Digital History
Digital History: American Ethnic Literature
Educated white men weren't the only ones contributing to a truly American literature. Read about the literature written by Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Irish Americans. All added to the melting pot of...
Digital History
Digital History: The Artist in American Society
See how the creation of visual art in its many forms developed over the first half of the 19th century. In addition of the painters in the Hudson River School of Art, read about the beautification of natural spaces such as parks, and...
Digital History
Digital History: The Birth of American Popular Culture
A description of many different forms of popular culture in the first half of the 19th century ranging from sensationalized newspapers to dime novels to pseudoscience. Read about Stephen Foster's music, theatrical productions, and even...
Digital History
Digital History: The Texas Revolution
Why would American citizens emigrate to Spanish-held, and later Mexican-held Texas? Read about the reasons, their grievances against their Mexican rulers, and the eventual revolution that brought independence to Texas.
Digital History
Digital History: "Go West and Grow Up With the Country"
When Horace Greeley gave his advice to go West, young man, he meant as far west as Iowa. See how the Midwest was settled by pioneers, lumberjacks, and miners. Read about squatters on the fine prairie land and how they were able to keep...
Digital History
Digital History: Donner Party
The gruesome story of the Donner Party is a cautionary tale of poor planning. Read about the survivors and those who did not live to see their dreams of California.
Digital History
Digital History: War Fever and Antiwar Protests
What started out as a prowar inclination of American citizens at the beginning of the Mexican War soon deteriorated. Read about the opposition of politicians, clergymen, and intellectuals to the reasoning for the war, and later for the...
Digital History
Digital History: Peace
Read about the peace treaty that ended the Mexican War. See that there were some who wanted to annex the whole of Mexico and were disappointed with the terms of the treaty.
Digital History
Digital History: The Old South: Images and Realities
First read the plantation legend about life in the South. The remainder of the article refutes the legend, explains the differences in many facets of the South, and emphasizes the importance of the Southern agricultural output to the...
Digital History
Digital History: The Fugitive Slave Law
See why the Fugitive Slave Act was such a contentious, divisive law that exacerbated tensions between North and South.
Digital History
Digital History: The Breakdown of the Party System
As the Whig Party collapsed and the new Republican Party was forming, there was a flash-in-the pan party, the Know Nothing Party, that filled the void for a few years. Read about the success of the party in electing legislation, and find...
Digital History
Digital History: "Bleeding Kansas" and "Bleeding Sumner"
Read about how the concept of popular sovereignty expressed in the Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted in political intrigue and murder in Kansas and the caning of a U.S. Senator in the Senate chamber.
Digital History
Digital History: Harper's Ferry
Read about the infamous raid on Harper's Ferry by John Brown and his band in 1859. His first plan had a chance of success thought Frederick Douglass, but the plan that was carried out was doomed from the start. See what John Brown was...
Digital History
Digital History: Enslavement
A very good description of how Africans were enslaved in Africa for sale to the Europeans. See how the introduction of European weapons changed the dynamic in West Africa.
Digital History
Digital History: Middle Passage
The number of Africans who died or were enslaved as a result of slave trading both across the Atlantic and into the Arabian peninsula is truly shocking. Read about the Middle Passage which brought millions of slaves to the New World, see...
Digital History
Digital History: The Slave Trade's Significance
An explanation of the significance of the slave trade in the colonial economy as well as in Europe. See why the slave trade stimulated manufacturing and resulted in the transatlantic triangular trade.
Digital History
Digital History: Slave Labor
Not all slaves worked in the fields. Read about the jobs of many skilled workers who were slaves in the South. Read also about the slaves who were field hands and find out about the harsh labor conditions they endured.
Digital History
Digital History: Slave Family Life
An extensive look at the family life of slaves and the attempts to maintain family ties under daunting circumstances. Read about slave marriages, the splitting up of families, and the ways the family kinship networks operated on the...
![Digital History: More Like the Tva? [Pdf] Website](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Digital History: More Like the Tva? [Pdf] Website")
Digital History
Digital History: More Like the Tva? [Pdf]
Read the history of the Tennessee River Valley and the tension between private enterprise and government in the development of electricity and, surprisingly, fertilizer. Find out how the Tennessee Valley Authority was developed during...
Digital History
Digital History: Legacy of the New Deal
This is just a short article, but it includes big ideas. See the lasting legacy of the New Deal as the many of the programs begun at that time are still a large part of American government and life.
Digital History
Digital History: Hollywood During the Great Depression
One can trace the cynicism and despair at the beginning of the Great Depression to a more optimistic point of view by the end of the New Deal by looking at the movies produced by Hollywood. Read about the subject matter of the movies...
Digital History
Digital History: The Depression of 1937
Read about the "Roosevelt Recession" that resulted from the slashing of government spending because of rosy economic news in 1936. Find out how opposition to the New Deal kept it from being expanded to help the country out of recession...
Digital History
Digital History: The New Deal in Decline
The Supreme Court, in 1935 and 1936, found unconstitutional several programs that were the backbone of the New Deal. See how President Roosevelt tried to deal with these setbacks, and the results both for him personally and for the law.
Digital History
Digital History: Native Americans
Find out about how Native Americans fared during the passage of so much legislation during the New Deal. See which progams helped them, and read about the changes made in decades-old laws.