In today's political rhetoric, many forget the pivotal role the Republican Party played in the causes of the Civil War. The party's formation was the final straw for Southerners who saw the enslavement of people of African descent a...

Did people actually lobby for the enslavement of people? Congress debated this very issue in 1850. Using an excerpt from a Senate speech that advocates for continuing slavery, young scholars evaluate the primary source for reliability....

Slavery not only involved the forced migration of African people from their homes, it also meant the forced removal of people within the United States. Using data and interactive graphics, scholars see how the tragedy of human slavery...

While the end of the Civil War marked the end of slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment, the questions of the Reconstruction remain unanswered today. Slavery first became a matter of debate at the Constitutional Convention. Today, we...

Being able to recognize patterns, craft generalizations, and draw conclusions based on information in a text passage are essential critical thinking skills. Encourage learners to hone these skills with a activity that asks them to read a...

How did the United States come to acquire two of its largest states? Your class members will learn about the sequence of events that led to and immediately followed the acquisition of Texas and California, including the Mexican-American...

How did we grow into such a large nation? Follow the events, wars, and treaties that led to the acquisition of major states as we expanded into the West. The slides provide maps, dates, and simplistic information to help learners...

Students use a map of the Missouri Compromise to explain the geographical changes it brought to the U.S. and why the changes provoked a debate over the expansion of slavery in the U.S.

Why did Stephen Douglas support the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Why did Abraham Lincoln oppose it? Young historians examine how the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 affected the political balance between free and slave states and explore how...

Students examine the controversies over slavery's expansion and how the federal tariffs further entrenched the dividing line between northern and southern interests.

Your history students will be on the edges of their seats during this fascinating presentation, which details the abolition movement and slave life during the Antebellum period in the American South. Students will be left agape at the...

Nat Turner, John Brown, and Abraham Lincoln all played a key role in the run-up to the bloody American Civil War. Using a PowerPoint, timeline activity, and essay prompt, young historians consider the roles of these men and more to...

Here is a traditional multiple-choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank assessment on the presidency of James Monroe in the United States. It was designed to supplement a particular textbook chapter, but could be used to assess learning...

Students create cartograms of populations during 1790.

A panorama of the mid-19th century in America, this series of images present several issues that were prevalent before the Civil War. Territorial and social conflicts were heated during this time, and one map in particular shows a...

Use this series of bright, informative maps to illustrate important events of America's infancy. Detailing the Missouri Compromise, the Battle of New Orleans, and the Presidential Election of 1812, this presentation would be a good...

How did the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act contribute to the growing tensions that led to the Civil war? To better understand the events that led to the Civil War, young historians engage in a...

Students read and discuss background material on several key decisions that played a role in the Civil War including the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dredd Scott Decision. They create a timeline and write an essay.

Students analyze an interactive map of the Missouri Compromise to identify the regions and their relation to slavery. In this pre-civil war era activity, students read primary source documents and research online to answer questions...

In this Constitutional Convention compromises worksheet, students fill in the 20 blanks in 4 paragraphs regarding the details of 4 compromises made at the convention.

In this online interactive social studies worksheet, students answer 12 multiple choice questions regarding 1850s America. Students may submit their answers to be scored.

Students identify the various causes leading to the Civil War. Students create a timeline of the actual events that led to it. Students form small groups and read from one of the included paragraphs about the causes of the war to each...

Young scholars evaluate the fairness of the Missouri Compromise. They read the Missouri Compromise and discuss how it reflected the North-South, anti-slavery and pro-slavery division in the country. They work in groups to debate the...