![Digital History: Majority Rule vs. Checks and Balances [Pdf] Website](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Digital History: Majority Rule vs. Checks and Balances [Pdf] Website")
Digital History
Digital History: Majority Rule vs. Checks and Balances [Pdf]
It is interesting to read how the delegates to the Constitutional Convention thought as they debated important issues such as the checks and balances that should be written into the new Constitution. Read these conversations based on...
Digital History
Digital History: A Bill of Rights? [Pdf]
There was no Bill of Rights attached to the original Constitution, but it was a topic of discussion. Read a reconstruction of speeches of delegates to the Constitutional Convention who debated for and against the inclusion of a way to...
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery and the Slave Trade [Pdf]
Read reconstructions of debates by delegates to the Constitutional Convention as they attempted to come to terms with slavery, the slave trade, and how to address the issue in the Constitution so all states would be willing to ratify it....
Digital History
Digital History: The Constitution [Pdf]
Find the text of the Constitution and amendments along with an explanation of each article and section. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: The Debate Over Ratifying the Constitution [Pdf]
Read about why ratification of the United States' new constitution was such a struggle. Find arguments for and against ratification, and discover who supported the Federalist position and who the Anti-Federalist position. [PDF]
Digital History
Digital History: The Founding Fathers' Motives [Pdf]
Read some historians' views about the Founding Fathers and their interests, perhaps economic, in writing the Constitution. Historians' views have changed over time, and in the suggested student exercises, students are asked to assess...
Digital History
Digital History: The New Nation [Pdf]
Many problems existed for the new United States. Read about issues facing George Washington as the new President, and find out about the major successes of the first Congress. [PDF]
Digital History
Digital History: Hamilton and Jefferson the Men and Their Philosophies [Pdf]
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton played a huge role not only in crafting important documents in U.S. history, but also by serving as secretaries in George Washington's first cabinet. Read about their diametrically opposing...
Digital History
Digital History: Paying the National Debt [Pdf]
Read about Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, as he tried to find a way to pay off the national debt. See how his ideas were opposed by James Madison, and why the issue was not just economic, but political. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: Hamilton, Jefferson, First National Bank of the Us [Pdf]
As with so many other ideas, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were on opposite sides of the formation of a national bank. Read why Hamilton thought it was a great idea, why Jefferson opposed it, and what they each wrote to...
Digital History
Digital History: Neutrality and the Jay Treaty [Pdf]
See why a war between Great Britain and France showed the vulnerablity of the new United States. Should the United States help France, after that country gave so much in the Revolutionary War, and risk the economic and military enmity of...
Digital History
Digital History: Sedition Act and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions [Pdf]
Read about the foreign policy problems the United States was having at the beginning of the Adams administration. See what led up the the passage of the Sedition Act and some ramifications of it, and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions...
Digital History
Digital History: The Election of 1800 [Pdf]
Perhaps the most important election in United States history, the election of 1800 pitted John Adams against Thomas Jefferson. Read about their differences and the differences in the political parties that supported them. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: The Black Man's African Past [Pdf]
Read the narrative of Oladuah Equiano (or Gustavas Vassa) who described the culture of Benin as he was growing up in mid-18th century. On this site there is also a brief, general history of Africa at this time. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: The Slave Trade [Pdf]
Read Olaudah Equiano's account of being captured in his village in Africa, and placed on a slave ship to be taken to America. He describes the middle passage of the triangular trade route, as well as the leg from Europe to Africa. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: Solomon Northup and Mammy Harriet [Pdf]
Solomon Northrup, a free man, was captured and sold into slavery. Read his account of what plantation life was like from his book, 12 Years a Slave. In addition, read the remembrances of a house slave and what her life was like. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: The Life Cycle of a Slave [Pdf]
Read excerpts from these slave and ex-slave narratives to find out what the life of a slave was like through all stages of life--childhood, marriage, and old age. See the heartbreak of mothers being separated from their children, and...
Digital History
Digital History: Methods of Controlling Slaves [Pdf]
Slave masters felt that controlling slaves was a necessity. Read about three ways slaves were controlled in the slavery system, and read an account by Frederick Douglass about how his master, in particular, kept his slaves in line. [pdf]
Digital History
Digital History: Responses to Slavery: Spirituals and Stories [Pdf]
Find the lyrics to spirituals slaves sang that gave a glimpse into their lives and gave them hope for freedom. In addition, read some of the stories slaves told that showed how they offered passive resistance to their plight of slavery....
Digital History
Digital History: Responses to Slavery: Nat Turner's Rebellion [Pdf]
Read about two major slave rebellions, one involving thousands and one just a few men. Denmark Vesey planned his rebellion in 1822, and nine years later, Nat Turned executed his. Find out the results of each. [PDF]
Digital History
Digital History: Compensation for Slavery [Pdf]
Read the arguments for and against giving reparations to today's African Americans to atone for the slavery their ancestors endured in 18th and 19th century America. Also included are results from a poll conducted by the magazine, Black...
Digital History
Digital History: The Roaring Twenties [Pdf]
Read this comprehensive look at the Roaring Twenties, or Jazz Age. Read about Prohibition and its ramifications, women's gains, entertainment, and literature. Also find out about the resurgence of racial unrest and violence. A very good...
Digital History
Digital History: Rise and Crash [Pdf]
A great explanaton of how the bull market was started in the stock market in March of 1928, and how, through speculaton and buying on margin, pushed up stock prices. See how the bubble burst over a series of days in October, 1929,...
Digital History
Digital History: The Depression [Pdf]
Take this interesting look at life during the Great Depression. Find data about unemployment, bank failures, the Bonus Army, and the ways the depression affected ordinary individuals. [pdf]