Teaching American History
Teaching American History: The Future of the Colored Race
Full text to Frederick Douglass's essay "The Future of the Colored Race."
OpenStax
Open Stax: Addressing Slavery
In this section from a chapter on "Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses," students will learn about the different approaches to reforming the institution of slavery and be able to describe the abolitionist movement in the early to...
Other
Geni: American Abolitionist Movement
Looks at the history of the abolitionist movement in the United States, the key people involved, and important events.
CPALMS
Cpalms: Close Reading Exemplar: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students will learn about the life of Frederick Douglass, his personal experience of the slave system, and the discrimination and prejudice he faced from those around him. This intensive lesson exemplar...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Civil Rights: Demanding Equality
Teach the history of Civil Rights using this comprehensive learning module. Trace the movement from the 14th Amendment to modern times. The focus is on African American rights but also touches on women and disabled American's rights....
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like Historians: Emancipation Proclamation
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry instructional activity allows students consider whether Abraham Lincoln freed the...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Woman Suffrage
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson allows students to explore the broad context of the women's suffrage...
Washington State University
Washington State University: Literary Movements: The Slave Narrative
In addition to defining "Slave Narrative," this website includes information on the styles and influences associated with slave narratives. Also provided, are links to several examples of nineteenth- and twentieth-century slave narratives.
University of North Carolina
"Life and Times of Frederick Douglass": Text
HTML full text of the "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass," the autobiography of the 19th century African American abolitionist (1818-1895).
Other
Many Roads to Freedom: Locally Published Abolitionist Newspapers
Selections from abolitionist papers that were published in or near Rochester, New York are provided here for download in PDF format.
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Frederick Douglass: A Biography" by National Park Service
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: A House Divided: Slavery and the Civil War [Pdf]
In this lesson, 8th graders look at how slavery contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War, at Abraham Lincoln's efforts to save the Union, and at what impact the Emancipation Proclamation had on the North's view of the war. Includes...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: A Nation Conceived in Liberty [Pdf]
In this instructional activity, 11th graders examine the events and political philosophy that laid the foundations of the American government, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. They also look at what role religion played in...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: A Literature of Democracy [Pdf]
In this instructional activity, 11th graders explore the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his call for literature that was uniquely American. They then consider how Emerson would have responded to writings by Henry Thoreau, Frederick...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: The Literature of Upheaval [Pdf]
In this lesson, 8th graders read excerpts from Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe and discuss the impact their ideas about society and slavery had when their books were published. They then examine a...
University of Virginia
Univ. Of Virginia: An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage
Full text of Frederick Douglass's "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, January 1867.
Curated OER
National Park Service: American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass Life and Work
This virtual museum exhibit from National Park Service focuses on Frederick Douglass. It offers a biography of Frederick Douglass, lesson plans, an image gallery, and a virtual tour of his home.
Library of Congress
Loc: From Slavery to Freedom: African American Pamphlets, 1822 1909
A collection of historical, primary documents in the form of pamphlets written by African Americans from 1822-1909. Curriculum connections included.
PBS
Pbs People and Events: Frederick Douglass
This survey of the life of the abolitionist-writer Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) from the PBS series includes rare photographs of Douglass. Related links.
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Odyssey: Free Blacks in Antebellum Period
A site that chronicles through documents the accomplishments of African-Americans, both slave and free, from colonial times through the Civil War.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History by Era: Slavery and Anti Slavery
[Free Registration/Login Required] An excellent essay explaining the roots of the anit-slavery movement in the United States in the early 1830s and its evolution over the next twenty-five years. Read about the abolitionists, both white...
PBS
Pbs: God in America: The Black Church
A good look at the role of the church and religion in the history of African Americans. Find out the church's importance in the abolition movement and the civil rights movement.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
This collection uses primary sources to compare and explore the relationships between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Understanding New Vocabulary Within Context
This lesson focuses on ways to understand new vocabulary words in context. It provides an introduction with examples, information about how our language changes and how words get into the dictionary, and how to look outside the word to...