Handout
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Students "Sit" for Civil Rights

For Students 3rd - 8th
Read the book, "Freedom on the Menu" about the Greensboro Sit-Ins and use the background information and follow up activities provided to enhance the story.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Freedom: Charles W. Chesnutt: African American Identity

For Students 9th - 10th
Short story that explores the cultural and linguistic resources that sustained African Americans in the first years of freedom. This resource focuses on Charles Chesnutt and the influence he achieved by writing about race for a white...
Website
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Senegambia, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Drawings of West Africans and two accounts of Africans before enslavement, one by an African of Gambia, one by a French traveler to Senegal. They examine how Africans lived in freedom before enslavement.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Booker T. Washington, Making of African American Identity: V. 2

For Students 9th - 10th
A summary and questions related to an autobiography in which Booker T. Washington describes his early experience of freedom. A link to this full text is provided here as well.
Interactive
National Geographic

National Geographic: Underground Railroad History of Slavery

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Experience what it would be like be a slave seeking freedom by taking this journey on the Underground Railroad. Uses popups.
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Neh: Edsit Ement: The Statue of Liberty: The Meaning and Use of a National Symbol

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this lesson plan, students will consider "The Statue of Liberty: The Meaning and Use of a National Symbol." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Emancipation: Death as Freedom

For Students 9th - 10th
A poem, narratives, and newspaper selections that examine black suicide and death generally as the only dependable source of freedom for slaves. This grim resource provides links to two separate accounts of these experiences.
Website
US National Archives

Nara: Charters of Freedom

For Students 9th - 10th
National Archives exhibit presents selected pages of George Bush's State of the Union Address given January 31, 1990. Includes introductory essay on freedom.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: History of Us: Safe for Democracy?: Wilson's 14 Points [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson plan from the producers of the 16-episode PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" that directs students to examine Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points. They will discuss how Wilson's plan and the establishment of the League of...
Lesson Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Marching, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This resource by the National Humanities Center discusses the role of physical protest in the civil rights movement. Its primary focus, the print "Freedom Now," by Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), depicts the massing of bodies in the name of...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Buying Freedom, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Narratives from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries depicting the struggle by blacks to purchase their own freedom and the impediments they faced.
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Divining America: Puritanism and Predestination

For Students 9th - 10th
The Puritans came to the New World in search of religious freedom. This National Humanities Center article tells what they did with that freedom. Site also offers topics for discussion with students.
Primary
US National Archives

White House: President Discusses Beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom

For Students 9th - 10th
In this transcript of President George W. Bush's radio announcement to the country concerning the invasion of Iraq, he explains the nation's reasons for entering into war. (March 22, 2003)
Primary
American Rhetoric

American Rhetoric: Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "The Four Freedoms"

For Students 9th - 10th
This is the text and audio of President Franklin Roosevelt's speech to the 77th Congress entitled "The Four Freedoms" on January 6, 1941.
Website
US National Archives

Nara: Charter of Freedom: United States as a Beacon of Liberty: Immigration

For Students 9th - 10th
National Archives exhibit of the primary source document, Deed of Gift, Statue of Liberty, July 4, 1884.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Working for Freedom: Labor Reform and the Triangle Factory Fire [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson plan from the producers of the 16-episode PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" that examines the conditions American workers faced in the late 1800s. Students will understand the factors that precipitated the birth and growth...
Website
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Down and Out

For Students 3rd - 8th
Read about the response of Herbert Hoover to the suffering of those who were hurting during the Great Depression. From the PBS series, Freedom: A History of US, based on the books by Joy Hakim.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: What Is Freedom?: Politics and Reconstruction [Pdf]

For Teachers 6th - 8th
A lesson plan from the producers of the 16-episode PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" that guides students through an examination of the outcomes of the Civil War. Includes discussion prompts related to the effectiveness of...
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: National Underground Railroad: Network to Freedom

For Students 9th - 10th
The National Park System has preserved many buildings that were used as Underground Railroad stations. See the sites as they stand today and learn about the network that existed.
Lesson Plan
9/11 Memorial & Museum

National September 11 Memorial & Museum: The Freedom Quilt [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has partnered with the New York City Department of Education and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education to develop a robust set of 9/11 lessons for K-12 classrooms. Each lesson is...
Professional Doc
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Price of Freedom: 1860 Campaign Ribbon

For Students 9th - 10th
View a photo a 1860 Campaign Ribbon and read a brief description of the contentious election of 1860. Displayed in the National Museum of American History.
Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Price of Freedom: George Washington's Uniform

For Students 9th - 10th
View a photo and read a brief description of George Washington's uniform. Also includes an explanation of Washington's attention to the symbol of the uniform. Displayed in the National Museum of American History.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: w.e.b. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk

For Students 9th - 10th
A chapter that explores how white perceptions influence African American identity. Although granted freedom, citizenship, and suffrage by the Civil War amendments, W. E. B. Du Bois explains how the emancipated black person had yet to be...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Making of African American Identity: Volume Ii 1865 1917

For Students 9th - 10th
Uses primary resources-historical documents, literary texts, visual images, audio, and video material-to explore how African Americans created group and individual identities in the late-nineteenth century. Topics include freedom,...

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