The American Revolution

Intended for use with Windows PCs and recent Macs (OS X), this American Revolution CD, with 137 books plus historical documents, in plain text format,  is available for $19 at our online store.

For details about this publishing service, check the readme document.

If you would like to have your PC (with speakers) read these texts aloud to you, while they are displayed in text on the screen, see below about the free ReadPlease software that we have included on this CD.

User's Guide: Suggestions on how to get the most out of your books on CD and DVD.

Click on a category to go to one of the major sections of this index page:

• History Books About the American Revolution and the Early Republic
• Mercy Otis Warren
• Historical Documents Relating to the American Revolution and the Eary Republic
• Fiction set in the Revolution and Early Republic

We publish plain text books (unencrypted) on CD and DVD, and we want to provide a simple way for customers and other interested people to share their insights into how to get the most out of this new way of reading and studying. To do so we have set up an email discussion group at Yahoo. All are welcome to join and to post here, but I'll manage this group in "moderated" style, filtering messages before they go out to the whole group, to control the volume of the messages and to make sure that they are on-topic. Tips and information that would be helpful to people you have plain text books on CD are welcome -- including examples of how you are using yours, suggestions for improvement,  suggestions for future CDs, and useful/interesting texts found on the Web that should be included in future CDs. To subscribe, go to the discussion group Web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/plaintextbooksoncd  or send a blank email to plaintextbooksoncd-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Table of Contents of the American Revolution CD

