37 when he alludes to the protection against some
enemies?
6. Present Paine’s arguments and counterarguments expounded here.
7. To which popular saying do the lines of the last paragraph refer?

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 IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed,
— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not
be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has
been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them
to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an
absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. …
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing
Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries. […]
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent;
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury; […]
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
[…]
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our
repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus
marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to
time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have
reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to
disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce
in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind,
Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and
by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united
Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all
Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great
Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full
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Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts
and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Benjamin Franklin (from Pennsylvania), Thomas Jefferson (from Virginia), and 54 other delegates
to the Second Continental Congress, representing the newly self-proclaimed states, signed the
Declaration of Independence.

1. What kind of document is this? When was it written? Who wrote it?
2. Explain “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
3. Sum up the second paragraph.
4. “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” Name the event that took place in protest
of this.
5. Explain “He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and
the amount and payment of their salaries.” What is it called?
6. Who is the Prince they are referring to?
7. Which terms designate God in this text?
8. What did the colonies do to avoid a conflict?
9. How do the Founding Fathers justify independence?

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 The Prairie.
I pray thee, shepherd, if that love or gold,
Can in this desert place buy entertainment,
Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed.
--As you like it.

Much was said and written, at the time, concerning the policy of adding the vast regions of Louisiana,
to the already immense and but half-tenanted territories of the United States. As the warmth of
controversy however subsided, and party considerations gave place to more liberal views, the wisdom
of the measure began to be generally conceded. It soon became apparent to the meanest capacity, that,
while nature had placed a barrier of desert to the extension of our population in the west, the measure
had made us the masters of a belt of fertile country, which, in the revolutions of the day, might have
become the property of a rival nation. It gave us the sole command of the great thoroughfare of the
interior, and placed the countless tribes of savages, who lay along our borders, entirely within our
control; it reconciled conflicting rights, and quieted national distrusts; it opened a thousand avenues to
the inland trade, and to the waters of the Pacific; and, if ever time or necessity shall require a peaceful
division of this vast empire, it assures us of a neighbour that will possess our language, our religion, our
institutions, and it is also to be hoped, our sense of political justice.

Although the purchase was made in 1803, the spring of the succeeding year was permitted to open,
before the official prudence of the Spaniard, who held the province for his European master, admitted
the authority, or even of the entrance of its new proprietors. But the forms of the transfer were no sooner
completed, and the new government acknowledged, than swarms of that restless people, which is ever
found hovering on the skirts of American society, plunged into the thickets that fringed the right bank of
the Mississippi, with the same careless hardihood, as had already sustained so many of them in their
toilsome progress from the Atlantic states, to the eastern shores of the "father of rivers." 7

Time was necessary to blend the numerous and affluent colonists of the lower province with their new
compatriots; but the thinner and more humble population above, was almost immediately swallowed in
the vortex which attended the tide of instant emigration. The inroad from the east was a new and sudden
out-breaking of a people, who had endured a momentary restraint, after having been rendered nearly
resistless by success. The toils and hazards of former undertakings were forgotten, as these endless and
unexplored regions, with all their fancied as well as real advantages, were laid open to their enterprise.
The consequences were such as might easily have been anticipated, from so tempting an offering, placed,
as it was, before the eyes of a race long trained in adventure and nurtured in difficulties.

Thousands of the elders, of what were then called the New States8, broke up from the enjoyment of their
hard-earned indulgences, and were to be seen leading long files of descendants, born and reared in the
forests of Ohio and Kentucky, deeper into the land, in quest of that which might be termed, without the
aid of poetry, their natural and more congenial atmosphere. The distinguished and resolute forester who
first penetrated the wilds of the latter state, was of the number. This adventurous and venerable patriarch
was now seen making his last remove; placing the "endless river" between him and the multitude his
own success had drawn around him, and seeking for the renewal of enjoyments which were rendered
worthless in his eyes, when trammeled by the forms of human institutions9.
Fenimore Cooper, 1827

7 The Mississippi is thus termed in several of the Indian languages. The reader will gain a more just idea of the importance
of this stream, if he recalls to mind the fact, that the Missouri and the Mississippi are properly the same river. Their united
lengths cannot be greatly short of four thousand miles.
8 All the states admitted to the American Union, since the revolution, are called New States, with the exception of
Vermont: that had claims before the war; which were not, however, admitted until a later day.
9 Colonel Boon, the patriarch of Kentucky. This venerable and hardy pioneer of civilization emigrated to an estate three
hundred miles west of the Mississippi, in his ninety-second year, because he found a population of ten to the square mile,
inconveniently crowded!
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8. Prepare the introduction (nature, author, addressee(s)).
9. Context: what events are referred to in the text? Who did Louisiana belong to before it
became an American territory?
10. Purpose: how do we know that the Purchase of Louisiana was a controversial issue?
11. How is the West portrayed? Who will be attracted by such news?
12. What is the author’s opinion about the Purchase of Louisiana?
13. What are the advantages of settling West?
14. Who are the people who will go West? What are their qualities? What are they looking
for?
15. What is the purpose of the document?

