PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The American Abolitionist Movement
A collection that uses primary sources to explore the American Abolitionist Movement.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source: The Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
This collection uses primary sources to explore Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Beloved by Toni Morrison
This collection uses primary sources to explore Toni Morrison's Beloved.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
A collection uses primary sources to explore the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: 14th Amendment to the Constitution
After the Civil War, the 14th amendment granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States. This included former slaves. Learn about the protections this amendment offers to citizens, including those who were once...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Black Lost Cause: Examples of Colored Service
African American slaves are known to have fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, which many people may not realize. Why they would fight on the side of slavery, and the evidence that they did, are discussed in this section of...
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Sharecropping
Features a detailed discussion of sharecropping, a labor system that developed in Georgia after the Civil War in which workers raised crops for someone else in exchange for a share of the crop.
Digital History
Digital History: From Slave Labor to Free Labor
The most difficult task confronting many Southerners during Reconstruction was devising a new system of labor to replace the shattered world of slavery. Learn how plantation owners and freed slaves adapted to this massive shift in the...
University of North Carolina
Documenting the American South: The New Slavery in the South
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...
Tennessee Historical Society
Tennessee Encyclopedia: Memphis Race Riot of 1866
A brief article outlining reasons for the anger and frustration of many whites in the Memphis area after the Civil War which resulted in the Memphis Race Riot.
Then Again
Then Again: Web Chron: World History Chronology: The 14th Amendment Is Ratified
Read about the 14th Amendment and its impact on the lives of African Americans during Reconstruction and later.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Citizens: African American Identity: 1865 1917
Discusses the efforts of African Americans to be recognized as equal citizens after the Civil War, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Includes links to supplemental information.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Restoring the Union
Read this section from a chapter on "The Era of Reconstruction" to learn about Lincoln's plan to restore the Union at the end of the Civil War. Students will be able to discuss the tenets of Radical Republicanism and analyze the success...
Other
American National Biography Online: Armstrong, Samuel Chapman
Biography of Samuel C. Armstrong, founder of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute during Reconstruction, to educate African Americans after the Civil War. Hampton is now Hampton University.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & the Making of America
Using primary documents, oral histories, and other historical resources, discover how the arts of Africa, Europe, and pre-Civil War America influenced the culture of enslaved African Americans.
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University Libraries: Gilded Age: 1873 1876: The Panic of 1873
Explains the circumstances and events that led to the Panic of 1873, which was precipitated by the collapse of the Philadelphia investment house of Jay Cooke.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
Richard Wright, a black boy living in the Jim Crow South, travels north in hopes of escaping the violence and prejudice that rules his childhood. Selected (8) reading passages (grades7-12) to pair with "Black Boy" by Richard Wright....
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of the u.s. What Is Freedom? Webisode 7
Webisode 7 - What is Freedom? ..The history of the United States is presented in a series of webisodes, within each are a number of segments.Included are links to lesson plans, teacher guides, resources, activities, and tools.
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: Grade 8 Social Studies Units
A grade 8 scope and sequence document with six complete units.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Writing in u.s. History: The Emancipation Proclamation
Assess how the Emancipation Proclamation expanded ideas of freedom and liberty, looking at the antislavery debate that led to the proclamation, the influences on Lincoln's decision, and the provisions of the document. In this interactive...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: Grade 7 Social Studies Units
Students explore the formation of the American identity as they learn early United States history from the eve of the Revolution to the end of Reconstruction
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: The Gilded Age
The Smithsonian presents a collection of sixty pieces of art from the Gilded Age period in America. Works are included by such artists as Sargent, Thayer, Bannister, Beaux, and others.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source: Patronage/populism: Politics of Gilded Age
This collection uses primary sources to explore the politics of the Gilded Age.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Forever Free: The 1870s: Education
Read about the development of free education for African Americans following the emancipation of this enslaved population. This article focuses on schools in Texas, including what is now known as Texas A&M University. Includes a...