History books dealing with the American Revolution and the Early Republic

• Samuel Adams
• Original Writings of Samuel Adams
• Volume 2 of 4
• Volume 3 of 4
• Volume 4 of 4
• Daniel Boone
• The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone by John Filson
• The First White Man of the West by Timothy Flint, 1856
• The Life and Times of Daniel Boone
• Wild Western Scenes by J.B. Jones, 1875
• Aaron Burr
• The Memoirs of Aaron Burr
• volume 1
• volume 2
• volume 3
• Benjamin Franklin
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Benjamin Franklin by John T. Morse, Jr.
• From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin Franklin by William Thayer, 1889
• Vie de Franklin [in French] by M. Mignet
• Thomas Jefferson
• Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson
• Jefferson and His Colleagues, a Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty by Allen Johnson
• Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Thomas Jefferson Randolph
• volume 1
• volume 2
• volume 3
• volume 4
• Thomas Jefferson by Edward S. Ellis
• Francis Marion ("the Swamp Fox")
• The Life of Francis Marion by W. Gilmore Simms
• The Life of General Francis Marion by Mason Locke Weems
• Sketch of the Life of General Francis Marion by William Dobein James
• Thomas Paine
• The Age of Reason
• The American Crisis
• Common Sense
• A Letter Addressed to the Abe Raynal on the Affairs of North America by Thomas Paine
• The Rights of Man
• George Washington
• The Americanism of Washington by Henry Van Dyke, 1906
• The Life of George Washington, volume 1 of 5,  by Washington Irving
• The Life and Times of Washington, volume 2, by John Schroeder and Benson Lossing
• George Washington by Henry Cabot Lodge, 1889
• volume 1
• volume 2
• George Washington by William Thayer, 1922
• George Washington by Calista McCabe Courtenay
• George Washington: Farmer by Paul Leland Haworth, 1915
• George Washington's Rules of Civility by Moncure Conway, 1890
• The Life of George Washington by John Marshall
• volume 1
• volume 2
• volume 3
• volume 4
• volume 5
• The True George Washington by Paul Leicester Ford
• Washington and His Colleagues by Henry Jones Ford, 1918
• Washington in Domestic Life by Richard Bush, 1857
• Native Americans
• Autobiography of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk (Black Hawk War 1832)
• An Account of Sa-go-ye-wat-ha or Red Jacket and His People 1750-1830 by John Hubbard
• Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines by Lewis Morgan
• Legends, Traditions and Laws of the Iroquois or Six Nations and History of the Tuscarora Indians by Elias Johnson
• The Iroquois Book of Rites edited by Horatio Hale
• Other
• Albert Gallatin by John Austin Stevens
• American Prisoners of the Revolution by Danske Dandridge
• The American Republic by O.A. Brownson
• Beacon Lights of History, volume 11 American Founders by John Lord
• Beginnings of the American People by Carl Lotus Becker
• Brook Farm, Historic and Personal Memoirs by John Thomas Codman
• The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn by Henry Johnson
• The Campaign of Trenton by Samuel Adams Drake
• Colonel John Brown of Pittsfield Massachusetts, the Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold by Archibald Howe
• The Conqueror, Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton by Gertrude Franklin Atherton
• Count the Cost, an address to the people of Connecticut on sundry political subjects by Jonathan Steadfast, 1804
• Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• The Death of the Federalist Party by Richard Seltzer  (html document)
• Diary of Anna Green Winslow, a Boston School Girl of 1771 by Alice Morse Earle
• The Emancipation of Massachusetts by Brooks Adams
• The Federalist Papers
• The Fight for a Free Sea, a Chronicle of the War of 1812 by Ralph Paine
• The Formation of the Union 1750-1829 by Albert Hart
• Les Francais en Americque pendant la Guerre de l'Independence (in French) by Thomas Balch, 1872
• Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker, sometime Brevet Lieutenant Colonel on the staff of General Washington, historical novel by S. Weir Mitchell
• Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill Battle as She Saw It from the Belfy [short] by Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Home Life in Colonial Days by Alice Morse Earle
• John Marshall And The Constitution, A Chronicle Of The Supreme Court by Edward S. Corwin
• Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, 1782
• The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by Merriweather Lewis and William Clark
• Knickerbocker's History of New York by Washington Irving, 1809
• The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, Interspersed with Notices of the Celebrated Indian Chief Tecumseh
• Life and Public Serivce of John Quincey Adams by William H. Seward
• The Loyalists of America and Their Times 1620 to 1816 by Egerton Ryerson
• volume 1
• volume 2
• The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence by Captain A.T. Mahan
• Memoirs of General Lafayette
• The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers 1758-1775
• A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa but Resident above 60 Years in the USA by Venture Smith, 1798
• The Naval War of 1812 by Theodore Roosevelt
• The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman
• Philip Winwood by Robert Neilson Stephens
• Reminiscences of the Military Life and Sufferings of Colonel Timothy Bigelow by Charles Hersey
• Revolutionary Heroes by James Parton
• Rise of the New West, 1819-1829 by Frederick Jackson Turner
• Select Speeches of Daniel Webster
• The Spirit of Lafayette by James Mott Hallowell
• The Star-Spangeled Banner by John Carpenter
• The Story of Commodore John Barry, Father of the American Navy by Martin Griffin
• Tea Leaves, Being a Collection of Letters and Documents Relating to the Shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the Year 1773 by Francis Drake
• The United Empire Loyalists, a Chronicle of the Great Migration by W. Stewart-Wallace
• The War of Independence by John Fiske
• The Wars Between England and America by T.C. Smith

Mercy Otis Warren, conscience of the American Revolution

This edition of Mercy Warren's works is Copyright © 2002 Richard Seltzer. Permission is granted to make and distribute complete verbatim electronic copies of this item for non-commercial purposes provided the copyright information and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. All other rights reserved. Please contact us first if you are interested in making copies for commercial purposes, seltzer@samizdat.com Comments welcome.

Portrait of Mercy Warren (by Copley) -- closeup of face, full figure

The Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution by Mercy Warrn
 

• The original 3-volume work is 1317 pages long. Mercy wrote early drafts of this work near the time of the events described, and completed the work about four years before its appeared in 1805. She explains the delay as due to health problems, temporary bouts of blindness, and grief at the death of her only son. Mercy writes in the third person even when dealing with events involving her immediate family. Keep in mind that James Otis (early advocate of the rights of the colonies) was her brother, James Warren (speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives) was her husband, and Winslow Warren (would-be diplomat) was her son.
• "Mercy Warren: Conscience of the American Revolution" a detailed review of this book by Richard Seltzer

Plays by Mercy Warren

• The Adulateur, a five-act play, published in 1773
• The Defeat, excerpts from a play, published 1773
• The Group, a three-act play, published in 1775
• The Blockheads, a three-act play, published  in 1776, shortly after the British withdrew from Boston
• The Motley Assembly, a farce, published in 1779.

