A period of philosophical enlightenment, a thriving slave trade, and revolutionary war comes alive for students in this volume of American Eras: Primary Sources. Helpful annotations and contextual information accompany excerpts from seminal documents—such as the Articles of Confederation, precursor of the Constitution; Common Sense, Thomas Painea s influential plea for independence; and the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War—as well as numerous lesser-known documents and images not readily available to readers. 01