This concise collection of primary sources presents the story of US History as told by dissenters who, throughout the course of American history, have fought to gain rights they believed were denied to them or others, or who disagreed with the government or majority opinion.   Each document is introduced by placing it in its historical context, and thought-provoking questions are provided to focus the student when s/he reads the text. Instructors are at liberty to choose the documents that best highlight themes they wish to emphasize.

Table of Contents:
Preface What Is Dissent?   PART ONE Pre-Revolutionary Roots, 1607–1760 Introduction: The Long Roots of Modern Dissent Roger Williams (c. 1603–1683)     The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, 1644 Anne Hutchinson (1591–1643)     The Trial of Anne Hutchinson, 1637 Alice Tilly (1594–c. 1660)     Petition for the Release of Alice Tilly, 1649 Mary Dyer (c. 1611–1660)     Mary Dyer's First Letter Written From Prison, 1659 Nathaniel Bacon (1647–1676)      Declaration in the Name of the People, July 30, 1676 Quaker Antislavery Petition     A Minute Against Slavery, 1688 Letter from an Anonymous Slave     Releese Us Out of This Cruell Bondegg, 1723 Native American Voices (1609–1752)     Powhatan, Speech to John Smith, 1609     Garangula, Speech to Governor La Barre of New         France, 1684     Loron Sauguaarum, Negotiations for the Casco Bay Treaty, 1727     Mashpee, Petition to the Massachusetts General Court, 1752 John Peter Zenger (1697–1746)     The New York Weekly Journal, 1733 Eighteenth-Century Runaway Women     Advertisements from the PennsylvaniaGazette, 1742–1748   PART TWO Revolution and the Birth of a Nation, 1760–1820 Introduction: The Republic Takes Shape John Woolman (1720–1772)     “Considerations on Keeping Negroes, Part Second,” 1762 John Killbuck (1737–1811)     Speech to the Governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia,         December 4, 1771 Samuel Adams (1722–1803)     The Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772 Revolutionary Women     Hannah Griffiths, Poem, 1768     Ladies of Edenton, North Carolina, Agreement, 1774-1775 Thomas Paine (1737–1809)     Common Sense, 1776 Abigail Adams (1744–1818) and John Adams (1735–1826)     Letters, 1776 Thomas Hutchinson (1711–1780)     A Loyalist Critique of the Declaration of Independence,         1776 Slave Petition     Petition for Gradual Emancipation, 1777 United Indian Nations     Protest to the United States Congress, 1786 Shays’s Rebellion, 1786–1787     Statement of Grievances, 1786 George Mason (1725–1792)     Objections to This Constitution of Government, 1787 Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820)     “On the Equality of the Sexes,” 1790 Shawnee, Miami, Ottawa, and Seneca Proposal     Proposal to Maintain Indian Lands, 1793 Protest Against the Alien and Sedition Acts     The Virginia Resolutions, 1798 Tecumseh (1768–1813)     Letter to Governor William Henry Harrison, 1810     Speech to the Southern Tribes, 1811 Congressmen Protest the War of 1812     Federalist Protest, 1812 Free Blacks of Philadelphia     Protest Against Colonization Policy, 1817   PART THREE Questioning the Nation, 1820–1860 Introduction: The Reforming Impulse Theodore Frelinghuysen (1787–1862)     Speech Protesting the Indian Removal Bill, April 9, 1830 Cherokee Chief John Ross (1790–1866)     Letter Protesting the Treaty of New Echota, 1836 David Walker (1785–1830)     Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, 1830 William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879)     The Liberator, Vol. I, No. I, January 1, 1831 William Apess (1798–1839)     “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man,” 1833 Laborers of Boston     Ten-Hour Circular, 1835 Angelina Grimké (1805–1879) and Sarah Grimké (1792–1873)     Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, 1836     “The Original Equality of Woman,” 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)     “Self-Reliance,” 1841 Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)     Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Part 3, 1844 LowellMills Girls     Lowell Female Industrial Reform and Mutual Aid Society, 1847 ElizabethCady Stanton (1815–1902)     Speech at Seneca Falls, July 19, 1848     Declaration of Sentiments, 1848 Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883)     Ain’t I A Woman?, 1851 Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)     What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, July 5, 1852 Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)     “On Resistance to Civil Government,” 1849 Lucy Stone (1818–1893)     Statement on Marriage, 1855 The Know-Nothings     American Party Platform, Philadelphia, February 21, 1856 John Brown (1800–1859)     Address to the Virginia Court at Charles Town, Virginia,         November 2, 1859 PART FOUR Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860–1877  Introduction: A Divided Nation Clement L. Vallandigham (1820–1871)     Response to Lincoln’s Address to Congress, July 10, 1861 William Brownlow (1805–1877)     Knoxville Whig Antisecession Editorial, May 25, 1861 The Arkansas Peace Society     Arkansas Peace Society Documents, 1861 Joseph E. Brown (1821–1894)     Message to the Legislature, March 10, 1864 Cyrus Pringle (1838–1911)     The Record of a Quaker Conscience, 1863 African American Soldiers of the Union Army     Correspondence Protesting Unequal Pay, 1863-1864 Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)     What the Black Man Wants, April 1865 ZionPresbyterian Church     Petition to the United States Congress, November 24,         1865 American Equal Rights Association     National Convention Resolutions, New York, May 1867 Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)     From an Account of the Trial of Susan B. Anthony,         July 3, 1873     Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?, 1873   PART FIVE  Industry and Reform, 1877–1912 Introduction: Progress and Discontent Terence Powderly (1849–1924)     Preamble to the Constitution of the Knights of Labor,         January 3, 1878     “Eight Hours,” by I. G. Blanchard and Jesse Jones, 1880s Chief Joseph (1840–1904)     Appeal to the Hayes Administration, 1879 Mary Elizabeth Lease (1850–1933)     Speech to the WCTU, 1890 The People’s Party     The Omaha Platform, July 1892 Jane Addams (1860–1935)     The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements,         1892 Frances E. Willard (1839–1898)     Speech to the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance         Union, 1893 Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)     Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are, 1895 W. E. B. DuBois (1868–1963)     “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,” 1903     Address to the Niagara Conference, Harpers Ferry,         West Virginia, 1906 Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862–1931)     Lynch Law in Georgia, June 20, 1899     “Tortured and Burned Alive,” 1899 Carl Schurz (1829–1906)     Address at the University of Chicago Denouncing U.S.         Imperialism, January 4, 1899 Mother Jones (1830–1930)     “The March of the Mill Children,” 1903 John Muir (1838–1914)     “The Hetch Hetchy Valley,” January 1908 Emma Goldman (1869–1940)     “Marriage and Love,” 1911 Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)     Christianizing the Social Order, 1912 The Socialist Party     Socialist Party Platform, May 12, 1912   PART SIX Conflict and Depression, 1912–1945 Introduction: Becoming a World Power Joe Hill (1879–1915)     “We Will Sing One Song,” 1913     “The Preacher and the Slave Girl,” 1913 Robert M. LaFollette (1855–1925)     Defense of Free Speech, October 6, 1917 Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926)     Antiwar Speech, Canton, Ohio, June 1918 RandolphBourne (1886–1918)     “War Is the Health of the State,” 1918 A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979)     “On Socialism,” 1919 Marcus Garvey (1887–1940)     Speech to the Universal Negro Improvement Association,         Philadelphia, 1919 Margaret Sanger (1879–1966)     “The Goal,” 1920 H. L. Mencken (1880–1956)     “Last Words,” 1926     “Mencken’s Creed” Father Charles Coughlin (1891–1979)     National Radio Address, November 1934     National Radio Address, June 1936 Huey Long (1893–1935)     Speech in the U.S. Senate, February 5, 1934 Woody Guthrie (1912–1967)     “The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd,” 1939     “Jesus Christ,” 1940 J. Saunders Redding (1906–1988) and Charles F. Wilson (Unknown)     J. Saunders Redding, “A Negro Looks at This War,” 1942     Charles F. Wilson, Letter to President Roosevelt, 1944 David Dellinger (1915–2004)     Why I Refused to Register in the October 1940 Draft and a Little of What It Led To Minoru Yasui (1916–1986)     Reflections on Executive Order 9066     Resistance     Statement upon Sentencing, 1942     Letters from Jail to His Sister Yuka Yasui, 19421943   PART SEVEN The Affluent Society, 1945–1966 Introduction: The Crack in the Picture Window John Howard Lawson (1894–1977)     