Voices from American History

This collection features compelling autobiographical accounts and biographies that illuminate pivotal moments in American history. From the Civil War to the frontier, these narratives provide personal insights into the lives of notable figures and everyday individuals who shaped the nation.

The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War

by Leander Stillwell Read by Sue Anderson 4.7
Leander Stillwell was an 18-year-old Illinois farm boy, living with his family in a log cabin, when the U.S. Civil War broke out. Stillwell …

Thirty Years A Slave

by Louis Hughes Read by James K. White 4.7
Louis Hughes was born a slave near Charlottesville, Virginia to a white father and a black slave woman. Throughout his life he worked mostly…

A Diary from Dixie

by Mary Chesnut Read by Laurie Anne Walden 4.8
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, a well-educated South Carolina woman who was married to a Confederate general, kept extensive journals during th…

Lewis and Clark

by William R. Lighton Read by Roger Melin 4.6
In the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, two men commanded an expedition which explored the wilderness that stretched from the mouth of the Missou…

My Life on the Plains

by George Armstrong Custer Read by texttalker 4.7
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876), one of the most mythologized figures in American history, was an United States A…

Ulysses S. Grant

by Owen Wister Read by David Wales 4.6
Ulysses S. Grant offers a concise yet insightful look into the life of one of America's most significant military leaders and presidents. Ow…

The Escaping Club

by A. J. Evans Read by Tom Weiss 4.6
Described by some as one of the greatest escape books published. The Escaping Club recounts Evans' escape to Switzerland from a supposedly &…

Twelve Years a Slave

by Solomon Northup Read by Rob Marland 4.7
Twelve Years a Slave is the memoir of a freeborn African American from New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. After being held for…