University of Calgary
Peopling North America: Theories Regarding First Migrations to the Americas
An overview of the multiple theories of the earliest migrations into North America.
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Olaudah Equiano
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read information about and an excerpt from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa as well as "African Migration to Colonial America" and answer paired text...
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Puerto Rican Migration to the Us
This primary source set uses maps, documents, and photographs to tell the story of Puerto Rican migration to the United States.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: African Immigration to Colonial America
An interesting essay on the forced migration of Africans to America by way of the Middle Passage. Read where the slaves were off-loaded, how the population of slaves increased, and the inhumanities inflicted on the slaves both on the...
PBS
Pbs: African American Migration Story: Many Rivers to Cross
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...
Other
Anabaptists: The Germans Come to North America
This site explains what brought various German religious groups to America.
Other
Simon Frasier University: A Journey to a New Land
This interactive site examines questions about early human migration to North America offers grade-level appropriate information for primary, elementary, middle, secondary and post-secondary levels. Teacher resources, simulations, video,...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Teaching Geography: Latin America
A course workshop looks into the trends of migration in Latin America and then identifies how geographic surroundings impact human movement. Part I of the video addresses annual Mayan migration to Guatemala. Part II introduces a volcano...
The Newberry Library
Newberry Library: Chicago and the Great Migration, 1915 to 1950
Primary source material with lesson and classroom activities in which students analyze the causes and effects of the African American Great Migration to Chicago between 1915 and 1950.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Urbanization 1870 1900: Great Migration and New European Immigration
What caused the influx of African Americans and European immigrants into urban centers in the late 19th century? Learn about some of the discriminatory and anti-immigrant laws that were enacted to restrict their rights. Includes a chart...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Divining America: Religion in American History
A collection of scholarly essays consisting of instructional guides accompanied by commentary. Designed to help teachers of American history bring students to a greater understanding of the role religion has played in the development of...
PBS
Pbs: Ancestors in the Americas
Site examines the social, political, and economic issues that influenced the first Asian migration to the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Includes guidelines for helping students distinguish truthful, historically...
Nature Research
Nature News and Comment: Ancient Migration: Coming to America
A May, 2012 news feature from Nature magazine looks again at early migration theories that brought man across the Arctic to America. Was Clovis man really the earliest?
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Great Migration
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Great Migration.
Library of Congress
Loc: African Immigration: Africans in America: Life in a Slave Society
An excellent overview of the African American experience in America beginning with West Africa during the slave trade, through emancipation and reconstruction, to "New beginnings."
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Immigration and Migration
[Free Registration/Login Required] A lengthy essay discussing the differing opinions about immigration and the role of immigrants in the United States in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Find out about the...
Oswego City School District
Regents Prep: Us History: Immigration & Migration: Era of 'Old' Immigration
The earliest waves of settlers to the Americas, up through the first half of the 19th century, constitute the era of 'old' immigration. There are some distinctions between those settlers who came prior to the Revolutionary War and those...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: World Atlas: South America
Features a map of all the countries in South America. Click on the name of a country to get a more detailed map and information on that country.
Other
Redistricting America: Baker v. Carr
Charles Baker, a resident of an urban neighborhood in Tennessee, filed suit in federal court against Joe Carr, then Secretary of State of Tennessee. Baker sought a court injunction to postpone elections until the State had fulfilled its...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Tenement Museum: Your Story, Our Story
This online museum features a digital archive. Students, and anyone around the United States, are encouraged to upload images of family objects and their stories. American immigration and migration are the foci for this archive.
University of Wisconsin
The Why Files: Amblin' to Alaska
A look at the new methods of dating the Bering Strait land bridge and the subsequent implications to the peopling of Americas' theories.
Other
Phmc: Paleoindian Period: 16,000 to 10,000 Years Ago
A good description of the theories behind the various migration routes into the Americas, the evidence for pre-Clovis culture in the eastern part of America, and a discussion of the paleoindian sites particularly in Pennsylviania.
The Newberry Library
Newberry: Migration and Settlement: Map 5: Fremont Survey: Missouri Oregon, 1843
Lesson plan on migration and settlement in the U.S. ca. 1843, uses primary source map of the Missouri-Oregon survey done by Fremont and supplemental resources.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Biography of America: A Vital Progressivism
View a chapter from "A Biography of America" about the Progressive Era that focuses on minority and immigrant perspectives. An excellent resources for understanding the struggles of Native American, Mexican immigrant, Asian immigrant,...