The American Civil War was fought within the United States from 1861 to 1865. The election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 increased tension between the North and South. Lincoln's political party was interested in stopping the...

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries, this site provides the complete "Confessions of Nat Turner" complete with images of the original pages published of the confession.

This autobiography of an African-American man relates his experiences as a free laborer in Georgia after the Civil War. You will see that he felt his conditions were not unlike the slavery that existed before the Civil War. From the...

A unique collection of first-person accounts, this concentrates on all the populations of the South, such as ex-slaves, enlisted men, middle-class women, displaced plantation owners. The works are sorted by the author's name. To search...

From this extensive site, "Documenting the American South" presented by the University of North Carolina you will find the memoir of Reverend L. R. Ferebee, who wrote about his life as a slave. A great primary source.

Learn about ten different nations of Native Americans in both North and South America by playing this Culture Quest game from the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to the game, there are many other options to choose to learn about...

Learn about ten North and South American Native American nations by playing the Infinity of Nations Culture Quest game. Examine Native American crafts and artifacts that are part of Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian,...

This site by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, part of the 'Documenting the American South' project, contains information and texts about first-person narratives of the American south. These documents give the viewpoint of...

Here at this site from the University of North Carolina, read the full text of Henry Clay Bruce's (1836-1902) book, "The New Man: Twenty-Nine Years a Slave, Twenty-Nine Years a Free Man." A very interesting account of a former slave of...

This site from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presents the full text of "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano detailing the cruelty of the slave trade in the...

A detailed presentation illustrating the history of Africans migrating to the Americas from as early as 1500 through the late 1860's. Review the distribution of Africans in North and South America, the initial settlements, escaped and...

An overview of the status and experiences of African Americans in the mid-1800s, both free and enslaved. Includes references to Frederick Douglass and his efforts to enlighten people about the discrimination and prejudice faced by...

Whatever early colonial prosperity there was resulted from trapping and trading in furs. In addition, the fishing industry was a primary source of wealth in Massachusetts. But throughout the colonies, people relied primarily on small...

This site from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, part of the 'Documenting the American South' project, contains information about the slave narratives from their beginnings until 1920 and the importance of this form of...

From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section describes how the debate over where to place the transcontinental railroad line - in the North or in the South - began to take shape. It began with...

This 'Documenting the American South' site from the University of North Carolina provides the full 326 page text (HTML file) of Randolph McKim's "A Soldier's Recollections" that describe his experiences and observations during his...

This site presents the full text of the "Simonds History of American Literature." This detailed reference book explores the literature in early colonial times, the eighteenth century, the beginning of the nineteenth century, the New...

An electronic edition of a very interesting, though dense, book written in 1936 as a record of the activies of the Emergency Relief Adminstration in North Carolina. The book begins with a look at how relief for the indigent was provided...

This University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill site provides a wonderful explanation of regionalism and local color as it applies to literature. There is a lot of other good information about Southern Literature at this site!

Could the American South be remade as an industrial economy like the North?

An English map from 1765 entitled "A New Map of North and South Carolina and Georgia."

This broad resource is broken into two main sections, topical history of the Americas and regional history of the Americas, and covers politics, social history and economic history. Includes coverage of both North and South American...

Musica del Pueblo is a full-featured resource that explores the traditions of Latino music. Using a colorful mural titled "Song of Unity" as a navigation tool, visitors can watch videos of performances, listen to different varieties of...

In 1954, a peace conference in Geneva temporarily divided Vietnam in two: a pro-communist North and an anti-communist South. The political factions in North and South Vietnam -- supported by their communist and capitalist allies in the...