Slavery and Civil Disobedience: Christiana Riot of 1851
The Christiana Riot is ripe for a morality lesson plan weighing obedience to the law against slavery. This lesson is one approach but there are others - consider this alongside John Brown
06: Expansion and Sectionalism
Cotton is King James Hammond Speech 1858
Perfect source document for lesson examining comparisons between north and south on the eve of the Civil War. Combine this with a list of statistics and try to understand why the south thought they could win the Civil War despite the statistics that show clearly they did not. There's no better illustration of southern hubris.
DECLARATION OF CAUSES: February 2, 1861 A declaration of the causes which impel the State of Texas to secede from the Federal Union. | TSLAC
This is the Ordinance of Secession passed by the Texas legislature on February 2, 1861. It sets forth the reasons for secession and adopts a resolution to set the question before the people of Texas on February 23, 1861. Amidst the argument over the "causes" of the Civil War, it would be difficult to read this document and come to any other conclusion regarding the primacy of slavery.
The Filibuster King: The Strange Career of William Walker, the Most Dangerous International Criminal of the Nineteenth Century | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Filibusters should be included in US History courses as essential content. The centrality of the question slavery in the territories as the main focus of conflict is highlighted by the efforts to expand the United States intro central America. Not only does this shed light on the imperialism of the late 19th century, it raises questions about immigration today. If filibustering is to be included - focusing on WIlliam Walker is the way to do it. This article is a good place for teachers to start
Abraham Lincoln and Friends - Horace White (1834-1916)
Horace White's description of Lincoln in 1854 gives the reader a better sense of what Lincoln looked like and sounded like. The 1854 debates should perhaps deserve more attention than the 1858 debates to see the formation of Lincoln.s contention that the forefathers planned for the extinction of slavery. This short article has excerpts from White's reflections on Lincoln written in 1908
Peoria Speech, October 16, 1854 - Lincoln Home National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)
Lincoln's 1854 speech provides the best insight into his position on slavery. Careful readers will find the foundation of the Gettysburg address in this language - as well as a great defense of Jefferson's slave holding. Students and teachers who cannot reconcile Jefferson's slave owning, description of Africans in his Notes on Virginia and Sally Hemmings are instructed by Lincoln to look to Jefferson's role in the cession of Virginia land and the Northwest Ordinance instead.
I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,---to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me, that whatever of high hope, (as I think there is) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days; and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough in the world to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery, at any rate; yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce people upon. What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially, our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment, is not the sole question, if indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, can not be safely disregarded. We can not, then, make them equals. It does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the south.
The law which forbids the bringing of slaves <em>from</em> Africa; and that which has so long forbid the taking them <em>to</em> Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished on any moral principle; and the repeal of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the latter.
Lincoln says that the law outlawing the import of slaves from Africa is not morally different than the law preventing slavery from Africa
there are constitutional relations between the slave and free States, which are degrading to the latter. We are under legal obligations to catch and return their runaway slaves to them---a sort of dirty, disagreeable job, which I believe, as a general rule the slave-holders will not perform for one another.
We agree to return their slaves to them - which they would not do for each other
The Fateful Night of January 22, 1854: When Congressmen Pressured the President to Sign a Measure that Would Destroy the Nation : We're History
History focused on individual people at specific moments of time will always be more engaging to students than general trends, definitions and movements. This short article could give teachers a microscopic episode to describe to students as an introduction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Crisis Chronicles: Defensive Suspension and the Panic of 1857 Liberty Street Economics
Many teachers spend time diving into the details of the stock market crash of 1929 - but how many of us know what happened in 1857. This is not an article for students, but rather for teachers who want to know a little more about the nature of the American economy and how investment drove industrial growth in the mid 1800s. The information in this article could be used as a springboard for the writing of a lesson that illustrates the role of panic in markets - by which a line can be drawn from 1857, though Florida in 1926, the NYC in 1929 and end up globally in 2007
“White Enough to Pass”: Uncovering the story of John Wesley Gibson | underbelly
This article shows how the Maryland State Archives can be used to verify claims made in an 1872 book about the Underground Railroad by looking for evidence of one man in the book in the archives. This is what the real work of history looks like in the 21st century, something that today's history students rarely see, though they should. Instead of providing students with a drive-by description of abolition and the underground railroad - show them how difficult it is to find and vet evidence about it. Teaching them how to find the truth in the past will get them in the habit of doing it in the present
Abraham Lincoln Protests the Mexican War
Given Lincoln's paramount place in the pantheon of American History, his comments in Congress on the eve of the Mexican War put interpreters of American History in a tough spot. In this speech he openly questions the ground for the US to go to war with Mexico.