14
 To the Public.

[…] During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses
on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater
revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free states – and particularly in New England
– than at the South. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless,
prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave owners themselves. Of course,
there were individual exceptions to the contrary. This state of things afflicted, but did not dishearten
me. I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation,
within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty. That standard is now unfurled; and long
may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe – yea, till every chain
be broken, and every bondman set free! Let Southern oppressors tremble – let their secret abettors
tremble – let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble. […]

I shall not array myself as the political partisan of any man. In defending the great cause of human
rights, I wish to derive the assistance of all religions and of all parties.
Assenting to the “self evident truth” maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, “that
all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights – among
which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, I shall strenuously contend for the immediate
enfranchisement of our slave population. […] I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal
recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor
slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity. […]

I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will
be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or
speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate
alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to
gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; - but urge me not to use moderation
in a cause like the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat
a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue
leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective, and
the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this question my influence, - humble as
it is, - is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years – not
perniciously, but beneficially – not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony that
I was right. I desire to thank God, that he enables me to disregard “the fear of man which bringeth a
snare”, and to speak his truth in its simplicity and power.

William Lloyd GARRISON,

The Liberator, Vol. I, n°1, January 1, 1831.

15
1. Who is the author? What have you found about him?
2. What was “the Liberator”?
3. Why does Garrison talk about Bunker Hill? What do you know about it?
4. What is, according to Garrison, the “birthplace of liberty” (l.8)?
5. What does he quote at the end of our text?
6. Why does he quote the Declaration of Independence?
7. Which assessment does he make at the beginning of our extract? Explain what he means.
8. Consequently, what has Garrison determined to do? Comment on the use of “let” (repeated
three times ll.10 and 11).
9. If you focus on the second paragraph, what does he want abolitionism to be?
10. What do we learn about the people who criticize Garrison? What is he reproached with? And
how does he justify himself?

16
I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did
not so think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an
unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I
would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I
could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get
power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration
this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question
of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver 10 that, to this day,
I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did
understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon
me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that Government – that nation, of which
that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the
Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often a limb must be amputated to
save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise
unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the
Constitution through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now
avow11 it. I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution,
if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of Government, country and
Constitution all together. When, early in the war, General Frémont attempted military emancipation 12,
I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General
Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected because I did not yet
think it an indispensable necessity. When still later, General Hunter attempted military
emancipation13, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come.
When in March and May and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States14
to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation
and arming the blacks would come unless averted15 by that measure. They declined the proposition,

10
Aver : affirm, assert
11
Avow : admit, contend
12
August 1861
13
In South Carolina, May 1862
14
Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri: the only slave-holding States that did not secede (the “Border States”).
15
Avert : prevent, deter
17
and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering16 the Union, and with
it the Constitution, or laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter.

Abraham LINCOLN
Letter to A.G. Hodges, of Kentucky, April 4, 1864

1. Who was Abraham Lincoln? What do you know about him? When was he elected? Which
position regarding slavery did he claim at his March 4, 1861 Inaugural Address? What was
the situation of the U.S. at that time?
2. Who was A.G. Hodges, the man to whom this letter was addressed?
3. What was Lincoln’s PERSONAL position regarding slavery?
4. As the NEWLY-ELECTED PRESIDENT, what was Lincoln’s position on the issue of
slavery?
5. What did the Constitution say about slavery?
6. As PRESIDENT, what was Lincoln’s foremost duty?
7. What did his oath forbid him to do regarding slavery?
8. How do you understand the metaphor about life and limb (l.13)?
9. To what are life and limb compared here (i.e. what is “life” and what is “limb” for Lincoln)?
10. And so, in which very special case can an unconstitutional measure become essential / vital /
crucial?
11. How does Lincoln prove that he did his utmost to avoid, as long as possible, the freeing of
slaves?
12. So which solution did Lincoln propose to the border States? Explain.
13. And so, what happened in September 1862? What did Lincoln issue? What was its purpose?