Chronology of Mercy Otis Warren 1728 - 1814 by King Dykeman, Philosophy Department, Fairfield University

Introduction to the work of Mercy Otis Warren 1728 - 1814 by King Dykeman, Philosophy Department, Fairfield University

Introduction to Observations on the New Constitution by Mercy Otis Warren by King Dykeman, Philosophy Department, Fairfield University

Biography of Mercy's brother: "James Otis the Pre-Revolutionist" by John Ridpath

Mercy Warren's entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911:

"Warren, Mercy (1728-1814), American writer, sister of James Otis, was born at Barnstable, Mass., and in 1754 married James Warren (1726-1808) of Plymouth, Mass., a college friend of her brother. Her literary inclinations were fostered by both these men, and she began early to write poems and prose essays. As member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1766-1774) and its speaker (1776-1777 and 1787-1788), member (1774 and 1775) and president (1775) of the Provincial Congress, and paymaster-general in 1775, James Warren took a leading part in the events of the American revolutionary period, and his wife followed its progress with keen interest. Her gifts of satire were utilized in her political dramas, The Adulator (1773) and The Group (1775); and John Adams, whose wife Abigail was Mercy Warren's close friend, encouraged her to further efforts. Her tragedies "The Sack of Rome" and "The Ladies of Castile," were included in her Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous (1790), dedicated to General Washington. Apart from their historical interest among the beginnings of American literature, Mercy Warren's poems have no permanent value. In 1805 she published a History of the American Revolution, which was colored by somewhat outspoken personal criticism and was bitterly resented by John Adams (see his correspondence, published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1878). James Warren died in 1808, and his wife followed him on the 19th of October 1814."

Historical Documents relating to the American Revolution and Early Republic

• Revolution
• Charlotte Town Resolves 1775
• Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms 1775
• Declaration of Independence 1776
• Virginia Declaration of Rights 1776
• Declaration and Resolves of First Continental Congress 1777
• Paris Peace Treaty 1783
• Articles of Confederation
• Annapolis Convention 1786
• Articles of Confederation
• Northwest Ordinance 1787
• Constitution
• Letter Transmitting the Constitution 1787
• Constitution 1787
• Bill of Rights
• Amendments to the Constitution
• Early Republic
• Proclamation of Neutrality 1793
• Treaty of Greenville 1795
• Washington's Farewell Address 1796
• The Monroe Doctrine 1823
• A Compilation of Messages and Papers of the Presidents compiled by James Richardson
• George Washington
• John Adams
• Thomas Jefferson
• James Madison
• James Monroe
• John Quincey Adams
• Inaugural Addresses of Presidents Washington to Jackson
• State of the Union Speeches of Presidents
• Washington
• John Adams
• Thomas Jefferson
• James Madison
• James Monroe
• John Quincy Adams
• Andrew Jackson

