The Jefferson - Hemings Controversy - About -
The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy project was developed in collaboration with students in four courses at Lehigh University during the years 2009-2012.
03: The New Nation
William Hogeland responds to Martha Nussbaum - Boston Review
This essay is only for teachers to read, and perhaps, refer to with students to illustrate how historians argue with each other. Fans of Hamilton should skim through this as well, to see how serious historians engage what Hogeland refers to as "Miranda's Hamilton". That Hamilton, alongside "Cernow's Hamilton" and an historical Hamilton all exist, side-by-side
Art vs. History: John Adams, 1776 and Hamilton - Video
This is a brilliant 8 minute video exploring the overlap of the past and present in the art of feature films and Broadway musicals. This could easily hold a place that gets off the chronological-narrative to look into how we get our understanding of the past
The Federalist #84
Alexander Hamtilon argues that a Bill of Rights is not necessary and could be construed to suggest that those were the only rights the people had.
The Militia Act of 1792
One Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson and the History of what we owe
Book by Robert Wright
Anti-federalist Arguments Against "A Complete Consolidation" | EDSITEment
This lesson will focus on the chief objections of the Anti-federalists, especially The Federal Farmer (Richard Henry Lee), Centinel, and Brutus, regarding the extended republic. Students will become familiar with the larger issues surrounding this debate, including the nature of the American Union, the difficulties of uniting such a vast territory with a diverse multitude of regional interests, and the challenges of maintaining a free republic as the American people moved toward becoming a nation rather than a mere confederation of individual states.
The Monroe Doctrine: President Monroe and the Independence Movement in South America | EDSITEment
In this lesson, students will review the Monroe Doctrine against a background of United States foreign relations in the early years of the republic.
The Monroe Doctrine: Whose Doctrine Was It? | EDSITEment
Lesson explores the strong possibility that the "Monroe Doctrine" was written by John Q. Adams
The Monroe Doctrine: A Close Reading | EDSITEment
Journals of Lewis and Clark:
Original book reporting the expedition
President Madison's 1812 War Message | EDSITEment
Three lesson sequence concerning the causes of the War of 1812, using Madison's War Message as the point of focus. Any lesson could be used on its own
The Critical Period: America in the 1780s: Digital History
In this chapter, you learn abut the internal difficulties besetting the new republic, such as financing war debts, the threat of a military coup, and popular demand for tax relief, as well as efforts to expand freedom of religion, make land more readily available, increase women’s educational opportunities, and address the problem of slavery.
The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights: Digital History
This chapter examines the creation of a new government based on the principles of popular sovereignty, rule of law, and legislation enacted by elected representatives.
The First New Nation: Digital History
During the first 12 years under the Constitution, the United States established the machinery of government, defined the office and powers of the president, enacted a financial program that secured the nation’s credit and stimulated the economy, and created the first political parties to involve the voting population in national politics.
Jeffersonian Republicanism: Digital History
Here you will learn about Thomas Jefferson’s efforts to reestablish republican government by reducing the federal budget and Federalist influence over the judiciary, the emergence of the doctrine of judicial review, and the Louisiana Purchase, as well as British and French threats to American shipping and the causes and significance of the War of 1812.
The Era of Good Feelings: Digital History
The War of 1812 stirred a new sense of nationalism, evident in a series of landmark Supreme Court decisions and in foreign policy, especially the Monroe Doctrine. Paradoxically, these years also exacerbated political and sectional conflicts. The financial Panic of 1819 produced new political divisions and the Missouri crisis contributed to a sectional split between North and South.
Slavery in the United States - (Library of Congress)
This lesson introduces students to primary sources -- what they are, their great variety, and how they can be analyzed. The lesson begins with an activity that helps students understand the historical record. Students then learn techniques for analyzing primary sources. Finally, students apply these techniques to analyze documents about slavery in the United States.
