Classroom Resources Study Aid: Major European Explorers Foreign Languages, Geography, World History 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 View this infographic as a PDF.
Spotlight on: Primary Source The Great West Illustrated, 1869 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math The exploration and settlement of the American West coincided with the development of the medium of photography. Photographic images, reproduced in books and newspapers and available for purchase on their own, helped shape Americans’...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Indenture agreement, 1742 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Colonial Americans engaged in many forms of unfree labor, with great numbers of youths moving away from their families to become servants or apprentices. The terms of their service were spelled out in contracts called indentures,...
Spotlight on: Primary Source "America the Beautiful," 1893 In a brief essay that appeared ca. 1925, poet Katharine Lee Bates described her inspiration for writing "America the Beautiful," the poem that would evolve into one of the nation’s best-loved patriotic songs, during a trip to Pike’s...
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 American Colonization Society membership certificate, 1833 When James Madison signed this membership certificate as president of the American Colonization Society in 1833, the organization’s effort to repatriate America’s free black population to Africa had been underway for over a decade. On...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Harriet Beecher Stowe sends Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1852 Literature Harriet Beecher Stowe’s opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 inspired her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin . The novel, first serialized in newspapers and then published in 1852 as a two-volume work, enjoyed tremendous success in...
Spotlight on: Primary Source John Winthrop describes life in Boston, 1634 Between 1629 and 1640, 20,000 Puritans left England for America to escape religious persecution. They hoped to establish a church free from worldly corruption founded on voluntary agreement among congregants. This covenant theory...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Aaron Burr, fugitive and traitor, 1804 On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr shot former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Nine days later he wrote this cryptic letter (partially in cipher) to his son-in-law, Joseph...