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Main Page
Important Websites
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Lesson Plans
Music and Video

Topics

• Civil War and Reconstruction
   

• Great Depression and World War II
   

• Post War U.S.
   

• Revolution and New Nation
   

• Emergence of the Modern U.S.

Pulling the Strands Together
- American History Seminar
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Pre-Civil War Resources

Pre-Civil War Lesson Plans

• Lincoln Library Lesson Plans
  http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/teachers/lessons.html
  
  1. Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858
  2. Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858: Interactive Map Activity
  3. The Anti-Slavery Movement
  4. The Black Hawk War--Reconstructing "Stillman's Run"
  5. The Cherokee Removal
  6. Lincoln, Patriotism and Protest
  7. Songs of the Times: American Concerns in 19th Century Campaigns
  8. Slavery and the Legal Status of Free Blacks: Rhetorical Analysis of Debates During the 1847 Illinois Constitutional Convention
  9. Free Market Labor vs. Slave Labor: Debating the Mud-Sill Theory
  10. To Come to Illinois - Or Not?
  11. Was the Dred Scott Decision Judicial Activism? The Theoretical Foundations of Legal Reasoning
  12. Diplomatic Misunderstandings: Indian Treaties and the Black Hawk War
  13. Parties and Their Politics: Analyzing Political Party Platforms, 1840-1860
  14. The Importance of Religion in Political Life in the 19th Century: Abraham Lincoln's Experience
  15. Gender Roles in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: What Fiction Tells Us
  
• Views of Antebellum Slavery - Uncle Tom's Cabin & The Ideology of Slavery
  http://hti.osu.edu/content/lessonplans/uncletomslesson.cfm
  Objective: 1.  To provide insight into how racial stereotypes were constructed and reinforced by American popular culture during the Antebellum Era. 2. To examine how Uncle Tom's Cabin challenged those stereotypes and, in doing so, contributed to the escalating tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery.
  
• The Age of Reform
  http://hti.osu.edu/content/lessonplans/Age%20of%20Reform.cfm
  Objectives: 1. To understand the fundamental beliefs of abolitionism and the range of anti-slavery positions. 2. To understand the activities of women of different racial and social groups within the women's rights movement in antebellum America. 3. To explore the use of visual and audio sources as a means to understand reform movements in antebellum America.
  
• History Now
  http://www.historynow.org/09_2005/teacher.html
  • Women Abolitionists By Roberta McCutcheon
  • Militancy and the Abolitionist Movement By John McNamara
  • Who was John Brown? By Fred Freitas
  • Children's Attitudes about Slavery and Women's Abolitionism as Seen through Antislavery Fairs By Carla Nordstrom
    
• Families in Bondage
  http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=280
  Objectives: (1) To gain insight into the experience of African Americans during slave times; (2) To explore the effects of slavery on African American family life; (3) To examine some ways that African Americans in slavery sought to cope with their condition; (4) To gain experience in working with personal correspondence as a primary resource for historical study.
  
• John Brown
  http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/brown/lesson_plans/menu.cfm
  The following lesson plans examine John Brown, the controversial militant abolitionist, exploring various perspectives of his character and actions as expressed through paintings by various artists, period newspaper articles, and quotes by contemporaries.
• Will the Real John Brown Please Stand Up!
• Bring a Painting to Life

Additional Resources

• The Lincoln Douglas Debate
  http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/teachers/index.html
  A number of links including slavery debates, Cherokee removal and more. Links include video and audio as well as lesson plans
  
• Digital History - The coming of the Civil War
  http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/coming_civilwar/index.cfm
  Maps, Images, timelines, lesson plans and recommended books and films.
  
• Digital History - Pre-Civil War Reform
  http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/precivilwar/index.cfm
  Maps, Images, timelines, lesson plans and recommended books and films.
  
• Digital History - Slavery
  http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/slavery/index.cfm
  Maps, Images, timelines, lesson plans and recommended books and films.
  
• The Gilder Lehrman Institute - The Coming of the Civil War
  http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/module9/index.html
  Primary sources, learning tools, visual aids, lesson plans and other resources.
  
• The Gilder Lehrman Institute - Slavery
  http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/module7/index.html
  Primary sources, learning tools, visual aids, lesson plans and other resources.
  
• For images of John Brown and the raid, see the image file.
  • The Digital History site has a great set of resources on John Brown including lesson plans for teachers:
    http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/brown/john_brown_menu.cfm
  • For more on Uncle Tom's Cabin, see
    http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/sitemap.html
  • For more on Dred Scott and the Dred Scott decision, see
    • http://www.nps.gov/archive/jeff/dred_scott.html
    • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2932.html
    • United Streaming has a video on the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision at
      http://www.unitedstreaming.com/search/assetDetail.cfm?guidAssetID=D1045E8C-7D88-4EE6-A1D2-13DF2EBEAFF7

Email questions or comments to: Katherine Morrissey