Foundations of American Democracy

A Critical Documents Reader

W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Kathleen DuVal, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Sophia Howells, Miguel La Serna

• Publisher: UNC at Chapel Hill Department of History
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781469689234
• eBook ISBN: 9781469689241
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

Reading the founding documents of the United States and understanding their historical context can help us to consider vital questions about governance and democracy in present day America. In Foundations of American Democracy, the 250-year evolution of democratic republicanism is examined through the lens of twenty-one critical documents from our nation’s past.

The reader is divided into three parts. Starting with the Declaration of Independence, “Foundations” explores documents that laid the groundwork on which America was built. “A More Perfect Union” offers selections related to the American Civil War and Reconstruction. And “The Gospel of Freedom” highlights the challenges and struggles faced by generations of citizens who demanded participation and representation in our democracy. The authors of these works wrestled with some of the most difficult questions of their time, creating prose that is in turn eloquent, anguished, and passionate about the challenges of forming “a more perfect Union.” Each chapter includes a concise introduction, one primary document, questions for discussion, and a section on further readings. The reader includes well-known documents such as the Federalist Papers and the Emancipation Proclamation as well as other works that broaden our view of America’s ongoing democratic experiment.

Eleven historians from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill contributed to this volume which was developed as a resource for the foundations of American democracy requirement across the University of North Carolina System.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Kathleen DuVal, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Sophia Howells, and Miguel La Serna
• I FOUNDATIONS
• 1 Declaration of Independence (1776)—Thomas Jefferson INTRODUCTION BY KATHLEEN DUVAL
• 2 Constitution of North Carolina (1776)—North Carolina Provincial Congress INTRODUCTION BY KATHLEEN DUVAL
• 3 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)—Thomas Jefferson INTRODUCTION BY MOLLY WORTHEN
• 4 The Federalist Papers (1787)—James Madison, Alexander Hamilton INTRODUCTION BY MOLLY WORTHEN
• 5 The Federal Constitution (1789)—The Constitutional Convention INTRODUCTION BY W. FITZHUGH BRUNDAGE
• II A MORE PERFECT UNION
• 6 Gettysburg Address (1863)—Abraham Lincoln INTRODUCTION BY JOSEPH T. GLATTHAAR
• 7 Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (1865)—Abraham Lincoln INTRODUCTION BY W. FITZHUGH BRUNDAGE
• 8 Lecture Delivered at Franklin Hall (1832)—Maria W. Stewart INTRODUCTION BY KATHERINE TURK
• 9 What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (1852)—Frederick Douglass INTRODUCTION BY ANTWAIN K. HUNTER
• 10 Emancipation Proclamation (1862)—Abraham Lincoln INTRODUCTION BY JOSEPH T. GLATTHAAR
• 11 The Fourteenth Amendment (1868)—John A. Bingham and others INTRODUCTION BY W. FITZHUGH BRUNDAGE
• 12 Testimony on the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina (1871)—Joseph G. Hester INTRODUCTION BY ANTWAIN K. HUNTER
• III THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM
• 13 Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)—United States Congress INTRODUCTION BY HEATHER RUTH LEE
• 14 The Indian’s Plea for Freedom (1919)—Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa) INTRODUCTION BY RAQUEL ESCOBAR
• 15 Four Freedoms (1941)—Franklin D. Roosevelt INTRODUCTION BY ERIK S. GELLMAN
• 16 Executive Order (1942)—Franklin D. Roosevelt INTRODUCTION BY HEATHER RUTH LEE
• 17 Mendez v. Westminster (1946)—Paul J. McCormick INTRODUCTION BY RAQUEL ESCOBAR
• 18 To Secure These Rights (1947)—The President’s Committee on Civil Rights INTRODUCTION BY ERIK S. GELLMAN
• 19 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)—Earl Warren INTRODUCTION BY ANTWAIN K. HUNTER
• 20 Letter from the Birmingham Jail (1963)—Martin Luther King Jr. INTRODUCTION BY CLAUDE A. CLEGG
• 21 Equal Rights Amendment (1972)—Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman INTRODUCTION BY KATHERINE TURK
• Contributors