In this lesson, students use a guided reading to look at a report on the status of education in North Carolina in 1869, and discuss the reasons given then for why the Governor and Legislature should support educating North Carolina's children. They are provided an opportunity to compare and contrast the 1869 document against their own ideas about the civic duty to attend school through age sixteen, and its relative value to the state and the country.

This site recounts the struggle for control of Hawaii between native Hawaiians and American business interests in the late 1800s. This 1897 petition and a lobbying effort by native Hawaiians convinced the U.S. Congress not to annex the islands. But months later the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana and the Spanish-American War began. The U.S. needed a mid-Pacific fueling station and naval base.

Primary source images, standards correlation, and teaching activities are included in this resource.

The documents selected for this exhibit are primary sources that historians and other researchers study when they write about historical events. They are a selection from the files created or received by Federal agencies in or near San Francisco at the time of the disaster. They contain eyewitness testimony of the damage of the earthquake, the ensuing fires, and the desolation that was left in their wake.

The 2008 Summer Teachers Conference focused on the year 1948. Lesson plans created by teachers attending the conference and powerpoint presentations delivered by speakers are presented on this site.

This course is a survey of American History from the Age of Exploration and Discovery to the present. Emphasis is placed on critical and evaluative thinking skills, essay writing, interpretation of original documents, and historiography. This history curriculum is assembled from UC college preparatory courses and students will demonstrate comprehension of a broad body of historical knowledge; express ideas clearly in writing; work with classmates to research an historical issue; interpret and apply data from original documents; identify underrepresented historical viewpoints; write to persuade with evidence; compare and contrast alternate interpretations of an historical figure, event, or trend; explain how an historical event connects to or causes a larger trend or theme; develop essay responses that include a clear, defensible thesis statement and supporting evidence; effectively argue a position on an historical issue; critique and respond to arguments made by others; raise and explore questions about policies, institutions, beliefs, and actions in an historical context; evaluate primary materials, such as historical documents, political cartoons, and first-person narratives; evaluate secondary materials, such as scholarly works or statistical analyses; and assess the historical significance and cultural impact of key literary works (e.g. Common Sense, Uncle Tom's Cabin).

This is a searchable database of the cornerstone documents of our government. It has more than 100,000 digitized copies of the National Archives most popular and significant manuscripts, photographs, maps, drawings and other documents.
The guide introduces educators and students to the National Archives' ARC. Searching in ARC to learn more about National Archives' historical documents could enrich a classroom activity, a homework assignment, or a research project.

The complete Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 20,000 documents. The collection is organized into three "General Correspondence" series which include incoming and outgoing correspondence and enclosures, drafts of speeches, and notes and printed material. Most of the 20,000 items are from the 1850s through Lincoln's presidential years, 1860-65. Treasures include Lincoln's draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, his March 4, 1865, draft of his second Inaugural Address, and his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest. The Lincoln Papers are characterized by a large number of correspondents, including friends and associates from Lincoln's Springfield days, well-known political figures and reformers, and local people and organizations writing to their president. In its online presentation, the Abraham Lincoln Papers comprises approximately 61,000 images and 10,000 transcriptions

Abraham Lincoln’s Crossroads is an educational game based on the traveling exhibition Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, which debuted at the National Constitution Center in June 2005. The online game is intended for advanced middle- and high-school students. It invites them to learn about Lincoln’s leadership by exploring the political choices he made. An animated Lincoln introduces a situation, asks for advice and prompts players to decide the issue for themselves, before learning the actual outcome. At the end of the game, players discover how frequently they predicted Lincoln’s actions. A Resources Page keyed to each chapter provides links to relevant Websites on Lincoln and the Civil War, permitting students to explore issues in more depth

Jazz grew out of the African-American community at the turn of the 20th century, a time when blacks were being denied their most basic rights. The music has since become a part of every American's birthright, a timeless symbol of American individualism and ingenuity, American democracy and inclusiveness. In this lesson students will learn about the social, cultural, and economic origins of jazz within the African-American community.

This site introduces students to one instance in which immigrants overcame the ramifications of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 through the U.S. judicial system. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences. It also has cross-curricular connections with history, government, language arts, and math.

These photos depict typical daily activities of African Americans before the Civil Rights era.

African American History II is a course that examines the broad range of experiences of African Americans from the close of the American Civil War to the 1980s. We will explore both the relationship of blacks to the larger society and the inner dynamic of the black community. We will devote particular attention to Reconstruction, the migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, and the political machinations of the African American community.

This site showcases the African American collections of the Library of Congress. Displaying more than 240 items, including books, government documents, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, plays, films, and recordings, this is the largest black history exhibit ever held at the Library of Congress.

This lesson introduces students to the role of African-Americans in WWII using news reel. This lesson is based on the understanding that students have already been exposed to news reel as primary source documents in the Social Studies classroom (this can be done in succession with Lesson #1 or as a stand alone lesson during African-American History Month or during a WWII unit).

The collection African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907, contains pamphlets and other materials, most of which were written by African American authors about pressing issues of the day. In this lesson, students use the collection's Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 to identify problems and issues facing African Americans immediately after Reconstruction. Working in small groups on assigned issues, students search the collection for documents that describe the problem and consider opposing points of view, and suggest a remedy for the problem. Students then present the results of their research in a simulated African American Congress, modeled on a congress documented in the collection's special presentation, Progress of a People.

This lesson encourages students to identify problems facing African Americans immediately after Reconstruction. Students then work in small groups to identify documents describing a particular problem, consider opposing points of view, and suggest a solution and present their research findings.

This site offers 12 hours of interviews recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor from more than 200 individuals in cities and towns across the U.S. Audio and transcripts of the interviews are provided.

In this lesson, students explore various aspects of the 1960s, including the 1967 "Summer of Love," and compare them with contemporary times to ascertain cultural influences.

Nuclear weapons and nuclear power have greatly influenced history from 1945 to the present. This digital library provides an annotated bibliography of over 2,700 books, articles, films, CDs, and websites about a broad range of nuclear issues.