CPALMS
Florida State University Cpalms: Florida Students: What Caused the Civil War?
A tutorial that looks at the main causes of the American Civil War. A PDF file of the tutorial is available.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Civil War, a Nation Divided
A wonderful resource using primary and secondary source materials to explore many facets of the Civil War from the war itself to its impact on the home front. Includes video and text downloads.
Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Historical Society: The Portent: John Brown's Raid in American Memory
Online companion of an exhibition mounted in 2009 to commemorate the anniversary of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry examines Brown's role as a catalyst of the American Civil War.
White House Historical Association
White House Historical Association: Thence Forward, and Forever Free
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.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: A War to End Slavery Webisode 6
A wonderful, interactive site covering many aspects of the Civil War. See photographs, primary sources, and find interesting tidbits about the war. Included are links to lesson plans, teacher guides, resources, activities, and tools.
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: Kansas Nebraska Act Signed
This is a narrative detailing the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and the controversy that grew from it.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Teaching History: Beyond the Textbook: Causing the Civil War
An essay that looks at other, more complex reasons for the outbreak of the Civil War, beyond the traditionally accepted ones related to the Northern industrial economy versus the Southern agricultural one.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
A collection uses primary sources to explore the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
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: Secession of the Southern States
This collection uses primary sources to explore the secession of southern states from the United States prior to the Civil War.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source: Underground Railroad Fugitive Slave Act 1850
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
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.
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: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
This collection uses primary sources to explore Louisa May Alcott's novel, Little Women.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
This collection uses primary sources to explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: The Kansas Nebraska Act
Provides information on the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the consequences of its passing. From "The Civil War and Reconstruction" by Randall and McDonald.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Impact of Dred Scott: The Road to Civil War
After the Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court, the friction between the North and South over slavery escalated, and the North began to fear that they might not be able to prevent slavery from spreading into their states. The Dred...
History of American Wars
History of American Wars: What Caused the Civil War?
A timeline from the 17th to the 19th century showing the evolution of the slavery issue in the United States, leading eventually to the Civil War.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Civil War: The Nation Moves Toward War
Examine the causes of the Civil War using primary source documents. This lesson plan gives background on the Civil War, includes a timeline, and a bibliography for further reading. Primary source documents include music, newspapers,...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Pottawatomie Creek Massacre
John Brown, seeking revenge for the sack of Lawrence, Kansas, made Kansas even more bloody. Read about the Pottawatomie Massacre and its reverberations throughout Kansas.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Sack of Lawrence
Read about how the destruction of Lawrence, Kansas, seat of the Free-Soiler government by border ruffians inflamed attitudes in the North toward the actions of the slave-holders.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Border Ruffians
Because of the terms of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, a election would be held to determine whether Kansas would be a slave or free state. Read about the fraudulent votes cast by the so-called border ruffians from Missouri, and see how Kansas...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Kansas Nebraska Act
Read about the essential repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which had established which states could be slave and which would be free for thirty years, with the rancorous passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. See who supported it and why,...