SERIES Principal Founders Forgotten Founders Sacrifice Series Context Series The Record On Browse Archive →
1776
Est. 2026 · America250

What the
Founders
Actually Wrote

Primary Sources · No Spin · Maximum Clarity · Perfect Sourcing

347 confirmed primary source documents from the American founding. Every document linked to its institutional archive — Founders Online, Yale Avalon, National Archives, Library of Congress. No editorial opinion. The archive is open.

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347 Primary Documents
27 Founding Themes
52 Source-Based Episodes
0 Opinion. Zero.
Featured Episodes

Start Here — One From Each Series

Fifty-two source-based episodes are live. Four entry points, one from each pillar of the archive.

Principal Founders
George Washington — Soldier and Commander
Four bullet holes in his coat at 23. Handing back his commission at 51. Seven documents, twenty-eight years.
7 Primary Sources · 1755–1783
The Record On
The Founders and Slavery
Jefferson condemned the slave trade in the Declaration draft. Congress deleted the passage. The contradiction is in the documents.
The Deleted Passage · The Letters · The Petition
Sacrifice Series
John Hart — The Old Man Who Never Came Home
He signed at 65. He spent that winter sleeping in fields, hunted in his own county. He died before the war was won.
Hopewell, New Jersey · 1776–1779
Principal Founders
Benjamin Franklin — Scientist, Diplomat, Founder
The kite, the Court of France, the Constitution at 81 — and the abolition petition signed two months before his death.
Printer to Plenipotentiary · 1706–1790
Context Series
Galloway's Plan of Union — The Vote They Erased
A plan to stay British failed by one vote in 1774 — then Congress expunged it from the record. Adams' private notes are why we know.
Carpenters' Hall · September 28, 1774
Browse by Founder

Thirty Founders Documented

Every founder in the archive, with every claim traced to a named document. Browse the full list in the archive.

Washington2 Episodes Franklin2 Episodes Jefferson2 Episodes Adams2 Episodes Madison2 Episodes Hamilton2 Episodes All 30 Founders →Archive
The Archive Is Open · America250 · Est. 2026
Recently Added

New to the Archive

The archive grows with every session. The two most recent episodes:

Forgotten Founders · Episode 13 · New
Samuel Chase — The Only Justice Ever Impeached
He signed the Declaration. Washington put him on the Supreme Court. Congress impeached him. The Senate — controlled by his enemies — acquitted him on all eight counts.
6 Primary Sources · senate.gov · National Archives · Founders Online
Context Series · Episode 10 · New
Galloway’s Plan of Union — The Vote They Erased
Independence was not inevitable. A plan to stay British failed by one vote in 1774 — then Congress erased the evidence. Adams’ private diary is the only reason we know.
5 Primary Sources · Founders Online · Library of Congress · Yale Avalon
The Product

Not Another History Website

The Founders Archive is not a history channel, a commentary site, or an opinion platform. It is a primary source library — every document linked directly to Founders Online, the National Archives, Yale Avalon, the Library of Congress, and the institutional archives of Monticello, Mount Vernon, and Gunston Hall.

The distinction matters. Most founding-era content tells you what historians think the founders meant. This archive shows you what the founders wrote — and links you to the original document so you can read it yourself.

01
Primary Sources Only

Every entry links to its institutional archive. Founders Online. National Archives. Yale Avalon. Library of Congress. Monticello. Mount Vernon. No secondary sources. No aggregators. The document itself.

02
Zero Editorial Opinion

Plain-English context is sourced the same way every claim in an episode is sourced. No claim appears in the archive that cannot be traced to a named document at a named institutional archive. The documents speak. You decide.

03
Every URL Confirmed Live

Every link in the archive was confirmed live before the entry was published. A dead URL is a broken citation. The sourcing standard that governs the episodes governs every archive entry. Verified. Always.

The Archive · Preview

Documents in the Collection

A selection from the archive. Every entry links directly to the institutional archive holding the original document.

