American Self-Making and Self-Help
Religion
Individuals
Freedom
Nation
Marco Rubio "But they were successful. Two immigrants with little money or education found stable jobs, owned a home, retired with security and gave all four of their children a life far better than their own."
Thomas Paine For all men being originally equals, "no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho’ himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them."
Christian Charity - John Winthrop wk 2 "There is a time when a Christian must sell all and give to the poor, as they did in the Apostles’ times. There is a time also when Christians (though they give not all yet) must give beyond their ability"
costica, Bratagan wk 1 "they were treated like beats of burden and told that they were lucky, that under capitalism, their lives would be so much worse"
Slavery
Fredrick Douglas "My early instruction was all out of place. The crouching servility, usually so acceptable a quality in a slave, did not answer when manifested toward her. Her favor was not gained by it; she seemed to be disturbed by it." - chapter 6
Anne Hutchison wk 2 "Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in my conscience I know to be truth I must commit myself unto the Lord." 
Cotton Mathers wk 2 "Miller transforms Tituba, a young Native American girl, into an African slave who led a group of young women into the forest to participate in magic rites. He also portrays the accusers as teenagers when many were in fact much younger."
Government
The Constitution is put in place for us to have "rules and guidelines" to follow, but are more for us to have something to fall back on if we need the assistance "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators." - Section 4 
Declaration of independence "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." 
Money spenders/savers
Andrew Carnegie
"The Gospel of Wealth" is describing how the wealthy should be putting their money into good and not just spending it on random things.. (1889) "There are but three modes in which surplus wealth can be disposed of. It can be left to the families of the decedents; or it can be bequeathed for public purposes; or, finally, it can be administered by its possessors during their lives. Under the first and second modes most of the wealth of the world that has reached the few has hitherto been applied."
Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech " it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance."
The talented ten were men who wanted things to be more fair and put in work to try and make that happen. " If was a miracle—the most wonderful peace-battle of the 19th century, and yet to-day men smile at it, and in fine superiority tell us that it was all a strange mistake; that a proper way to found a system of education is first to gather the children and buy them spelling books and hoes; afterward men may look about for teachers, if haply they may find them; or again they would teach men Work, but as for Life—why, what has Work to do with Life, they ask vacantly."
poverty
Jacob Riis how the other half lives (1890) wants us to understand how certain living conditions can be difficult for families and that not every has a good roof over their head. "The stories of richly-dressed foundlings that are dished up in the newspapers at intervals are pure fiction. Not one instance of even a well-dressed infant having been picked up in the streets is on record. They come in rags, a newspaper often the only wrap, semi-occasionally one in a clean slip with some evidence of loving care; a little slip of paper pinned on, perhaps, with some such message as this I once read, in a woman's trembling hand: "Take care of Johnny, for God's sake. I cannot." But even that is the rarest of all happenings."
Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism: A Complex Story "There are but three modes in which surplus wealth can be disposed of. It can be left to the families of the decedents; or it can be bequeathed for public purposes; or, finally, it can be administered by its possessors during their lives. Under the first and second modes most of the wealth of the world that has reached the few has hitherto been applied."
Ragged Dick is talked about how he went out and tried his best to make money for his family and himself. "there were not a few young clerks who employed dick from time to time in his professional capacity, who scarcely earned as much as he, greatly as their style and dress exceeded his. But Dick was careless of his earnings. Where they went he could hardly have told himself. However much he managed to earn during the day, all was generally spent before morning. 
John edwards wk 2 "Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down."
Friends
How to win Friends and Influence People are trying to discuss with us the importance of friends being there for one another. "His organization is now inspired with a new loyalty, a new enthusiasm, a new spirit of teamwork. Three hundred and fourteen enemies have been turned into 314 friends. As he proudly said in a speech before the class: “When I used to walk through my establishment, no one greeted me. My employees actually looked the other way when they saw me approaching. But now they are all my friends and even the janitor calls me by my first name.”
neighborhood
Ralph G. martin Life in the New Suburbia "I had to go to the hospital short after i moved in, and neighbors i hadn't even met yet just came in and took over. they pack your bags, drive you to the hospital if your husbands working. take care of your other baby if you have one and they wouldn't let me buy anything for it either" 
The American Boy "The boy who was well off then, especially in the big Eastern cities.....and therefore, to a certain extent, his character—in the rough sports which call for pluck, endurance, and physical address."https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/theodore-roosevelt
The New Colossus discusses how we are being protected and are showing others that we do not give up in a fight if needed. "From her beacon-hand.....I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 
The Babbit by Sinclair Lewis is trying to help us understand that we look for more then just money it is about the and work you put in and not how much you give of physical money that matters. "That’s what the country needs, and not all this fancy stuff that just enfeebles the will-power of the working man and gives his kids a lot of notions above their class." 