We Are the People : Voices from the Other Side of American History

by Willis, Clint

• ISBN13: 9781560255055
• ISBN10: 1560255056
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-27
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

We Are the People collects the personal accounts, letters, speeches and other documents that, together, tell the untold story of American historytwo centuries of struggle from the perspective of the people. Featuring first-person accounts by numerous forgotten Americans who provide alternative perspectives on critical moments in our history, this book transports us to many of our country's most moving and least celebrated moments, from heart-wrenching slave narratives to pivotal labor speeches, from piercing manifestos by women's-rights proponents to American Indians' accounts of the shame of their culture's destruction. We Are the People also explores issues such as poverty, corporate power, immigration, and civil liberties. It includes selections ranging from a Quaker's account of life as a conscientious objector during the Civil War to an interview with a woman who helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott; from a native American's description of a cavalry charge on a Cheyenne encampment to exploited coal miners' tales of woe; from a contemporary mother's account of stealing groceries to feed her children to manifestoes by today's anti-corporate guerillas. A gripping, accessible read, We Are the People reveals an American experience that is pushed aside, forgotten or ignored all too often by our mainstream mythology.

Table of Contents

Introduction
from Address to President Monroe	p. 3
A California Law for the Government and Protection of the Indians	p. 5
Sand Creek Massacre	p. 10
from An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs	p. 15
from Indeh: An Apache Odyssey	p. 25
from Back on the War Ponies	p. 33
from Land of the Spotted Eagle	p. 38
from Whose History Do We Celebrate?	p. 49
Transcript from a Class Action Suit Against the U.S. Government	p. 52
from the Life of Olaudah Equiano	p. 61
from The Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave	p. 77
from a July 4, 1852 Speech	p. 80
from Up from Slavery	p. 88
from Address to the Massachusetts Peace Society	p. 103
from The Record of a Quaker Conscience	p. 110
My Country Right or Wrong	p. 123
from The Great Divide	p. 125
from Peacework	p. 135
Senate Speech	p. 141
Dispatch from Rafah, Occupied Palestine	p. 146
Legal Disabilities of Women	p. 159
Speech on Women's Rights	p. 168
Demanding Full Equality	p. 183
Do You Know the Facts About Marriage?	p. 184
Principles	p. 185
We Do Abortions Here	p. 187
from Lies My Teacher Told Me	p. 201
The 1920 Strike	p. 217
from Hard Times	p. 226
Dearborn Massacre	p. 246
from Nickel and Dimed	p. 248
Can My Mommy Have Her Paycheck?	p. 265
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain	p. 275
Non-Violence vs. Jim Crow	p. 281
Adventures in Dining	p. 285
Interview with Jo Ann Robinson from Eyes on the Prize	p. 288
from Coming of Age in Mississippi	p. 291
The View from the Front of the Bus	p. 299
Prime Time	p. 306
from Hard Times	p. 321
from The Harvest Gypsies	p. 330
from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men	p. 336
from Nickel and Dimed	p. 342
How the Other Half Still Lives	p. 350
Testimony Before House Un-American Activities Committee	p. 369
Declaration of Conscience	p. 378
Sunday A16	p. 383
The Silencing of Gideon's Trumpet	p. 391
State of the Union	p. 400
Acknowledgments	p. 415
Permissions	p. 416
Bibliography	p. 419
Index	p. 423
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.