Early American History

He commanded the Continental Army, helped win American independence, presided over the Constitutional Convention, became the first U.S. president, and made his greatest statement by giving power back.

He wrote the Declaration of Independence, doubled the United States through the Louisiana Purchase, defended republican liberty, and lived within the slavery contradiction America still confronts.

He defended British soldiers after the Boston Massacre, argued fiercely for independence, helped secure peace with Britain and kept the young United States out of full war with France.

He rose from a printer's shop to become a scientist, satirist, civic builder, revolutionary diplomat, and Founding Father whose practical genius helped turn colonial protest into American independence.

He came from the Caribbean with no inherited power, became George Washington's trusted aide, defended the Constitution, and built the financial machinery of the early United States.

He rose from frontier poverty to the presidency, held the United States together through civil war, and turned the destruction of slavery into the central moral achievement of the Union cause.