Cosmo Learning
Cosmo Learning: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845 1877
In this course Professor David Blight explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840s to 1877 through twenty-seven video lectures. The primary goal of the course is to understand the multiple...
Digital History
Digital History: Meaning of Freedom: Black and White Responses to End of Slavery
Confederate defeat and the end of slavery brought far-reaching changes in the lives of all Southerners. The destruction of slavery led inevitably to conflict between blacks seeking to breathe substantive meaning into their freedom by...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Life in North & South 1847 1861: Before Brother Fought Brother
The five lessons in this unit are designed to help students develop a foundation on which to understand the basic disagreements between North and South through the investigation of primary source documents, photographs, and census...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Lesson 2: People and Places in the North and South
Lesson explores the causes of the Civil War and the basic disagreements between North and South through the use of primary source documents, photographs, and census information. Includes two detailed student activities and resources for...
C3 Teachers
C3 Teachers: u.s. History Module: Did Lincoln Really Want to Free Slaves? [Pdf]
A comprehensive learning module on Abraham Lincoln that includes three supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and primary source materials, followed by a summative performance task. Students examine the evolution of...
C3 Teachers
C3 Teachers: u.s. History Module: Is Freedom Free? [Pdf]
A comprehensive learning module on the impact of emancipation on ex-slaves that includes three supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and primary source materials, followed by a summative performance task. Topics covered...
C3 Teachers
C3 Teachers: u.s. History Module: Did Charles Sumner Deserve It? [Pdf]
A comprehensive learning module on the abolitionist Charles Sumner that includes three supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and primary source materials, followed by a summative performance task. Topics addressed include...
BBC
Bbc World Service: The Story of Africa: Slavery: Resettlement of Freed Slaves
Discusses the resettlement initiatives in the 1800s when freed slaves were sent to live in Sierra Leone and Liberia in Africa, and some of the difficulties they faced there.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: The Varieties of Slave Labor
Daniel C. Littlefield, Professor of History at University of South Carolina, explores how plantation or slave labor differed according to location and period.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: How to Read a Slave Narrative
This essay, written by English professor William L. Andrews, explores slave narratives and their influence in American literature in the late nineteenth century up to modern times.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Sapelo Island Culture
In this video segment from EGG: the arts show, learn about the Gullah/Geechee culture of Sapelo Island.
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia Library: Reconstruction, by Fredrick Douglass
A document on Reconstruction written by Fredrick Douglass. He argues particularly for voting rights for blacks as the most necessary step to avoid the kinds of state's rights conflicts that brought about the Civil War.
US National Archives
Nara: Treasures of Congress: Struggles Over Slavery the "Gag" Rule
This National Archives and Records Administration site contains John Quincy Adams' response to the "gag" rule in the House of Representatives, May 25, 1836, which restricted discussion about slavery in Congress . Also included are images...
University of Virginia
American Historical Review: The Differences Slavery Made
An in-depth scholarly investigation on the differences slavery made in the shaping of societies in the North and South by using two similar communities, one north and one south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
University of Missouri
Famous Trials: Amistad Trials
This site discusses the history and significance of the Amistad trial. Make sure to click on the "cont." link for more information on the history of the case.
University of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin: Carl Schurz
A selection of German-American statesman and military leader Carl Schurz' writings on his life and "True Americanism".
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Photo Gallery: Significant Abolitionists
Learn about the countless people who made important contributions to the abolitionist movement to end slavery. In this photo gallery from American Experience, explore some of these leaders and their vocations.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Abolitionist Map of America
Through an interactive map, tours, documents, images, and videos, explore the account of the abolitionist movement in America.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Connecticut Blacks in 18th and 19th Centuries
A curriculum unit that examines the history of slavery in Connecticut, the laws permitting it, segregation, and the struggles faced by freed blacks to achieve equality.
University of South Florida
Civil Rights and Conflict Selected Speeches: No Compromise With Evil of Slavery
A speech given by William Lloyd Garrison in 1854 in which he advocates for the abolition of slavery. The readability level, word count, and citation are provided. An audio rendition of the speech can be heard as well as downloaded in mp3...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Fly to Freedom
Students build a working definition of slavery by looking at examples and non-examples, use the book The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton to identify internal and external conflict, and finally complete a writing assignment focusing...
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman
This article overviews Harriet Tubman's involvement with the Underground Railroad, her service in the military during the Civil War, and her fight as an activist for African-American and women's rights.
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Comission
Explore Pa History: Pennsylvania Democrats
A good look at the views of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania just prior to and during the Civil War. Read about Democratic president from Pennsylvania, James Buchanan, and his views about the importance of slavery in the national...
Chase Young, PhD
Dr. Chase Young, Ph D: Reader's Theater Script: Alison Hart's Gabriel's Horses [Pdf]
A reader's theater adaptation of Alison Hart's historical fiction book, Gabriel's Horses, is provided on this script. Nine character roles are needed in this performance.