Appendix A:
Primary Documents included in U.S. History I and II.

Note: An asterisk (*) after the document indicates that it is required and may be included in the high
school American history MCAS. All other documents are only suggested.

1. Magna Carta (1215)
2. Mayflower Compact (1620)*
3. Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641)
4. English Bill of Rights (1689)
5. John Locke’s Treatises of Civil Government (1690)
6. The Suffolk Resolves (1774)
7. Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
8. Declaration of Independence (1776)*
9. the Massachusetts Constitution (1780)
10. the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)
11. the Northwest Ordinance (1787)*
12. the United States Constitution (1787)*
13. selected Federalist Papers, such as numbers 1, 9, 10*, 39, 51, and 78 (1787–1788)
14. the Bill of Rights (1791)*
15. President Washington’s Farewell Address (1796)
16. President Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address (1801)
17. Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, Volume I (1835) and Volume II (1839).
18. The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848)*
19. Frederick Douglass: Independence Day Speech at Rochester, New York (1852)*
20. Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided” speech (1858)
21. President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (1863)* and Second Inaugural Address (1865)*
22. Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus” (1883)
23. Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Exposition Address (1895)
24. The Niagara Movement Declaration of Principles (1905)
25. Younghill Kang, East Goes West (1937)
26. President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech (1941)*
27. Justice Robert M. Jackson’s opinion for the Supreme Court in West Virginia State Board of
Education v. Barnette (1943)
28. Learned Hand, “The Spirit of Liberty”(1944)
29. President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address (1961)
30. Reverend Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” (1963)*
and “I Have A Dream” speech (1963)*
31. Ronald Reagan, Speech at Moscow State University (1988)