Introduction

We study history not so much to learn about the past as to learn about who we are.  Indeed, Americans of the revolutionary era and subsequent generations believed that their revolution represented a decisive break from their Old World past, that they were to be the new thing in the world.  Understanding how colonists, and later, Americans, understood the past is essential to understanding how they understood their Revolution. How their shared pasts as British colonists and revolutionary republicans shaped early American identity is crucial to understanding who we are as Americans today. Original documents from contemporary life provide examples of the kinds of materials historians use in their research and bring readers in direct contact with the people of the past who helped shape and were shaped by the momentous events that culminated in the American Revolution. As Maya Angelou put it, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”^[1]  The American Revolution began in earnest on April 19, 1775, but it didn’t start there.  It had been in the making for at least a century and a half before that famous date. This compilation, therefore, brings together sources organized into four eras:  Virginia Settlement, Puritans in New England, The Old Colonial Period, and The American Revolution, to chart the evolution of the American self from British citizens to revolutionaries.