Primary sources of famous people in American history

Based on recently discovered material, including newspapers believed to have been lost as well as personal accounts from Earp's friends, enemies, and acquaintances, this definitive biography paints a superbly balanced portrait of the man who helped shape the modern view of the Old West. A rich panorama of nineteenth-century American culture and politics, Wyatt Earp brings a fresh perspective to the life of a common man of uncommon courage, whose ultimate wish was to live a quiet life. From the Kansas plains to Tombstone, from Nome to San Francisco, here is the complete, unvarnished story of Wyatt Earp as it has never before been told, with a cast of characters whose names ring with the very spirit of the Old West: Ike Clanton, Curley Bill, and John Ringo among them.

Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women - indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of historical fact. Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend. Inspired by religion, Truth transformed herself from a domestic servant named Isabella into an itinerant Pentecostal preacher; her words of empowerment have inspired black women and poor people the world over to this day. As an abolitionist and a feminist, Truth defied the stereotype of "the slave" as male and "the woman" as white - expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks.

A biography of the Civil War general known for his part in the disasterous battle at the Little Big Horn in 1876.

In 1836, a Mexican woman saves the lives of twenty Texan soldiers captured by the Mexican army in the town of Goliad, Texas.

Introduces the life of Crispus Attucks, a former slave who died in the Boston Massacre, a fight between the British and American colonists that occurred before the American Revolution.

Surveys the life of Swiss/German immigrant John Sutter, on whose land gold was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century, spurring the California gold rush and westward expansion.

Discusses the life and work of French soldier and political thinker, Marquis de Lafayette, and his role in the American Revolution.