Primary Source Reader | American Yawp MS

The Primary Source Reader gives students direct access to the voices and evidence of the past. Each chapter includes historical documents, images, and artifacts — carefully selected and annotated for middle school readers.

For every source, students practice four skills of historical thinking: sourcing, contextualization, close reading, and corroboration.

Chapter Sources

1 Indigenous America 2 Colliding Cultures 3 British North America 4 Colonial Society 5 The American Revolution 6 A New Nation 7 The Early Republic 8 The Market Revolution 9 Democracy in America 10 Religion and Reform 11 The Cotton Revolution 12 Manifest Destiny 13 The Sectional Crisis 14 The Civil War 15 Reconstruction

What You'll Find

Historical documents — Letters, speeches, laws, and declarations
Visual sources — Paintings, photographs, political cartoons, and maps
Material culture — Artifacts, architecture, and objects from the past
Student-friendly annotations — Context, vocabulary, and guiding questions
Alignment with chapters — Sources organized to match the textbook's structure