Federalist-Antifederalist Debates | Teaching American History
TXRUNAWAYADS - Tweeting Runaway Slaves
On one hand, guessing the tweets of a runaway slaves is ridiculous when the device that allows them to do it would have a GPS more useful than the north star to find a way to freedom. On the other, it seems like a terribly creative way to capture the minute by minute terror and desperation of the escape like nothing else can.
The War of 1812? Don't remind me - Ideas - The Boston Globe
There are many reasons to re-evaluate why the War of 1812 remains in so many curricula. This article speaks of the War's legacies through the lens of the question of whether the anniversary should be celebrated or not. Students could read this to learn of the process of historiography.
No, the Founders Were Not Tea Partiers -- NYMag
This article gives us a more valuable way to teach the balance of the House and Senate. We can use a current political debate over what the founders intended and use it to explore the manner in which geographic and demographic size were bartered in the compromises of the Constitution. Better to work students through some of the challenge in this article than have them write definitions of the New Jersey and Virginia Plans for homework!
Shays' Rebellion - George Washington's Letter to Benjamin Lincoln
In order to frame Shay's rebellion in an intelligible context when we teach it - we can choose Washington's perspective. Instead of retiring to a peaceful life, he was pulled into the fears of anarchy raised by Shay's, the inability of the national government to combat it, and the Constitutional Convention called to eliminate this weakness. At the very least - pull quotes from his letters to the commander on the scene "Have your people gone mad?"
Religious Freedom Page: Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, James Madison (1785)
Any section of this document would be worthy of a lesson for students, though clause 3 is perhaps the best. It's ok to spend a half, or even a full class picking through this language for understanding. This is also a necessary ingredient in the "religion and founding fathers" argument soup.
The historical audacity of the Louisiana Purchase - Judy Walton | TED-Ed
When the French offered up the Louisiana Territory, Thomas Jefferson knew this real estate deal was too good to pass up. How did the President justify the purchase that doubled the size of the United States? Judy Walton provides President Jefferson's reasoning.
Drafting, Debating and Ratifying the Constitution
Based in primary documents, this lesson is designed to be implemented with an online instructional component. High school teachers will not be able to take these college lessons wholesale, but rather pick through the individual exercises and documents to find the elements around which they could build their own lessons
Reconfiguring the Old South - Teaching the Journal of American History
From a 2008 issue of the Teaching the Journal of American History, this site pairs an academic article from the Journal with six lesson plans that explore the issue of slavery in the south from Gabriel Prosser through the abolitionists mail campaign of 1835. What is most striking about the article is the manner in which it breaks the often-taught conception of southern opinion concerning slavery as universal.
The author, Lacy Ford, outlines the tensions that appeared as both the upper and the lower South attempted reconfigurations of slavery after the foreign slave trade ended in 1808. Upper South politicians sought a demographic reconfiguration, or a “whitening” of the region, to reduce the number of slaves living there through both colonization and the sale of slaves to the lower South. Lower South leaders, meanwhile, sought an ideological reconfiguration to make slaveholding consistent with existing republican and emerging humanitarian ideals by transforming slavery into a “domestic” institution legitimated by paternalism.
Abolition Petition and Mail Campaigns - Teaching the Journal of American History
This primary document analysis comes with links documents already edited for use in the classroom or for homework. Questions include asking student to compare the reaction of some southerners to northern abolitionists campaigns to 9/11 and the war on terror.
This lesson can provide great insight to the abolitionist movement, the growth of communications/transportation and the manner in which free speech is held in the balance. Yet another collateral effect of this lesson is dispel the myth of "Jacksonian Democracy"
Servant & Slavery Records | Chester County, PA - Official Website
Chester County PA has transcribed Indentured Servant and Slave records and made them readily available to the public. Teachers and students will find fugitive slave records, indentured servant complaints and slave manumissions here
Alexander Hamilton - Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs at the White House Poetry Jam
Just for fun - although this does show how far Alexander Hamilton had come by the time he made it to the colonies.