In this lesson plan, 8th graders look at how slavery contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War, at Abraham Lincoln's efforts to save the Union, and at what impact the Emancipation Proclamation had on the North's view of the war....

Lesson focuses on the debate over slavery at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Article on Harriet Tubman describes her life and heroism as a leader of the Underground Railroad and of the fight against slavery. Includes questions for discussion and group activity.

Read reconstructions of debates by delegates to the Constitutional Convention as they attempted to come to terms with slavery, the slave trade, and how to address the issue in the Constitution so all states would be willing to ratify it....

Presents the Thirteenth Amendment - Slavery and Involuntary Servitude, which abolished slavery and forced servitude in the United States. Includes four annotations to the Amendment.

Article outlines the issues of debate over slavery and the compromises made while writing the Constitution.

Comprehensive overview of the U.S. Constitution. Places the Constitution in context with two other founding charters of American democracy and government, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Includes access to digital...

The complete text of the Nevada Constitution. The Nevada constitution of July 4, 1864 forbid slavery and allowed for President Lincoln to proclaim that the State of Nevada was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original...

After reading this section of the chapter on "Creating Republican Governments", students will be able to identify the central issues of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and their solutions and also describe the conflicts over the...

Primary source document, informational text and questions for discussion included for students studying issues surrounding the abolition of slavery and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

The 13th Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, but not ratified until December 6, 1865. This article provides an explanation and summary of the 13th Amendment or Fugitive Slave Clause that abolished slavery.

This article contains an overview of the history of the rise and fall of the Whig Party, its leaders, their beliefs, and the demise of the party over the issue of slavery.

Article and questions for discussion on the controveries surrounding slavery while writing the U.S. Constitution and forming a new U.S. government.

There were 5 main issues that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention argued and debated: Slavery, Representation, State v. Federal Powers, Commerce, and Executive Powers. Analyze these issues by reading the following summaries,...

Article and activity in which students explore the distressful conditions of slavery in the South, answer questions based on the reading, and then participate in writing first person slave narratives for class discussion.

Article reviews several conditions of American society that sowed the seeds of civil war, particularly slavery and sectional conflict.

Activity in which students examine the concept of democracy and the idea of a "just society" through the eyes of Abraham Lincoln. Lesson includes questions for discussion and activity in which students prepare a speech on the what they...

This source provides the Thirteenth Amendment as it is worded in the U.S. Constitution. At the bottom of the page are annotations with links to information about the abolition of slavery, origin and purpose of the amendment, peonage, and...

A learning module that begins with "Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery" by Benjamin Franklin, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be...

Classroom ready resource includes primary resource document of the Emancipation Proclamation, background information and questions for discussion.

Online exhibit of primary source documents related to the 13th Amendment after the Civil War and the end to slavery.

This site is from a unit called 'Writing the US Constitution.' It looks at the documents that preceded the Constitution, and the major issues that were debated while the Constitution was being created.

The issue of slavery was a contentious one during debates in the Constitutional Convention. Read about the various issues, the quotes of several of the delegates, and see how the word "slave" is not even mentioned in the Constitution....

Our Documents is home to one hundred milestone documents that influenced that course of American history and American democracy. Includes full-page scans of each document, transcriptions, background information on their significance, and...