Classroom Resources Infographic: North-South Comparisons before the Civil War Economics, Geography, Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12 Download this infographic as an image.
Classroom Resources Infographic: Casualties and Costs of the Civil War Economics, Government and Civics, World History 9, 10, 11, 12 View this infographic as a PDF.
Classroom Resources Infographic: Industrialization: American Labor Economics 9, 10, 11, 12 View this infographic as a downloadable PDF. If you would like to learn more about Industrialization, view " Industrialization: Changing Living Standards " and " Industrialization: The Growth of Industry ." ...
Classroom Resources Study Aid: Reconstruction Amendments Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12 Thirteenth Amendment Prohibited slavery in the United States Fourteenth Amendment Defined national citizenship Reduced state representation in Congress proportional to number of disfranchised voters Denied former Confederates the...
Classroom Resources Infographic: New States in the Union Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12 View this infographic as a downloadable PDF.
Spotlight on: Primary Source A proclamation on the suspension of habeas corpus, 1862 The doctrine of habeas corpus is the right of any person under arrest to appear in person before the court, to ensure that they have not been falsely accused. The US Constitution specifically protects this right in Article I, Section...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The price of war: A letter from Mary Kelly to Sarah Gordon, 1862 James Kelly served with the 14th Indiana Volunteers beginning in 1861. In March 1862, his wife, Mary, traveled to the field hospital in Virginia where he lay wounded after the Battle of Winchester. She described the terrible...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on the Siege of Vicksburg, 1863 One of the Union’s top military objectives was to gain control of the Mississippi River, and thereby split the Confederacy in two. General Ulysses S. Grant took up this challenge late in 1862 but was frustrated for several months by...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Lincoln speech on slavery and the American Dream, 1858 Economics, Government and Civics 4 Through the 1830s and 1840s, Abraham Lincoln’s primary political focus was on economic issues. However, the escalating debate over slavery in the 1850s, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act in particular, compelled Lincoln to change his...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The Civil War and early submarine warfare, 1863 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Civil War combat foreshadowed modern warfare with the introduction of the machine gun, repeater rifles, and trench warfare, and the use of trains to quickly move troops. However, one of the most celebrated tactical innovations of the...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Sergeant Francis Fletcher of the 54th Massachusetts on equal pay for Black soldiers, 1864 Government and Civics 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Francis H. Fletcher, a 22-year-old clerk from Salem, Massachusetts, enlisted as a private in Company A of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment on February 13, 1863. One year after the regiment left Boston with great fanfare,...
Spotlight on: Primary Source A Ku Klux Klan threat, 1868 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ This page contains language that may be offensive or inappropriate for some viewers. Reconstruction politics was a catalyst for widespread racism and hatred that freed people experienced throughout the South. The Ku Klux Klan, founded...
Spotlight on: Primary Source My Country, ’Tis of Thee Samuel Francis Smith was a twenty-four-year-old Baptist seminary student in Massachusetts when he wrote the lyrics of "America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee)," the patriotic song that would serve as an unofficial national anthem for...
Classroom Resources Statistics: Immigration in America, Ku Klux Klan membership: 1915-1940s Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ The following charts are presented in the book The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930 by Kenneth T. Jackson. The first chart represents the states with the highest recorded membership in the Klan during this time period. The...
Spotlight on: Primary Source "The whole land is full of blood," 1851 "The whole land is full of blood." These ominous words were uttered by James W. C. Pennington, a former slave and noted abolitionist, in the wake of Thomas Sims’s infamous trial. Sims had escaped from slavery in Georgia before being...
Spotlight on: Primary Source African American soldiers at the Battle of Fort Wagner, 1863 On July 18, 1863, on Morris Island near Charleston, South Carolina, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a Union regiment of free African American men, began their assault on Fort Wagner, a Confederate stronghold. After the...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Mary Todd Lincoln on life after the White House, 1870 Economics Mary Todd Lincoln’s years in the White House were a combination of triumph and tragedy. Never fully accepted by the public and vilified by the press for overspending, her tenure as First Lady was unstable at best. After the death of...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Lincoln on the execution of a slave trader, 1862 This stunning document, a refusal of clemency for a convicted slave trader, stands out among the papers of Abraham Lincoln, a man renowned for his mercy and willingness to pardon. In November 1861, Nathaniel Gordon was convicted of...
Spotlight on: Primary Source General Sherman on the "March to the Sea," 1865 In the fall of 1864, Gen. James H. Wilson took command of Gen. William T. Sherman’s cavalry. Sherman and Wilson met and discussed various operations in Sherman’s “March to the Sea” from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. Wilson’s...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment, 1866 Government and Civics President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves only in Confederate states still at war with the Union on January 1, 1863, and as a wartime order, it could be reversed by subsequent presidential proclamation,...
Spotlight on: Primary Source A proposed Thirteenth Amendment to prevent secession, 1861 Government and Civics In the wake of the presidential election of 1860 that brought Abraham Lincoln to the White House, the slaveholding states of the American South, led by South Carolina, began withdrawing from the nation. In the midst of this...
Spotlight on: Primary Source A former Confederate officer on slavery and the Civil War, 1907 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ How can a soldier be proud of the country he defends while at the same time opposed to the cause he is fighting for? John S. Mosby, the renowned Confederate partisan leader, dealt with this moral dilemma years after the Civil War...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The surrender of Robert E. Lee, 1865 Left with no route of escape after the fall of Petersburg, Virginia, on April 2, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was faced with a difficult choice: keep fighting in an increasingly hopeless war or surrender to Ulysses S. Grant...
Classroom Resources Presidential Election Results, 1789–2020 Government and Civics 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Introduction The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, who are representatives typically chosen by the candidate’s political party, though some state laws differ. Each state’s number of electors is based on its congressional...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Confederate reaction to "Beast" Butler's orders, 1862 In April 1862 Union forces led by Captain David G. Farragut steamed past the weak Confederate defenses and captured New Orleans. During the occupation of the city Union troops were repeatedly insulted by New Orleans women and one...