This letter was written to Harry Hopkins, the head of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Between 1933 and 1935, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration gave the states $3.1 billion to distribute directly to the poor in the form of food,…

This song, titled "Loveless C.C.C.," was most likely written as a parody by a young enrollee in the Civilian Conservation Corps. The song pokes fun at the hard work and strict discipline found in the camps. While a majority of corpsmen were satisfied…

Though discriminated against in California, African-American miners often shared the same prejudices as white Americans towards Chinese immigrants. At other times, immigrants and African Americans found common purpose in work and leisure. This…

As this newspaper announcement indicates, the status of slaves in California was unclear and fluid. Even though California was admitted as a free state to the Union in 1850, many southerners, claiming their stay was temporary, brought their slaves as…

At least 2,000 African Americans participated in the California Gold Rush. Though some were brought as slaves by southern masters, many were free northern blacks who migrated west with other Americans. African Americans, even free citizens, however,…

The Lowell Offering was a magazine written by the young women who worked in the Lowell textile mills. It was published from 1840 to 1845. The magazine was supported by the city’s textile companies, and it promoted morality and hard work among…

French- and Spanish-speaking miners posted this notice around Sonora County, California in May, 1850. The month before, the California legislature had passed a Foreign Miners’ Tax that required immigrant miners to pay $20 every month for the…

In 1916, a new militant suffrage group, the National Women’s Party (NWP), was formed. Led by Alice Paul, the NWP began picketing the White House. NWP members criticized President Woodrow Wilson for going to war “to make the world safe for…

During the 1870s and 1880s, hundreds of petitions bearing the signatures of thousands of people flooded Congress, asking for a suffrage amendment. Local activists went door-to-door in their communities, gathering the signatures of sympathetic women…

In 1848 a group of 300 women and men, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, met in Seneca Falls, New York to outline a list of demands for women’s equality. The Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the U.S. Declaration of…