University of Nebraska
U. Of Nebraska: Railroads and Making of Modern America: Origins of Segregation
Primary source materials that focus on the segregation of African Americans that took place on the railroads in the 1800s. Content includes newspaper articles, anecdotal accounts, letters, legal cases, etc.
PBS
Pbs: The Black Press: Newspapers
At this PBS site, read about the histories of eight African-American newspapers: The Chicago Defender, The California Eagle, The Afro-American, The Pittsburgh Courier, Amsterdam News, Atlanta Daily World, Freedom's Journal, and Norfolk...
University of Michigan
Making of America Books
The complete online text of "My Bondage and My Freedom" by Frederick Douglass is available through University of Michigan Digital Library Text Collections.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Black Troops in Union Blue
Activity on African American troops in the Union Army. Students read article for background information, answer questions, then analyze and write about the controversies in a piece to be published in a mock Frederick Douglass's Paper.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Civil Rights: Demanding Equality
Teach the history of Civil Rights using this comprehensive learning module. Trace the movement from the 14th Amendment to modern times. The focus is on African American rights but also touches on women and disabled American's rights....
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Woman Suffrage
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson plan allows students to explore the broad context of the women's suffrage...
University of North Carolina
"Life and Times of Frederick Douglass": Text
HTML full text of the "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass," the autobiography of the 19th century African American abolitionist (1818-1895).
![Huntington Library: A Literature of Democracy [Pdf] Lesson Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Huntington Library: A Literature of Democracy [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: A Literature of Democracy [Pdf]
In this lesson, 11th graders explore the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his call for literature that was uniquely American. They then consider how Emerson would have responded to writings by Henry Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Harriet...
University of Virginia
Univ. Of Virginia: An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage
Full text of Frederick Douglass's "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, January 1867.
Curated OER
National Park Service: American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass Life and Work
This virtual museum exhibit from National Park Service focuses on Frederick Douglass. It offers a biography of Frederick Douglass, lesson plans, an image gallery, and a virtual tour of his home.
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Odyssey: Free Blacks in Antebellum Period
A site that chronicles through documents the accomplishments of African-Americans, both slave and free, from colonial times through the Civil War.
PBS
Pbs: God in America: The Black Church
A good look at the role of the church and religion in the history of African Americans. Find out the church's importance in the abolition movement and the civil rights movement.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Understanding New Vocabulary Within Context
This lesson focuses on ways to understand new vocabulary words in context. It provides an introduction with examples, information about how our language changes and how words get into the dictionary, and how to look outside the word to...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Race Problem, Making of African American Identity: V. 2
A poem, an address, and a painting that illustrate black political struggle in late-nineteenth-century America. This series of resources characterize "the Negro Problem" as "a concrete test of the underlying principles of the great...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Religion: Frederick Douglass
The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: America in 1850: Frederick Douglass
The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Introducing the Essay: Twain, Douglass and American Non Fiction
This lesson plan serves as an introduction to American literary non-fiction writing and focuses primarily on teaching some basic approaches to recognizing rhetorical strategies adopted for persuasive effect in essays and non-fiction. The...
US National Archives
Our Documents: War Dept General Order 143: Creation of Us Colored Troops (1863)
Original document that permitted the recruitment of black troops during the Civil War. Read about events and issues leading up to and following the 1863 establishment of the Bureau of Colored Troops.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Champions of Human Liberty
Frederick Douglass gave as speech praising John Brown and his raid on Harper's Ferry. He viewed Brown as a real hero of the abolitionist cause. Read his speech or listen to an excerpt.
Other
Eng 223: American Literature Before 1865
Online syllabus for a college Pre-Civil War American Literature class with links to information about each class lesson. These lessons contain some good teaching ideas and background information about a number of famous authors, much of...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Frederick Douglass [Pdf]
"Frederick Douglass on Women's Suffrage," a one page, non-fiction, reading passage, is an excerpt from a persuasive speech delivered by Frederick Douglass to the International Council of Women in Washington, D.C., April 1888 in support...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: African American Abolitionists
Read about three African-American abolitionists who worked alone and in concert with white abolitionists. The most radical was David Walker, who was the founder of radical abolitionism.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Free (?) African Americans
Not all African-Americans were slaves in the South. Some were freed by their owners, others escaped, but none had the same rights as free whites. Read about their restrictions that were put into law. Find out about the church...
Curated OER
Iu School of Liberal Arts: The Frederick Douglass Papers
A comprehensive site with information on Douglass' life, genealogy, and copies of many of his papers.