Library of Congress
Loc: American Treasures: A More Perfect Union: Gallery B
This is a large site from American Treasures covering primary source documents from the early 1800s through the Civil War and on to Western Expansion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: The Christian Right
Essay defines the Christian Right and explores its cultural significance in American society, including why and how it emerged, religious and political goals, and who is included. Section for guiding students in discussion, scholar...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Ap Us History Study Guide, Period Five: 1844 1877
[Free Registration/Login Required] Advanced Placement U.S. History learning module on Civil War era America and the transformation of society, 1844-1877. Comprehensive study tools include videos, essays, primary source documents, and...
Henry J. Sage
Sage American History: Approach to Civil War: America in the 1840s & 1850s
Comprehensive article on the events leading up to the Civil War. The Author separates myth from fact and provides a detailed account of this period in history. Links to further reading and primary source material.
Henry J. Sage
Sage American History: Civil War Introduction
Article introducing the Civil War. The author provides background information on the debates between the North and South eventually leading to war.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Free Soil or Slave? The Dilemma of the West
By reading this section of a chapter on "Westward Expansion," students will be able to describe the terms of the Wilmot Proviso and the Compromise of 1850, discuss why the Free-Soil Party objected to the westward expansion of slavery and...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: A Fatal Contradiction Webisode 5
Webisode 5 - A Fatal Contradiction. 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.
![Huntington Library: A Nation Conceived in Liberty [Pdf] Lesson Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Huntington Library: A Nation Conceived in Liberty [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
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...
University of Maryland
Voices of Democracy: Abraham Lincoln, "A House Divided" (16 June 1858)
Read the full text of the "House Divided" speech that Lincoln delivered on June 16, 1858, as he accepted the Republican nomination for the U.S.Senate seat from Illinois that was held by Stephen A. Douglas. This speech exemplifies...
US Department of State
Bureau of International Information Programs: History Outline: Sectionalism
Article reviews several conditions of American society that sowed the seeds of civil war, particularly slavery and sectional conflict.
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Ap Us History: Unit 4: A House Divided
This extensive learning module examines how the United States became more connected with the world as it pursued an expansionist foreign policy, became the destination for many new immigrants, and encouraged migration to the Pacific...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Religion: John Mayfield
Primary resource of John Mayfield, as he discusses civic life, religion and the growth of American democracy in an excerpt from "Toward the Millennium," ch. 8 in The New Nation: 1800-1845, 1982 (rev. ed.)
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: A Divided Nation
This page from the American Revolution Project of the University of Groningen discusses how the 1850s were a time of conflicting ideas between North and South regarding the expansion of slavery. Scroll down to the third paragraph and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South
This lesson helps students study life in the United States in the years before the Civil War. Students will gain a better understanding of why people grew willing to fight to defend their way of life. Many of the documents students will...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: A Divided Nation
Overview of events and politics surrounding the bitter conflict about slavery in the U.S., including the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott Decision.
Digital History
Digital History: The Political Crisis of the 1840s
Read about the attempt to keep slavery out of the newly acquired Mexican Cession, and so how this attempt revealed an increased split between North and South.
Digital History
Digital History: Southern Nationalism
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...
Digital History
Digital History: The Slave Power Conspiracy
Read about a book published in 1864 that contended that there was a conspiracy to spread slavery into the western territories. See that the accusations included in the book could not be authenicated, but the ideas presented showed the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: The Growing Crisis of Sectionalism in Antebellum America
In this Curriculum Unit, students will consider "The Growing Crisis of Sectionalism in Antebellum America: A House Dividing" in 4 Lessons. The unit also includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource...
Northern Illinois University
Teaching Future Historians: Antebellum Era Lesson Plans
Several lesson plans covering a range of topics from the 1830s through 1860. These plans will give your students experience using primary sources.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Teaching History: Ask a Historian: Senatorial Division
A discussion of how the political balance kept shifting as free and slave states were admitted to the Union prior to the Civil War.
Digital History
Digital History: The Impending Crisis: Conclusion
A concise review of the ways the issue of slavery split the country from the Missouri Compromise to eventual secession of the southern states.
Other
Fca Homeschool: History 806
A sample lesson plan covering the sectionalism and problems facing the nation in its debate on slavery in the 1850s.
Tom Richey
Tom richey.net: The Crisis of the Union (1850 1860) [Ppt]
Presents key ideas for examining the events and issues that led to the American Civil War.