Free Blacks Pre-Civil War: Where They Lived - The Root
Henry Louis Gates shows how many of our assumptions and much of what we teach with regard to African American history has to be questioned. There were more free blacks in the south than the north. How can we still teach sectionalism and the Civil War the same way it was taught 30 years ago in light of this research? "Despite countless stories I'd read and heard about the Underground Railroad, with abolitionists on one side and fire-eaters on the other, there was, I now knew, a more complex landscape underfoot. Black history is full of surprises and contradictions, and this is one of the most surprising and seemingly contradictory ones that I have encountered."
American Panorama - Overland Trails
map tracks how many people journeyed through parts of the United States each year, as well as providing context to explain the reason for the spikes and declines in travel. It also links to travelers' diary entries. These passages often record details on the weather people endured, and the company they kept on the road.
American Panorama - Canals
This map traces not just the expansion of these waterways across the growing nation, but also the goods that traveled through the routes, from flour and wheat to timber and tobacco. This is a perfect set-up for a lesson in generalizations or assumptions, first without the map, then with the map through pure exploration without teacher guidance - what do the maps show? What can we learn about the changes in transportation in the early 19th century? Should we call this a "transportation revolution"?
LAW OF APRIL 6, 1830 | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)
Few know that in 1830, the Mexican government tried to stem the tide of immigration from the United States into the Mexican state of Texas. This is the law prohibiting further emigration from nations bordering on the Mexican Republic.
Inside America’s Auschwitz | History | Smithsonian
Half of history's dialogue with the past is the present. This new slavery museum marks an evolution in America's historical understanding of slavery. Teachers may only need the title of this article to capitalize on the potential of this article, but sharing it with students would deepen the conversation about how we should remember our past.
Dred Scott: Republican vs. Democratic perspective - Primary Doc Lesson
Students will read and analyze contemporary newspaper editorials of 1857 regarding the Dred Scott decision to analyze differences in perspective of Democratic Party followers and Republican Party followers. After this analysis, students will be able to answer the focus question “What differences in perspective on slavery between the two political parties did the Dred Scott decision reveal?” Students will choose a perspective from which to write their own “editorial”, and they will be given the choice of presentation medium.
How Did the North Really Feel?
In studying the causes of the Civil War, students often believe that the whole of the Northern United States stood against slavery and the whole of the South was for it. This lesson focuses on looking at primary source documents from the North and the South from 1850 to the beginning of the Civil War to show the different perspectives with regards to slavery and abolition through close reading and sourcing.
