History with Peters
A Clear Signal for Change: Multiple Interpretations and Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Was Nat Turner a hero or a violent criminal? Using primary sources and images that discuss the rebellion of enslaved people he led in antebellum Virginia, scholars consider the question. Then, they create memorials to Turner and...
Stanford University
Evaluating Historical Sources on Juana Briones
Most have never heard of Juana Briones, the incredible woman who came to own property and divorce her husband in 1850s California. Yet, her relatively unknown life reflects the historical dynamics of the American West, particularly those...
National WWII Museum
More Than Words Can Say: Analyzing Visual Materials as Primary Sources
The propaganda of World War II was a key factor in galvanizing the home front. Class members examine images—without their text—to consider their messages, including those around race and gender. Using pictures and discussion questions,...
Curated OER
Rhetorical Devices in a Primary Source
Analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous and powerful "I Have a Dream" speech as a primary source document. After reading up on rhetorical devices and working in small groups to define terms, class members identify and explain the use of...
Anti-Defamation League
Analyzing Primary Source Documents to Understand U.S. Expansionism and 19th Century U.S.-Indian Relations
Historical events can be viewed from multiple perspectives. This simple truth is brought home in a activity that examines primary source documents related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny,...
Personal Genetics Education Project
Using Primary Sources to Examine the History of Eugenics
Eugenics philosophy takes survival of the fittest to a whole new level. With a research-focused lesson, young scientists examine the history of the eugenics movement and its impact on society. Pupils engage with a video clip, primary...
National WWII Museum
Evaluating the US Decision to Drop the Atomic Bombs
While the use of the atomic bomb was the definitive end of World War II, the terrible weapons left new questions. Young scholars use primary sources and analytical worksheets to consider the implications of the fateful decision. Then,...
Center for Civic Education
The Power of Nonviolence: What Is Nonviolence? What Does It Cost?
Your young learners will delve into the language of primary source documents in order to identify the characteristics, benefits, and costs of nonviolence. The lesson includes a mix of activities, including an anticipatory activity,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Chronicling and Mapping the Women's Suffrage Movement
While women's suffrage is often believed to be the result of a single constitutional amendment, the effort of women to secure the vote spanned decades and continents. Using primary sources in online archives, class members explore the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Mexican Revolution
The legacies of the Mexican Revolution are visible today—even if some history classes don't cover them. Using primary sources from leaders in Mexico at the time of the popular uprising and other evidence, such as railroad maps, young...
National Woman's History Museum
Unsung Voices: Black Women and Their Role in Women's Suffrage
Reclaim perspectives often left out of the narrative about the suffrage movement with an activity that lifts up the voices of African American women. Using primary sources and biographical details of Fannie Barrier Williams' life, young...
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
PBS
Primary Sources
Students see how to use primary and secondary sources to investigate history. Whether it is a photograph, book, map, letter, postcard, newspaper, or official document, students can use sources to reconstruct and relive history.
Ford's Theatre
How Perspective Shapes Understanding of History
The Boston Massacre may be an iconic event in American history, but perhaps the British soldiers had another point of view. Using primary sources, including reports from Boston newspapers and secondary sources from the British...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Lesson 3: Britain, Napoleon, and the American Embargo, 1803–1808
While the French were once the allies of Americans, the Napoleonic Wars saw the United States almost drawn into a war with its one-time friend. Wars in Europe threatened to draw in the early republic. A primary source-based activity...
Curated OER
Create a Magic Lantern Show; Freed People in the Reconstruction South
Engage your scholars by having them create "magic lantern shows" inspired by the film Dr. Toer's Amazing Magic Lantern Show: A Different View of Emancipation. As they study the South's Reconstruction through primary sources, learners...
Curated OER
Exploring the Irish in America Through Found Poetry
What was life like for Irish immigrants settling in America during the late 1800's? Learners examine primary source documents, such as lyrics, poems, and letters, to understand the immigrant experience. They then use those primary source...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Matter of the Philippines
The United States won the Spanish-American War, so now what? Young scholars act as advisors to President McKinley and use primary sources to recommend what America should do with its territories. Using a variety of perspectives—including...
Curated OER
Who Fought for the Confederacy?
Did the Confederate Army really consist of southern volunteers? Using primary sources, historians examine the story behind the "Twenty Negro Law" and realities of conscription during the Civil War. A letter and a lithograph (included as...
Historical Thinking Matters
Spanish-American War: 3 Day Lesson
Why did the United States choose to invade Cuba in 1898? As part of a 3-day lesson, your young historians will first develop working hypotheses to answer this question, then work with a variety of historical primary source documents that...
Curated OER
Qualifying to Vote Under Jim Crow
Literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather laws? Scholars study the systematic ways African-Americans were kept from voting even after it was made a law. They analyze a series of primary source documents, complete a worksheet, and engaged...
Curated OER
Primary and Secondary Sources - 7th
A link to a beautiful Animoto presentation is included, giving examples of primary sources that a student might want to contact when doing research. Using the Topaz Internment Camp in Utah as a sample topic, middle schoolers view a slide...
K20 LEARN
Plantation Life And Slavery: Antebellum Era
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...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Sources of Discord, 1945-1946
From Allies to enemies within a year. Scholars research the falling out between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945-1946 in the first lesson of a three-part series. Using primary source materials, group work, and interactive...