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Unit Plan
C-SPAN

C Span American Writers: Uncle Tom's Cabin

For Students 9th - 10th
This summary of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe includes the full text work as well as links to related websites.
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Website
US Government Publishing Office

Ben's Guide to u.s. Government: About the Emancipation Proclamation

For Students 6th - 8th
Ben's Guide is a fun way to present U.S. Government to students grades K-12. This site presents a history of the Emancipation Proclamation. Links to related sites are available.
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eBook
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: The Kansas Nebraska Act and Party Realignment

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Passed in 1854, it reopened the debate over the expansion of slavery in the United States.
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Handout
Stephen Byrne

History for Kids: North American History

For Students 2nd - 6th
History reference page for elementary students provides an overview of early American history from the age of Columbus through the Civil War and abolition of slavery. Includes links to teacher resources.
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Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Writing in u.s. History: The Emancipation Proclamation

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Website
The Newberry Library

Newberry Library and Chicago History Museum: Lincoln at 200

For Students 9th - 10th
This is resource provides information which allows users to examine key aspects of Lincoln's life and legacy, such as the circumstances of his birth, his views on slavery, and his assassination.
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Lesson Plan
White House Historical Association

White House Historical Association: Thence Forward, and Forever Free

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Informational text and lesson plan for grades 9-12 tracing Abraham Lincoln's battle against slavery from the time he was in the Illinois State Legislature through his presidency and writing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Website
University of North Carolina

Unc: The Church in the Southern Black Community

For Students 9th - 10th
These historically significant primary documents trace the evolution of the church in the black south into a significant part of the community.
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Article
Texas Public Broadcasting

Texas Pbs: Texas Our Texas: Early Statehood 1845 1861

For Students 9th - 10th
Examines the circumstances surrounding Texas's entry into the Union in 1845 as a slave state. It was an uneasy union, with ongoing controversy around the issue of slavery. This lasted through the Mexican-American War and helped to...
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Peculiar Institution

For Students 5th - 8th
A very brief look at the "Peculiar Institution" of slavery in the South before the Civil War. Read about how slavery became so entrenced and why it drove a wedge between the North and South.
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Lesson Plan
US National Archives

Docsteach: Letter to President Abraham Lincoln From Annie Davis

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students will study a letter from Annie Davis, a woman who was enslaved in Maryland and wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War to find out if 'we are free.' The students will decide if she received her freedom...
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Primary
Other

Online Archive of 19th Century u.s. Women's Writings: Emancipated Slaveholders

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Emancipation Proclamation

For Students 5th - 8th
The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 really didn't free a single slave. Read about why that was true, but also find out why Abraham Lincoln felt is was absolutely necessary to make a stand on ending slavery when he did, and how the...
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: Southern Nationalism

For Students 9th - 10th
An interesting look at the Southern attempt to, at first defend the institution of slavery, and later, to become defiant about it. See how Southern intellectuals, religious leaders, and politicians strove to create a self-sufficiency in...
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Primary
Lumen Learning

Lumen: American Literature: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

For Students 9th - 10th
This is the text and audio of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an anti-slavery novel published in 1852, that was said to "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War." It was the best-selling novel of the 19th...
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Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1844 1877: The Emancipation Proclamation

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: Nullification

For Students 9th - 10th
As with most other debates leading up to the Civil War, the debate about states' rights in reference to nullifying federal laws, ostensibly about tariffs, was really about the future of slavery in the South. Read about the issues of...
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Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1844 1877: Reconstruction: Black Codes

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses the Black Codes that white Southerners imposed on African Americans after the Civil War and the efforts by Republican politicians to protect their rights.
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Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: South Carolina

For Students 3rd - 5th
Explore how South Carolina moved from a "plantation culture" in 1670 to a "growing research center and banking state" today. South Carolina played a major role in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
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Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Abolitionists

For Students 9th - 10th
Outline of the beginning of the Abolitionist Movement in a pre-Civil War America as part of the sectional conflict between the North and South.
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: The South's Economy

For Students 9th - 10th
A good look at the economy of the South prior to the Civil War. Read a good explanation of how the use of slave labor impeded technological innovation and a lack of urban development. See how transportion improvements and good public...
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Article
University of Virginia

Virginia Center for Digital History: United States Expansion, 1800 1860

For Students 9th - 10th
An essay that looks at issues affecting Americans leading up to the Civil War. These included economic changes that led to new ideological, social, cultural, and political issues that further divided the nation along moral and regional...
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Reconstruction

For Students 5th - 8th
A very good overview of Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. Find the questions that needed to be answered about how to reincorporate the Confederate states, what rights freed blacks would have, and how terms of...
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Article
Siteseen

Siteseen: American Historama: Black Segregation Timeline

For Students 9th - 10th
This article features short, interesting facts in a historical timeline format on black segregation in America in the years before the Civil War up to the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1900s.

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