Curated OER
Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Constitution
Young scholars investigate President Abraham Lincoln's use of the U.S. Constitution and its importance to the Civil War. In this US history lesson plan, students read text about President Lincoln and the US Constitution. Young scholars...
Other
Cartoons of Thomas Nast: Reconstruction, Chinese Immigration, Native Americans
A collection of political cartoons from the 19th century by Thomas Nast. They provide insight into prevailing attitudes on Reconstruction, Chinese immigrants, Native Americans, slavery, and during the Gilded Era.
Other
Institute of Texan Cultures: Indi Visible: African Native American Lives [Pdf]
A collection of lessons to accompany an exhibit, available online, that examines the shared history and heritage of African Americans and Native Americans. Both groups were faced with exclusion from society and often joined together, in...
Other
Virtual Jamestown: Laws on Slavery
This site provides the original text of Virginia colonial laws concerning different aspects of slavery for Africans, Native Americans, and indentured servants.
University of Oregon
Mapping History: American History
Interactive and animated maps and timelines of historical events and time periods in American history from pre-European times until post-World War II.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Race and Identity in Antebellum America
This unit features authors of Antebellum America and how they portray the American identity through their literature. Click on the tabs to explore the various resources available to enhance this unit.
Other
Indigenous History: Indigenous Slavery in the American Southeast
It is fairly well-accepted that American slavery of the 19th century developed from three distinct traditions of slavery that were mutated into a new, racialized, institutionalized form: European indentured servitude, West African...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: New World: Part I: American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A variety of paintings and drawings that display European images of their first encounters with the land, plants, animals, and native peoples of the western hemisphere. With questions for discussion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Enslaved Peoples, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Two Spanish accounts of enslaved Indians in the Caribbean and enslaved Africans in Mexico and statements of the difficulty of maintaining slavery and the lurking threat of a slave revolt.
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
History Is Fun: Cultures at Jamestown [Pdf]
A six-page discussion of the mix of cultures that converged in the colony of Jamestown and the challenges this presented. These cultures were the English settlers, the indigenous Powhatan people, and the African slaves. Despite many...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages a Literary Survey
A series of 16 Instructional Units on American Literature with texts, videos, instructor guides, and more. Topics include: Native Voices, Exploring Borderlands, Utopian Promise, Spirit of Nationalism, Masculine Heroes, Gothic...
Digital History
Digital History: The Southernmost Colonies: The Carolinas and Georgia
Read about the colonization of the Carolinas and Georgia, find out about the role of slavery in those colonies, and see how the Native Americans were treated.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Sierra Leone, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
An eighteenth-century map, several illustrations by Europeans of Africans from Sierra Leone, and two eighteenth-century narratives depicting Sierra Leone natives through the eyes of two British physicians who describe the peoples they...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: English I, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Portraits of early New Englanders as well as four buildings from seventeenth-century New England that accompany accounts in those British colonies of struggles, Indian hostilities, and economic success.
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.
Sacramento Bee
Gold Rush: Indians' Misfortune Was Stamped in Gold
This CalGoldRush site discussses the triumphs and hardships of Indians during the California gold rush. Some became rich, but many were sold into slavery.
University of Virginia
Miller Center at Uva: u.s. Presidents: Martin Van Buren
Get the facts about the life and administraton of Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), the 8th President of the United States (1837-1841).
Library of Congress
Loc: National Expansion and Reform 1815 1880
Follow the territorial and westward expansion of the newly formed United States. Learn about the thriving slave trade of that era and the spread of reform efforts across the country.
Other
Encyclopedia of Arkansas: Louisiana Purchase to Statehood
A historical overview of the time period covering the Louisiana Purchase to the beginning of Arkansas Statehood (1803 through 1860).
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Iron Horse: North and South
From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section describes how the debate over where to place the transcontinental railroad line - in the North or in the South - began to take shape. It began with...
University of Virginia
Virginia Center for Digital History: United States Expansion, 1800 1860
An essay that looks at issues affecting Americans leading up to the Civil War. These included economic changes that led to new ideological, social, cultural, and political issues that further divided the nation along moral and regional...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: The Early Republic
[Free Registration/Login Required] Read about the tremendous growing pains faced by the new republic of the United States from the presidency of George Washington up to the election of Thomas Jefferson. Find out about the domestic...
Curated OER
Educational Technology Clearinghouse: Clip Art Etc: Wendell Phillips
(1811-1884) American orator and reformer who led the anti-slavery campaign and fought for the rights of women and Native Americans.