Fiction relating to the American Revolution and Early Republic

• At War with Pontiac by Kirk Munroe
• The Bastonnais, Tale of the American Invasion of Canada 1775-1776 by John Lesperance
• Betty Zane by Zane Grey
• The Bride of Fort Edward, founded on an incident of the Revolution by Delia Bacon
• The Conqueror: Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton by Gertrude Atherton, 1904
• The Dare Boys of 1776 by Stephen Angus Cox, 1910
• The Duke of Stockbridge, a Romance of Shay's Rebellion by Edward Bellamy
• For Love of Country, a Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution by Cyrus Townsend Brady
• The King's Arrow, a Tale of the Untied Empire Loyalists by H.A. Cody
• The Last of the Foresters or Humors on the Border: a Story of the Old Virginia Frontier by John Esten Cooke, 1856
• A Little Maid of Old Maine by Alice Turner Curtis
• The Lords of the Wild: a Story of the Old New York Border by Joseph Altsheler, 1919
• Love in '76, an Incident of the Revolution [play] by Oliver Bell Bunce
• Mercy [play] by Richard Seltzer (This two-act historical comedy is based on the lives of Mercy Otis Warren and General Johnny Burgoyne. A recent biography of Burgoyne, entitled The Man Who Lost America, focuses on his defeat and surrender at Saratoga in 1777. A recent biography of Mercy Warren, entitled First Lady of the Revolution, indicates that she was intimately connected with principal actors and actions of the Revolution. Both Burgoyne and Mercy Warren were playwrights. After the Revolution, Burgoyne wrote several "hit" plays for the London stage. In 1775, during the British occupation of Boston, he wrote The Blockade of Boston. Mercy replied with a play entitled The Blockheads.) These two historical figures are natural antagonists who should be made to meet on the stage.
• The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley by James Otis, 1911
• "Old Put" the Patriot by Frederick Ober
• Rights Crossing [play] by Richard Seltzer (This two-act historical play was written for Columbia, Pennsylvania, where it was performed December 1-4, 1976, as part of that town's bicentennial celebration. The events of the play take place in December 1777 and center around the Conway Conspiracy. The action focuses on the strategic importance of the ferry crossing that would one day become Columbia; situated between Congress in York and the army in Valley Forge. The fates of the town-to-be and the nation-to-be are interwoven, with local historical figures playing significant roles in a plausible confrontation with Conway and Mifflin.Conway, plotting to overthrow Washington, tries to seize the ferry. But he underestimates the determination and resourcefulness of old Susannah Wright, the owner of the ferry, and her nephew Sam, the future founder of the town of Columbia.)
• A Soldier of Virginia: a Tale of Colonel Washington and Braddock's Defeat by Burton Egbert Stevenson, 1901
• The Spirt of the Border, a Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley (sequel to Betty Zane) by Zane Grey
• The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper
• Sustained Honor by John R. Musick
• The Tory Maid by Herbert Baird Stimpson
• An Unwilling Maid by Jeanie Gould Lincoln
• Whig Against Tory, a tale of the military adventures of a shoemaker, 1851
• The Young Trailers Series by Joseph Altsheler
•  The Young Trailers, a story of early Kentucky
•  The Forest Runners, a story of the great war trail in early Kentucky
•  The Keepers of the Trail, a story of the great woods (1916)
•  The Eyes of the Woods, a story of the ancient wilderness (1917)
•  The Free Rangers, a story of the early days along the Mississippi (1909)
•  The Riflemen of the Ohio, a story of early days along "the beautiful river" (1910)
•  The Scouts of the Valley, a story of Wyoming and the Chemung (1911)
•  The Border Watch, a story of the great chief’s last stand (1912)

How to install and use the free ReadPlease software included on this CD

Click here if you would like to install this software. When you click on that link, you will be asked wheter you want to save it on your computer or just run it. Choose Save -- it will only take about 10 Mbytes; so choose Save. Then select which version you want to install and the directory that you'd like to put it in. When the rapid, automatic installation is done, you will be able to open ReadPlease by clicking on an icon on your desktop.

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Please keep in mind that ReadPlease is their software not ours. They are the experts on it. They have even better versions with even clearer, more natural voices, which they sell. You can listen to samples at their Web site www.readplease.com, where you can also see detailed help files.  And you can contact them at: ReadPlease Corporation, 121 Cherry Ridge Road, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada P7G 1A7. Phone: 807-474-7702

The easiest way to get started is to click on My Computer, then on your CD drive, then on index.html. That should bring you to index.html, in Word or your Web browser, or WordPad or Notepad, depending on your computer's setup.

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In addition, we include a shareware program (courtesy of DLJ Software, 182 Maplewood Circle, Urbana, OH 43078.(513) 484-3992). This program, READIT.EXE, was particularly designed for use by the blind, but it makes it very easy for anyone to read and search plain text documents.

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