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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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Article
University of Groningen

American History: Essays: The Black Lost Cause: Examples of Colored Service

For Students 9th - 10th
African American slaves are known to have fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, which many people may not realize. Why they would fight on the side of slavery, and the evidence that they did, are discussed in this section of...
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Handout
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Teaching History: Ask a Historian: Senatorial Division

For Students 9th - 10th
A discussion of how the political balance kept shifting as free and slave states were admitted to the Union prior to the Civil War.
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Handout
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Forever Free: The 1870s: William H. Holland

For Students 9th - 10th
Read a brief bio on William H. Holland, a man born into slavery who not only fought in the Civil War but also involved in politics and working to advance African Americans during the Reconstruction. Read about some of his work as a Texas...
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Handout
The History Cat

The History Cat: Reconstruction Era

For Students 9th - 10th
Describes what the South was like after the Civil War ended. Many places were in ruins and people were desperately poor with many being homeless. Social structures had collapsed now that slaves had been freed. The Reconstruction era...
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Article
Immigration and Ethnic History Society

Iehs: Katherine S. Carper, "Difficulty of Studying "Immigrants" in Early 19th C"

For Students 9th - 10th
This article focuses on the study of immigrants in the early 19th century before the Civil War. Migration policy was primarily under state rather than federal control, and as long as slavery existed, there was no national definition of...
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Primary
Digital Public Library of America

Dpla: Secession of the Southern States

For Students 9th - 10th
This primary source set uses documents, illustrations, and maps to explore events and ideas that drove the formation of the Confederate States of America and the United States' descent into civil war. Includes a teacher's guide.
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Website
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: The 1860s: The Civil War and the End of Slavery

For Students 9th - 10th
What is the origin of the Texas holiday Juneteenth? Here is a brief article on how this day is connected to the Emancipation Proclamation and the freeing of slaves in the South.
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Article
Other

Binghamton University: Lincoln, Labor and Liberation

For Students 9th - 10th
The free labor ideology of the nineteenth century was grounded in the beliefs that Northern free labor was superior to Southern slave labor. It was this free labor ideology and not the republicanism of the Revolutionary War era that...
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Website
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: Biographies: Harriet Beecher Stowe

For Students 9th - 10th
Brief biography of famous Civil War writer Harriet Beecher Stowe. Includes list of additional titles about author.
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Website
Other

John Brown Raid: 1859 Raid on Harpers Ferry

For Students 9th - 10th
Commemorating John Brown's historic Harpers Ferry raid of 1859, this site has lots of information about Brown and the raid. The Educational Resources page is helpful for lesson materials. The links on the pressroom page will help you...
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Website
US National Archives

Our Documents: The Compromise of 1850

For Students 9th - 10th
The Compromise of 1850 attempted to settle sectional disagreements about slavery in the volatile pre-Civil War period. The compromise, actually a series of bills, had an enormous impact on the nation's slow march to civil war. See...
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Primary
Cornell University

Cornell University: Library: I Will Be Heard: The 13th Amendment

For Students 9th - 10th
Read the text of the 13th Amendment, adopted in January, 1865, even before the end of the Civil War, which ended slavery in the United States. Click on the image to see a larger picture of the document itself.
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

C3 Teachers: Inquiries: Emancipation

For Teachers 11th
A learning module on the emancipation of African American slaves after the Civil War. It includes several supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and source materials, followed by a summative performance task. Students will...
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Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Johnson, a Ride for Liberty the Fugitive Slaves

For Students 9th - 10th
Eastman Johnson focused his art on the status of race in the United States right about the time of the American Civil War. View his picture "A Ride for Liberty-The Fugitive Slaves" that depicts slaves crossing battlefields from the...
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Handout
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.

New Georgia Encyclopedia: Cotton

For Students 9th - 10th
Encyclopedia article portraying the importance of cotton to Georgia's agricultural economy during the Civil War up until World War I.
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Handout
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.

New Georgia Encyclopedia: Reconstruction in Georgia

For Students 9th - 10th
After the Civil War ended, Georgia was in a state of chaos. Learn all about the Reconstruction in Georgia from 1865-1871 and how it changed the state politically, socially, and economically.
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Unit Plan
Other

Presentations From the Life of Frederick Douglass

For Students 9th - 10th
The actor Fred Morsell, a Frederick Douglass reenactor, provides plays about the 19th century civil rights leader as well as other resources about Douglass's life and work.
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: From Slave Labor to Free Labor

For Students 9th - 10th
The most difficult task confronting many Southerners during Reconstruction was devising a new system of labor to replace the shattered world of slavery. Learn how plantation owners and freed slaves adapted to this massive shift in the...
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

C3 Teachers: u.s. History Module: Did Lincoln Really Want to Free Slaves? [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A comprehensive learning module on Abraham Lincoln that includes three supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and primary source materials, followed by a summative performance task. Students examine the evolution of...
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Unit Plan
Other

University of Delaware: Abraham Lincoln: A Bicentennial Celebration

For Students 9th - 10th
Commemorating Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, this exhibition provides several documents and photographs remembering the President's life. Resources cover his political career, slavery, the civil war and his assassination.
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Handout
National Women’s History Museum

National Women's History Museum: Harriet Beecher Stowe

For Students 9th - 10th
Abolitionist author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of her best-selling book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery.
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eBook
PBS

Pbs: African American Migration Story: Many Rivers to Cross

For Students 9th - 10th
A detailed presentation illustrating the history of Africans migrating to the Americas from as early as 1500 through the late 1860's. Review the distribution of Africans in North and South America, the initial settlements, escaped and...
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Primary
US National Archives

Our Documents: Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

For Students 9th - 10th
Image of handwritten copy of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, accompanied by an explanation of the speech's purpose, impact, and role in American history.

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