Lawson’s Statement That Was Excluded from the Public         Record, 1947 Margaret Chase Smith (1897–1995)     Declaration of Conscience, 1950 Paul Robeson (1898–1976)     Testimony Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities,         June 12, 1956 Harry Hay (1912–2002)     Speech at the Gay Spirit Visions Conference, Highlands, North Carolina,         November 1990 Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997)     “America,” 1956 Songs of the Civil Rights Movement     Pete Seeger, “I Ain’t Scared of Your Jail,” 1963     Carver Neblett, “If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus,” 1960 Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968)     Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977)     Testimony Before the Credentials Committee of the Democratic         National Convention, 1964 Malcolm X (1925–1965)     The Black Revolution, 1964 Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998)     Berkeley Speech, October 1966 The Black Panther Party     Black Panther Party Platform, 1966 Students for a Democratic Society     The Port Huron Statement, 1962 Protest Music I     Phil Ochs, “I Ain’t Marching Anymore,” 1965     Malvina Reynolds, “Little Boxes,” 1962     Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” 1965   PART EIGHT  Mobilization: Vietnam and the Counterculture, 1964–1975 Introduction: The Movement Mario Savio (1942–1996)     Speech at the University of California at Berkeley,         December 2, 1964 Carl Oglesby (1935– )     Speech Denouncing the War in Vietnam, Washington, DC,         November 27, 1965 The Weather Underground     You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way         the Wind Blows, 1969 John Kerry (1943– )     Statement to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations,         April 23, 1971 Timothy Leary (1920–1996)     Using LSD to Imprint the Tibetan-Buddhist Experience, 1964 Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989)     Introduction, Steal This Book, 1970 Protest Music II     Pete Seeger, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” 1967     Country Joe McDonald, “I Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die         Rag,” 1965     John Fogerty, Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son,” 1969 Redstockings     The Redstockings Manifesto, 1969 S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men)     S.C.U.M. Manifesto, 1968 Gloria Steinem (1934– )     “‘Women’s Liberation’ Aims to Free Men, Too,” June 7, 1970 Stonewall     Stonewall Documents, 1969 The American Indian Movement     A Proclamation: To the Great White Father and All His People, 1969   PART NINE Contemporary Dissent, 1975–Present Introduction: Crossing the Threshold into the New Millennium—     Globalization vs. Jihad Paul Weyrich (1941– )     “A Conservative’s Lament: After Iran, We Need to Change         Our System and Grand Strategy,” March 8, 1987 ACT UP     Vito Russo, “Why We Fight,” 1988 Gay Liberation     Statement of Phill Wilson, Director of Public Policy, AIDS Project,         Los Angeles, 1994     Statement of Letitia Gomez, Executive Director, Latino/a Lesbian         and Gay Organization, 1994 The Michigan Militia     In Defense of Liberty II, 1995 Theodore Kaczynski (1942– )     The Unabomber Manifesto, 1996     Interview with Theodore Kaczynski, June 1999 Ralph Nader (1934– )     It’s Time to End Corporate Welfare As We Know It, 1996 Ani DiFranco (1970– )     “self evident,” 2001 Protest Music III     Mos Def, “New World Water,” 1999     Immortal Technique, “The 4th Branch,” 2003     Steve Earle, “Rich Man’s War,” 2004 Amnesty International     Amnesty International’s Concerns Regarding Post–September 11         Detentions in the U.S.A., March 14, 2002 Earth Liberation Front     Written Testimony Supplied to the U.S. House of Representatives         for the February 12, 2002,Hearing on “Ecoterrorism” Not in Our Name     Statement of Conscience, 2003 Veterans Against the Iraq War     Call to Conscience from Veterans to Active Duty Troops         and Reservists, 2003     Message to the Troops: Resist!, October 11, 2002 The American Civil Liberties Union     Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post-9/11 America,         May 2003 MoveOn.org     The Many Faces of the Media, 2004 Michael Berg (1945– )     “George Bush Never Looked Into Nick’s Eyes,” May 21, 2004 Cindy Sheehan (1957– )     A Lie of Historic Proportions, August 8, 2005     Carly’s Poem—A Nation Rocked to Sleep, August 15, 2005     Author’s Note Acknowledgments About the Documents Text Credits Index