U.S. Historical Documents – My Audio School

To listen to the constitution, click one of the links below, or click play in this box.

Internet archive page

Click here to see a variety of downloadable resources from CurrClick which could be used in a study of the Constitution. This link will take you away from My Audio School.

July 3, 2009December 28, 2010

The Bill of Rights

United States Bill of Rights

Click here to read this document yourself.

The Bill of Rights can also be streamed on Free Audio.

For more podcasts like this one, go to Free Audio.

Click here to see downloadable resources from CurrClick which could be used in a study of the Bill of Rights. These links will take you away from My Audio School.

July 3, 2009April 20, 2010

The Virginia Declaration of Rights

The Virginia Declaration of Rights was the forerunner of the Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson also drew heavily on this document when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

You can hear read more about the Virginia Declaration of Rights and listen to more audio like this one at Free Audio.

June 8, 2009June 15, 2011

Preamble to the Constitution, Schoolhouse Rock

Preamble to the Constitution (spoken, not sung)

Read the Constitution.

Parents and teachers, click here for more resources relating to the Constitution for kids.

June 6, 2009December 29, 2010

The Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

Clicking any of the following links will take you away from My Audio School. Kids, please get permission before leaving My Audio School.

To listen to The Declaration of Independence, as read by Bill Barker, who interprets Thomas Jefferson for Colonial Williamsburg, go to Monticello Podcasts. You’ll need to page most of the way down the page, to the podcast titled Jefferson’s Words: Two Declarations.

Read along by clicking here.

To see a video of the reading of the Declaration of Independence from Colonial Williamsburg, go to the Colonial Williamsburg Video page. This video is titled We Hold These Truths. You’ll need to page down to find it. This video is archived on June 29, 2009.

For more excellent audio and video podcasts from Colonial Williamsburg, go to History.org.

Page down to the April 27, 2009 podcast to hear Thomas Jefferson on religious freedom, and the April 20, 2009 podcast to hear Patrick Henry on religious freedom.

October 9, 2008June 5, 2011

The Anti-Federalist Papers by Patrick Henry, et al.

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Total running time: 19 hours, 52 minutes

Summary: During the period of debate over the ratification of the Constitution, numerous independent local speeches and articles were published all across the country. Initially, many of the articles in opposition were written under pseudonyms, such as Brutus, Centinel, and Federal Farmer. Eventually, famous revolutionary figures such as Patrick Henry came out publicly against the Constitution. They argued that the strong national government proposed by the Federalists was a threat to the rights of individuals and that the President would become a king. They objected to the federal court system created by the proposed constitution. This produced a phenomenal body of political writing; the best and most influential of these articles and speeches were gathered by historians into a collection known as the Anti-Federalist Papers in allusion to the Federalist Papers. (Summary by Ticktockman for Librivox)

01 Centinel I 00:27:37

02 Centinel XI 00:07:30

03 Federal Farmer I 00:19:54

04 Federal Farmer II 00:11:22

05 Federal Farmer III 00:35:53

06 Federal Farmer IV 00:19:51

07 Federal Farmer V 00:16:53

08 Federal Farmer VI 00:24:46

09 Federal Farmer VII 00:19:43

10 Federal Farmer VIII00:15:58

11 Federal Farmer IX 00:22:42

12 Federal Farmer X 00:15:20

13 Federal Farmer XI 00:23:10

14 Federal Farmer XII 00:22:44

15 Federal Farmer XIII 00:21:09

16 Federal Farmer XIV 00:23:35

17 Federal Farmer XV 00:28:10

18 Federal Farmer XVI 00:25:15

19 Federal Farmer XVII 00:29:54

20 Federal Farmer XVIII 00:33:31

21 Brutus I 00:29:13

22 Brutus II 00:15:16

23 Brutus III 00:15:09

24 Brutus IV 00:18:38

25 Brutus V 00:16:30

26 Brutus VI 00:20:41

27 Brutus VII 00:14:51

28 Brutus VIII 00:09:21

29 Brutus IX 00:14:06

30 Brutus X 00:14:59

31 Brutus XII 00:17:12

32 Brutus XII 00:17:22

33 Brutus XIII 00:09:46

34 Brutus XIV 00:19:37

35 Brutus XV 00:15:52

36 Brutus XVI 00:12:39

37 John DeWitt I 00:14:09

38 John DeWitt II 00:14:11

39 John Dewitt III 00:16:35

44 Agrippa VI 00:05:58

45 Agrippa VII 00:08:46

46 Agrippa VIII 00:05:36

47 Agrippa IX 00:06:27

48 Penn Minority 01:28:56

49 Impartial Examiner I 00:28:46

50 Impartial Examiner II 00:15:33

51 Impartial Examiner III 00:25:25

52 Maryland Farmer IV 00:18:40

53 Maryland Farmer V 00:44:55

54 Patrick Henry, 5 June 1788 00:51:35

55 Patrick Henry, 7 June 1788 00:35:26

56 Patrick Henry, 9 June 1788 01:08:06

October 2, 2008June 5, 2011

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay

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Total running time: 21 hours, 12 minutes

The Federalist Papers (correctly known as The Federalist) are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788 . A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist, was published in 1788 by J. and A. M’Lean.

The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government.The authors of the Federalist Papers wanted to both influence the vote in favor of ratification and shape future interpretations of the Constitution. According to historian Richard Morris, they are an â€œincomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer.
(Summary by Wikipedia)