16
Surrender : cede, relinquish, yield
18
19
 WORK AMONG THE POOR.
Labors of the Tenement House Chapter of King's Daughters.
Jacob A. RIIS Asks for More Books.
Mrs Josephine S. Lowell Says More Visitors Are Needed – Election of Officers by the Organization

« I do not know that there is anything about taking a poor child to the circus that will carry a
man to heaven, » said Jacob A. Riis, at the annual meeting of the Tenement House Chapter of
the King's Daughters and Sons, yesterday afternoon, in the United Charities Building, « but I
believe that a man who will do such a thing will be pretty sure to march along in the procession
with the poor woman who cast her mite17 into the treasury.
« There are some things that I could do without, and I could go with patches in my trousers, but
it would be a very hard thing for me not to be able to take my children to the circus. A circus is
a great thing to a child.
« It is one of the greatest of offenses to take all the beauty out of a child's life. I live on Long
Island, and when I go home now and hear the robins18 sing and see the buds19 swelling, I feel
that the poor little ones who live in the city are cut off from those especial agencies that God
has made to benefit them.
The meeting yesterday was the sixth annual one of the Tenement House Chapter since its
organization by Mr. Riis, and the first since its incorporation under its present name. The work
for which it was started and which it still carries on is to assist the Summer corps of physicians
sent out among the tenements by the Health Board. Whenever the physicians find patients who
require more care than they have time to give, the chapter sends in a trained nurse, and
medicines and food when necessary, and continues its attentions until the good work is
completed.
That was the extent of the work of the organization at first. During the six years of its existence
it has broadened its labors in a quiet way until now; it has headquarters at 77 Madison Street,
near Chatham Square20, with a mothers' club, a girls' club, a boys' club, a kindergarten, “the
King's Garden”, sewing classes, a library, a visitor for the neighborhood, &c.
The chapter sent out general invitations to the public to attend its meeting yesterday, and an
effort is being made to secure annual pledges of money to be used to defray 21 the expenses of
the work.
The meeting was opened with prayer and scripture reading by the Rev. Henry M. Sanders. Mrs.
George H. McGrew presided. Annual reports were read, addresses were made by Mr. Riis and
Mrs. Josephine Show Lowell, the managers of the year were elected. Miss Buck sang, and after
the closing benediction was pronounced by Mrs. Margaret Bottome, President of the Society of
King's Daughters, there was an adjournment for a social half hour.
Mr. Riis began his address with some reminiscences of the chapter in its early days, and the
first disagreement which arose in regard to an old couple whose pipes and tobacco were the
only things that stood between them and utter misery. With such bliss22 the ladies of the chapter
were not in sympathy, and Mr Riis confessed for the first time yesterday that he surreptitiously
furnished their beneficiaries with tobacco.
After speaking of the help that is coming from all sides in the work of caring for the poor, he
urged the needs of the library. “It is a very necessary thing that we should put the right kind of

17
Mite : denier, obole
18
Robin : rouge-gorge
19
Buds : bourgeons
20
Chatham Square : a major intersection in Manhattan (by the mid-19th c: a seedy section of the old Five Points
neighborhood, having an international notoriety as a disease-ridden, crime-infested slum.
21
Defray : couvrir
22
Bliss : félicité (bonheur)

20
books into the hands of the people,” he said. “In the course of my work recently I have come in
contact with two suicides, a man and a woman, whose lives were sacrificed to misguided
reading.”
Mrs. Bottome, sitting on the platform, nodded, bowed her head in an earnest affirmative, as if
she, too, had come across similar unfortunate cases in the wide range of her work.
“In the pocket of this girl, only twenty-one years old,” continued Mr. Riis, “were found two or
three love stories that were the very worst trash. There was absolutely no reason outside of her
reading for her taking her own life. Upon the body of the man were found Tom Paine's Age of
Reason, and numberless newspaper clippings following the discussion upon suicide opened by
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. Take the reform schools, and you will find that there is hardly a boy
there who has anything decent to read.”
It was in his remarks about the kindergarten that Mr. Riis referred to the necessity for happiness
for children. He closed his remarks by urging the need of concentration in all efforts in every
direction. “The greatest work this chapter is doing,” said Mrs. Lowell, “is what Mrs. McGoing
calls the neighborhood work. There ought to be fifty visitors. The greatest service men and
women can perform is to go and live among the poor. There are many ways in which they
through their larger opportunities can give them pleasure. Much can be done to awaken in the
poor nobler ideals and ambitions. (…)
The New York Times, published April 10, 1895.

1. Introduction (on the text).

2. Describe the photograph.
3. What is the purpose of Jacob Riis’ association?
4. Towards which group of the population should the greatest attention be given, according
to Jacob Riis (be more precise than simply “the poor”!)?
5. What are the needs that must be met? What should people do to remedy the problems?
6. What is the purpose of the text?

21