Founding Document
Declaration of Independence
Continental Congress · 1776 · National Archives
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..."
archives.gov → Full Text
Founding Document
Constitution of the United States
Constitutional Convention · 1787 · National Archives
"WE, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union... do ordain and establish this Constitution."
archives.gov → Full Text
Founding Document
Virginia Declaration of Rights
George Mason · 1776 · Yale Avalon Project
"That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights... the enjoyment of life and liberty."
avalon.law.yale.edu → Full Text
Act of Parliament
The Declaratory Act
Parliament of Great Britain · 1766 · Yale Avalon Project
"full power and authority to make laws and statutes... to bind the colonies and people of America... in all cases whatsoever."
avalon.law.yale.edu → Full Text
Convention Notes
Madison's Notes · August 8, 1787
James Madison · 1787 · Yale Avalon Project
"He never would concur in upholding domestic slavery. It was a nefarious institution. It was the curse of heaven on the States where it prevailed." — Gouverneur Morris
avalon.law.yale.edu → Full Text
Letter
Washington to Hebrew Congregation, Newport
George Washington · 1790 · Founders Online
"It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights."
founders.archives.gov → Full Text
Letter
Jefferson to Danbury Baptists
Thomas Jefferson · 1802 · Library of Congress
"...building a wall of separation between church and state." — Jefferson, January 1, 1802, while serving as President.
loc.gov → Full Text
Pamphlet
Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
John Dickinson · 1767–68 · Online Library of Liberty
"We are taxed without our own consent... We are therefore — I speak it with grief — I speak it with indignation — we are slaves."
oll.libertyfund.org → Full Text
Letter
Madison to Jared Sparks
James Madison · 1831 · Founders Online
"The finish given to the style and arrangement of the Constitution, fairly belongs to the pen of Mr. Morris."
founders.archives.gov → Full Text
Convention Notes
Madison's Notes · August 29, 1787
James Madison · 1787 · Yale Avalon Project
"An understanding on the two subjects of navigation and slavery, had taken place between those parts of the Union." — Madison's own footnote documenting the deal.
avalon.law.yale.edu → Full Text
347 Confirmed primary source documents · Archive open now
Browse by Theme

Ten Founding Themes

Every document in the archive is tagged by theme. Filter by what you are researching. Every document in every theme links directly to its institutional archive.

21
Religion & Government
21 confirmed documents
Treaty of Tripoli, Danbury letter, Memorial and Remonstrance, Virginia Statute — what the founders wrote about church and state.
31
Slavery at the Founding
31 confirmed documents
Letters, convention debates, state records, abolition petitions — the contradiction documented without a verdict.
12
Taxation & Colonial Rights
12 confirmed documents
Stamp Act resolutions, the Declaratory Act, petitions to the Crown — the paper trail of the dispute that became a war.
46
Constitutional Design
46 confirmed documents
Madison's Notes, the Federalist, ratification debates — the arguments behind every clause.
14
The Declaration of Independence
14 confirmed documents
The rough draft, the deleted passages, the signers, the price they paid.
27
Second Amendment & Militia
10 confirmed documents
Madison's original draft, the Senate revisions, the floor debates of 1789 — the legislative record.
19
Forgotten Founders
19 confirmed documents
Sherman, Dickinson, Mason, Chase, Witherspoon — the signers and framers history skips.
16
Natural Rights & Enlightenment
16 confirmed documents
Locke to Mason to Jefferson — the documented chain of ideas behind the founding.
07
Individual Sacrifice
7 confirmed documents
What the pledge of lives, fortunes, and sacred honor cost the people who signed it.
07
They Disagreed
7 confirmed documents
"Go read the argument at the level it was actually made."
The Founders' Record · Channel Standard · Applied to Every Episode

The founding era produced one of the most extensively documented political arguments in the history of democratic governance. The founders wrote constantly — letters, pamphlets, debates, diaries, legislation, speeches. They disagreed with each other in writing. They changed their minds in writing. The record is not simple, and it is not settled.

It is also entirely public. Founders Online is free. Yale Avalon is free. The National Archives is free. The Library of Congress is free. Every letter Jefferson wrote to Adams, every speech Madison recorded at the Constitutional Convention, every Act of Parliament that drove the colonies toward revolution — all of it is in the archive, accessible to anyone willing to look.

The Founders Archive is the layer between those institutional archives and the reader who wants to engage with the founding at the level it was actually argued. Every document, confirmed. Every URL, live. Every summary, sourced. The archive is open.