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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Slavery and Empire 1440 - 1770

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students reflect on the events that led up to slavery in the early years of North America.  In this United States History lesson, students read excerpts from the book "Out of Many," then gather in small groups to answer specific...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Helping to Move On? An Analysis of the Reconstruction Amendments

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Reconstruction amendments: a helping hand or another form of slavery? An inquisitive lesson compares the Reconstruction legislation that ended slavery, granted citizenship, and protected voting right for African American men. Scholars...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Plantation Life And Slavery: Antebellum Era

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
Learners evaluate primary sources from the antebellum era to determine the accuracy of textbooks. They examine narratives from enslaved people, then compare them to their own text. Extension activities include the opportunity to write a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Examining Slave Auction Documents

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Students compare the social and cultural characteristics of the North, the South, and the West during the antebellum period, including the lives of African Americans and social reform movements such as abolition and women’s rights.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reliving History through Slave Narratives

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reconstruction

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Young scholars explain how the Civil War and Reconstruction both solved and created problems for our nation. They study how Reconstruction caused a further decline in relations between the North & South and how racism has been and...
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Lesson Plan
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Women Abolitionists

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the role of women abolitionists during the Civil War. Using essays and biographies, they try to identify the race and class of the different women activists and determine the expectations of the genders during this time....
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Frederick Douglass’s Narrative: Myth of the Happy Slave

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The firsthand accounts of what it was like to be an enslaved person in the mid-1800s riveted a nation and the issue ultimately led to civil war. Using excerpts from Frederick Douglass's autobiography, budding historians examine what it...
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Lesson Plan
Library of Virginia

Antebellum Freedom

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
From indentured servitude to involuntary race-based servitude, slavery has taken many forms in American history. Class members examine three manumission petitions that reveal how the rights of African Americans and African American...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Slave No More

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students discover what it was like to cross into freedom. In this slavery lesson, students read the "Emancipation Proclamation," and letters written by Abraham Lincoln and John Washington (a former slave). Students identify the key ideas...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Dred Scott Case (1857)

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars read and discuss Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court case, describe in writing Constitutional principles and results of case, explain how Supreme Court decision may have helped further tensions between states, and answer...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students write a first-person narrative from the perspective of a runaway slave, or a historical character of the period, and present their story orally.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Powerful Memories, Powerful Words

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students identify and describe the influence slavery had on Mark Twains writing, and then determine the status of race relations and ethnic differences in contemporary life.
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Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Defining Freedom

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Confederate states. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery in the United States. However, neither document defined freedom. The second instructional activity in the Reconstruction Era...
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Lesson Plan
1
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Teaching Tolerance

Jim Crow as a Form of Racialized Social Control

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Just because slavery was illegal doesn't mean it went away ... Jim Crow Laws took its place. An eye-opening lesson focuses on how Jim Crow Laws were used as a form of racial social control against African Americans in the United States....
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Lesson Plan
1
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US House of Representatives

Hispanic Congressional Representation in the Era of U.S. Continental Expansion, 1822–1898

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
From the Louisiana Purchase to the Spanish-American War, the history of the United States is intertwined with the story of Hispanic Americans. Using an article about Hispanics in Congress during the 1800s, learners research their lives...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Abolishing Slavery

For Teachers 4th - 11th
Students explain the goals and methods of the abolitionist movement. They identify key leaders in the movement. This lesson has adaptations for elementary through high school. Links are provided for resource readings.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Backward Lesson Plan

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore and analyze the position of freedmen in the post Civil War period as well as the impact of Andrew Johnson's presidency on Reconstruction. In addition, they evaluate the laws and amendments that were put in place during...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Runaway Indentured Servants

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students compare and contrast indentured servants and slaves. In this US history slavery lesson, students discuss the owners' perceptions of indentured servants and slaves, then view ads for runaway slaves to support their opinions....
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Lesson Plan
Library of Virginia

Life as an Enslaved People

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
As part of a study of slavery in the United States, class members analyze documents related to the sale of slaves. They consider not only the text of the bills of sale but also what the appearance of the broadsides suggest.
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Lesson Plan
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West Virginia Department of Education

An Act Worthy of Reward

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
John Brown is considered by many to be a martyr for abolition and civil rights. The resource covers an important event in West Virginian history, the raid by John Brown, as a standalone that discusses Brown's last words and his reaction...
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Lesson Plan
National Park Service

Discover the Mary Ann Shadd Cary House

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was an extraordinary woman, no matter the time period. Academics research the life and achievements of Mrs. Cary, who was born a free African American in 1823. The lesson uses primary sources, worksheets, written...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A New Birth of Freedom: Black Soldiers in the Union Army

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Students investigate the history of civil rights by viewing historical photographs.  In this U.S. history lesson, students discuss why Black Soldiers fought for their rights by joining the Union Army in the 1800's.  Students complete a...
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Lesson Plan
Middle Level Learning

Philip Reid and the Statue of Freedom

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
Approach the concept of freedom in United States history from a variety of angles and delve into rich primary source analysis practice. Pupils study the Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the dome of the Capitol building in Washington...

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