Before the Civil War, American literature began to employ native scenes and characters; the Transcendentalists popularized a philosophy that emphasized each person’s potentialities and glorified nature as a creative force; and a popular commercial culture emerged, including the penny press, the minstrel show, and the western adventure novel.
This chapter examines the social, intellectual, and religious roots of early 19th century reform movements, and the efforts of reformers in the areas of education, criminal justice, the treatment of the mentally ill; and the abolitionist and women’s rights movements.
The Roots of American Economic Growth: Digital History
After the War of 1812, the economy grew at rapid pace, as the nation overcame obstacles that stood in the way of sustained economic growth. Improved transportation and communication, technological innovation, the rise of the factory system, and mass immigration transformed the United States into an industrial leader.
Expansion/Slavery | Stanford History Education Group
Unit 4 primarily cover topics dealing with westward expansion during the nineteenth century. The exceptions are the lessons on Nat Turner and Irish immigration. These are included for chronological reasons, and to show students how historical trends can occur simultaneously. Both themes (slavery and immigration) are revisited in Units 5 and 6. This unit features several elaborate lesson structures: a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) and and Inquiry. In the SAC on Lewis and Clark, students debate whether or not Lewis and Clark were respectful to the Native Americans they encountered on their journey, while the Inquiry asks students to investigate what motivated Texans to declare their independence. Several lessons, especially on Manifest Destiny and Indian Removal, ask students to consider the perspectives of historical actors whose world views may seem foreign or even incomprehensible.
What Happens When A Language's Last Monolingual Speaker Dies? : Code Switch : NPR
In January of 2014, the last native speaker of the Chickasaw language died. When we teach the Trail of Tears, we should include mention of this and perhaps explore the issues raised by this article.
January 30: President Andrew Jackson Beats Richard Lawrence with a Cane After Lawrence Attempted to Assassinate Jackson
Article describing the unsuccessful assassination attempt of Andrew Jackson. Perhaps the conspiracy theories which look behind the insanity defense of the would-be assassin and suggest that Senator George Poindexter or John C Calhoun were behind the attempt could be used as a lesson plan. Students could try to prove the conspiracy and in the process investigate the major political fights of the day.
Letter threatening Jackson's life determined to be written by father of man who killed Lincoln » Knoxville News Sentinel Mobile
To prove that truth is stranger than fiction, John Wilkes Booth's father, Julius Booth, wrote a letter to Andrew Jackson, threatening his life. This story shows that the letter that has been sitting in the Andrew Jackson Papers Project at the University of Tennessee for 175 years is authentic. The next story to look for in this vein is the one in which John Wilkes Booth's brother (Edwin), once saved the life of Lincoln's son (Robert).
To Strike or Not to Strike in 1830s Lowell: A Role Play
In this activity students perform a role play of a talk show between Lowell workers and factory owners. To research their characters, students analyze primary sources. This activity is used to teach with the film Daughters of Free Men, but can be completed without the film.
When teaching about Jacksonian America, certainly one topic that comes to mind as critical is the market revolution. This short essay examines the visual evidence for the market revolution by examining family portraits, including folk portraiture, landscape paintings, and political cartoons. Professor Jaffee suggests ways to combine text and images in order to utilize images in teaching not as mere illustrations but rather as objects that constitute historical meaning.
From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 26 April 1802
In the footnote to this letter at the National Archives is evidence of the missing link in any discussion about the Trail of Tears. Although many high school history lessons focus on the role of Andrew Jackson, they ignore the deeper history of Native American removal. When the state of Georgia ceded claims to western lands (the north half of what would become Mississippi and Alabama) to the federal government, the federal government pledged to remove the Indians from Georgia
that the U.S. extinguish all Indian claims to land within the state of Georgia
Cholera Epidemic in New York City in 1832 - New York Times
Why is the history of medicine completely absent from history standards? As Ebola explodes in the news, capture student interest to teacher ethnocentrism and nativism of 19th C America in US History or Globalization of disease in the World History using the Cholera outbreaks of 1832 and 1849. You can even teach Geography with it.
