1.  "Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

   These lines are from "The Star Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States.  They were written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812.  Key had gone on board a British ship in the waters off Baltimore, Maryland, to negotiate the release of an American who was being held prisoner.  That night, Sept. 13, 1814, the British began bombarding Fort McHenry, which guards the entrance to the Baltimore Harbor.  Key watched through the night as the shells and rockets fired from British ships lit up the sky over the fort, where an American flag waved in the breeze.  In the morning, the flag was still there, and Key wrote his famous poem.  It was later set to music, and became the national anthem. 

2.  "Go West, young man!"

   This well known line is usually credited to newspaperman Horace Greeley.  He wrote an editorial in the New York Tribune advising young men of the 1850s to seek their fortune in the western parts of the country.  As Greeley himself pointed out, the line actually appeared first in an article in an Indiana newspaper. 

3.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal."

   These lines are almost identical to lines in the Declaration of Independence, except that they read, "all men and women are created equal."  They are from a very famous document written at a women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.  The convention's Declaration of Sentiments listed ways society at the time restricted women's legal rights, and called for an immediate recognition of women as citizens with all rights enjoyed by men. 

4.  "A house divided against itself cannot stand.  I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."

   This warning was made by Abraham Lincoln in 1858 as the political split over the slavery issue grew wider and more vocal.  Lincoln went on to win the Republican nomination for president and the election itself in 1860.  He became president as the Civil War began in 1861. 

Copyright 2006 by David  Burns
www.fasttrackteaching.com

1.  An early steam powered ship with paddle wheels on the side.  The invention of steam powered boats and railroads was an important aspect of the Transportation Revolution of the early 1800s.

2.  A woman making cloth in a textile factory.  This was the era of the Industrial Revolution, which had a great impact on women's lives as well as on men.  Most early textile factories were in the New England states.

3.  A famous image used by the abolition movement that was widely printed in the early 1800s.  The question across the bottom forced many people to confront the moral contradictions of slavery for the first time.

Copyright 2006 by David Burns
www.fasttrackteaching.com

   These famous quotes are posted here for users of our book, Fasttrack to America's Past, and to help all teachers and students of American history.  You may download this page to transparency film, to paper, or to computer media for noncommercial educational use only, provided:

• You make no changes, additions, or alterations of any kind.
• You leave the copyright and source information visible and legible on all copies.

   Copyright 1998, 2006 by David Burns.                     www.fasttrackteaching.com