The Underground Railroad – Primary Document Analysis Lesson
In this lesson students will analyze five letters written from Thomas Garrett to William Still, both active agents in the Underground Railroad. Organized chronologically, the letters date from 1857 to 1860, all well after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The documents and the nature of the questions lend themselves to an interpretive exercise, students are saturated in more than 30 questions for the documents, letting them exercise the skill of simply decoding what they mean to determine a fact sequence and reasonable inferences
Adventures in Mexico: Corydon Donnavan 1847 (Book)
Can be used by teachers in a Mexican War DBQ - Corydon Donnavan’s 1847 book Adventures in Mexico: “The fact need not be concealed, that from their meanest soldier to their best general, [the Mexicans] are a nation of liars and plunderers. There are a few honorable exceptions, it is true, but more modest epithets will not serve truly to portray their general character. (bottom half of Page 26 )
Print Culture and Popular History in the Era of the U.S.-Mexican War - Common-placeCommon-place: The Journal of early American Life
A Mexican War article for teachers to comb through for references that will lead to provocative text and images for use in a DBQ
Facts and Figures for Fremont and Freedom - Google Books
Teachers won't have to work to hard to find DBQ quotes and "Do Now" prompts that illustrate the "Free Labor" argument against the extension of slavery in the western territories. This is a collection of articles, ideas and asides, a political pamphlet of sorts - supporting the candidacy of John C Fremont
The Confederate Cause in the Words of Its Leaders - The Atlantic
Teachers don't have to work divining the best DBQ quotes for secession instruction with this article. Cutting and pasting any of these into a lesson for students to explore "Why did the South secede?" would make for an easily planned- yet fruitful lesson
How a Slave Spiritual Became English Rugby’s Anthem - The New York Times
Teachers can "blow student's minds" by describing this as proof that the big bang physicists use to explain the start of the universe is continuing in the form of change in human affairs. The expansion, collision and intermingling of culture is just another manifestation of that process in the atomic structure of the universe. The surfacing of a 19th century American slave spiritual in 21st century European sports stadiums is like the collision of an English drinking song with a lawyer's poem to make the US National Anthem
Texas Annexation Document Lesson
Instead of the same 'ol Texas Independence lesson you've been using for years - why not focus on the element of the era that has more consequence for the history of the country as a whole - annexation? This document set is well chosen and easily fits into the chart included in the lesson set
Mexican-American War and the Media
These excerpts from NILES' NATIONAL REGISTER Vol. 70, May-July 1846 can be searched for the name of Colonel Truemen Cross, who is generally acknowledged as the first victim of the Mexican American War. Was he on the other side of the Rio Grande? Was he ordered across the river by General Zachery Taylor? Howard Zinn uses Cross in his chapter "We Take nothing by Conquest thank God" - yet the news reports paint a different picture
The diary of James K. Polk during his presidenc...
Teachers looking to show students that quotes alone cannot be used as ample evidence to prove a point can use the Diary of James K Polk - take a look at the bottom of the page on the right. In this section Polk is writing that he would avoid the Mexican war if he could
A Continent Divided: The U.S.-Mexico War
This joint project of Center for Greater Southwestern Studies and the Library at the University of Texas at Arlington offers digitized primary resources and lessons plans regarding the Mexican-American War. The site hopes to create a bi-national focus to examine the war as part of a larger and more integrated North American narrative. Teachers can set students loose in a deep archive of letters and diaries to see if conclusions they read about in their textbooks are directly conttrdicted by evidence.
Benjamin Lundy on The War in Texas
Two primary source documents for the click of one. Lundy argues that the slave interest is behind the Texas war for independence. In his publication he uses a quote from John Q Adams speech on Congress on Dec 25th saying that war with Mexico will come from US actions in Texas
Whitney Plantation - Louisiana
Teachers and students who look to this site to see a much more honest historic restoration than they knew existed. The "Big House" plantations of the American south were slave labor camps. each it's own "Auschwitz" The Whitney Plantation preserves the buildings, but includes names and memorials to remember those who suffered there.
Retracing Slavery's Trail of Tears | History | Smithsonian
Boxley lets less than a second pass. “I say, your great-great-grandparents were enslaved persons. The only reason your black behind is here at all is because somebody survived that deal. The only reason why we are in America is because our ancestors were force-brought in chains to help build the country. The way you transcend the hurt and pain is to face the situation, experience it and cleanse yourself, to allow the humanity of our ancestors and their suffering to wash through you and settle into your spirit.”