Topic: Ideas & Ideologies
Media › image
Rebellion of the Slaves in Santo Domingo
This print shows the 1791 slave insurrection in the French colony of Saint-Domingue which sparked the Haitian Revolution. By 1804, Haiti was an independent republic–a black republic–in which slavery was...
Media › document
Richard Henry Lee to Landon Carter
In this document, Thomas Jefferson recalls the life and political career of his fellow Virginian, Patrick Henry. Although he acknowledges Henry’s eloquence and commitment to the revolutionary cause, he is...
Media › document
Rights of Man
In this work, Thomas Paine related the ideals of the American Revolution to the French Revolution. After leaving the United States for France, Paine attacked monarchy and aristocracy and espoused...
Media › document
Rights of the Colonists
The radical leader Samuel Adams wrote this declaration of colonial rights in 1772. Adams said that people got their rights from “God and nature” and that government existed mainly to...Media › audio
Rough Draft of Declaration of Independence (Audio)
This is a dramatic reading of Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence which he presented to the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776. In the document’s powerful preamble,...
Media › image
Scholars at a Lecture
William Hogarth’s print “Scholars at a Lecture” depicts an all-male eighteenth-century college classroom. The facial expressions of confused and bored students make us doubt the usefulness of the professor’s lecture....
Media › document
Short Review of the Declaration
This text was a critical response by a British philosopher to the American Declaration of Independence. Presumed to be written by Jeremy Bentham, the document attacks the idea of American...
Media › document
Speech in the New York Ratification Convention
In this speech at the New York ratifying convention, Melancton Smith explained his reasons for opposing the U.S. Constitution. Smith feared that the new government would be removed from the...
Media › document
Taxation No Tyranny
Samuel Johnson, author of the famous dictionary, was one of many English critics who noted that Americans, who were so protective of their own liberties were often slaveowners. However hypocritical,...
Media › document