This New York Times article speaks of the way in which cities confronted disease outbreaks.
Slavery - Andrew Jackson - policy, election, second
Although this site it devoid of any ownership or author information, this article quotes the passage in Jackson's 1835 message regarding his suggestion that Congress grant the power to the Post Office to restrict the mailing of abolitionist literature.
Choctaws helped starving Irish in 1847 – this act shaped tribal culture | Choctaw Nation
A great example of the connection of one oppressed people with another is the story of the Choctaw nation's gift of $170 to the starving people of Ireland in 1847. What's just as important is the continuing relationship between the Choctaw nation and the Irish
Before Solomon Northup: Fighting Slave Catchers in New York
Although some escaped slaves made it to New York City, there were active slave catchers/kidmappers who captured and brought african americans in front of judges to have the returned to the south. This article details one of these cases and explains the resistance offered by the Vigilance Committee and Manumission Society of New York.
Search Results « Chronicling America « Library of Congress
How was the Indian Removal covered in the press - this archive from newspapers across the country presents a number of opportunities for research and primary document interpretation. How did different regions of the country view the removal? We read documents of President Jackson, Congress, and perhaps even the Native Americans themselves - but how about the American public?
American Panorama - Forced migration in the American south
The map of forced migration tells the most powerful story through data and narration. While one tab alongside the map shows the number of enslaved people in each state by year, the other tab gives life to those statistics, through accounts by those forced into slavery.
From 1836 to 1839, the American Anti-Slavery Society published The Slave’s Friend, a juvenile periodical edited by abolitionist Lewis Tappan. Each issue, specially sized to fit small hands, was 16 pages in length and featured a mix of stories, news items, and poems meant to gently but firmly tell white children about the evils of slavery. Sending students into this collection will make them feel more like historians than students
What Things Cost in an American Country Store in 1836
Insight into the daily American life for the people whose lives never made it into a textbook. Could students craft a reasonable budget for an average a 1936 Connecticut household with this information? What else would they need? How would they know?
Connecticut in 1836.
<div class="text text-1 parbase section"><p>The list gives sample prices for the stock that a clerk in a country store might buy in order to flesh out a typical inventory.</p>
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<p>In setting up this hypothetical store, the author of <em>Practical and Mental</em></p></div>
Niles' Weekly Register - Southern newspaper reports of abolitionist literature mailed to the south
This primary source compiled newspaper reports of abolitionist literature mailed to the south in 1835. Look under the title "Detestable Villary" to see the language used to describe the abolitionists and what they wrote
Lesson 3: The Election Is in the House: Was There a Corrupt Bargain? | EDSITEment
Synthesis Lesson - What evidence do historians use to determine what actually happened in events of the past? Share as many of the following documents as desired with the whole class or with students working in small groups and allow them to decide. Does the circumstantial evidence indicate there was or was not a "bargain"? Or is the data insufficient to enable a conclusion? If a bargain had been struck, what criteria should be used to determine whether that bargain was in fact "corrupt"?
Africans in America/Part 4/Garnet's "Call to Rebellion"
National Negro Convention of 1843 Buffalo NY
In a few years the colonists grew strong, and severed themselves from the British Government. Their independence was declared, and they took their station among the sovereign powers of the earth. The declaration was a glorious document. Sages admired it, and the patriotic of every nation reverenced the God-like sentiments which it contained. When the power of Government returned to their hands, did they emancipate the slaves? No; they rather added new links to our chains.
Brethren, the time has come when you must act for yourselves. It is an old and true saying that, "if hereditary bondmen would be free, they must themselves strike the blow."
Searching for Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia (the Site of His Insurrection) — Demetria Lucas D'Oyley
Teachers looking to show students how history lives on can use this page and it's comments to see how the "history" of an event is still fought over more than 150 years later.
This short article about the book draws the connection between the slave rebellion and the black power movement of the late 1960s. Teachers can ask students to find the intervening connections - where would the thread wind between 1831 and 1967?
