Just how long did it take the framers to write the Constitution? What role did the drafting process play? Scholars examine various drafts from the Constitutional Convention to gain a better understanding of its formation. Interactive...

Explore the relationship between geography and economy using primary sources. After examining wills, advertisements, and other primary sources, individuals consider how the Chesapeake Region came to be home first to indentured servants,...

Using primary sources, maps, and an interactive M&M game, young historians examine the American revolution as if they were detectives trying to solve a crime. Resource includes graphic organizers and a final writing prompt to aid...

Historical illustrations reveal more than what they are meant to portray. After reading Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, high schoolers view a series of illustrations, movie posters, photographs, and book covers that exemplify...

Text of several of Lydia Child's writings that supported her abolitionist sentiments.

The text of a lecture, given by Atwood in 1995, in which she discusses her approach to writing poetry.

An interview with playwright August Wilson about the people who most influence his writing. He includes Amiri Baraka, Jorge Luis Borges, and Romare Bearden, and most especially, blues singer Bessie Smith. In addition to the interview,...

Letters written by Sherman Wyre, who served in Company H of the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, writes home to his parents with details of his well-being.

Letters from Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt to his children who he affectionately called his "blessed bunnies". Roosevelt writes from Tampa Florida during the Spanish-American War.

Excerpts of letters written by Catharine Parr Traill, which she collected and published, along with her journals, in The Backwoods of Canada (1836). In these excerpts, she writes about her arrival in Newfoundland and a journey to Quebec.

Writing in the 1840s, Lydia M. Child tells the story of ex-slavers living in Virginia. Demonstrates the complexity of the abolition debate in Pre-Civil War America.

This site discusses the political writings of James Otis concerning the British authority to search for smuggled goods with writs of assistance. Otis argued they were the worst violation of English liberties. This site contains quotes...

A collection of poems written by Sarah Josepha Hale along with a brief biography.

Letters by African Americans seeking help to leave the South. They explore issues including identity, family, community, and the struggles induced by the need to migrate north.

This site explains background causes for the British Parliament's passage of the Stamp Act. It also contains arguments against the Stamp Act by famous colonists.

Spanish-American War era letter from Captain Robert C. Van Vliet to the wife of fellow officer, Eli Helmick, on the state of the troop after the battle at San Juan Hill.

Spanish-American war time letter written by Private Baxter Kyle Adkisson about events prior to the attack at Santiago, Cuba.

Letter sent home from J. House Moore during the Spanish-American War describes the assault on El Caney in Cuba, 1898.

Letter from the Spanish-American War battleship IOWA crewmember, Bernard Keegan describes the action witnessed during the Battle of Santiago.

Letters from Albert C. Lynn of the MARBLEHEAD giving his account of what he saw and heard about the preparations for the sinking of the collier MERRIMAC at the entrance to Santiago harbor during the Spanish-American War.

Letter home written by Morgan James Lewis about his trip to Cuba aboard ORIZABA as part of General Shafter's Fifth Corps deployment during the Spanish-American War.

Letter written by Charles Reynolds describes his life as a member of a regiment serving in the occupation forces in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

Letter written to his mother by John Worsham Travis, Captain of Company K of the 4th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry provides insight into the life of the occupation forces in Cuba.

Letter describing William Burdette Smith's trip across the U.S. to San Francisco as a member of the 13th Minnesota Volunter Infantry during the Spanish-American War.