DocsTeach
The Impact of Westward Expansion on Native American Communities
Although Westward Expansion is often romanticized, its impact was devastating on Native American communities. Primary source documents, including pictures of United States troops invading indigenous lands and Native American tribes, tell...
Walden Woods Project
19th Century Lessons for 21st Century Lives
The words of Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience seem particularly relevant today, as are his writings and those of other transcendental thinkers who ask what it mean to live deliberately and what are the responsibilities of...
Curated OER
Debunking the Myth of the American West
Students participate in a close reading. They examine the text closely for implied and hidden meaning, dissect the story to understand the text as a written craft, and discuss significant details and overall meaning of story. They...
Curated OER
Antebellum Revivalism and Reform
A gold mine for American history teachers, this presentation cascades through the middle of the 19th century with the central themes of moral and social reform. Between the blossoming Mormon church, the tightening of the Temperance...
Curated OER
Mark Twain: Straddling the Civil War
Mark Twain's life, politics, writing, and role as a mirror of pre- and post-Civil War American culture are the focus 11th and 12th graders in this section from an expansive author study. A critical writing assignment comparing Twain...
National Endowment for the Humanities
From Courage to Freedom: Slavery's Dehumanizing Effects
Learners analyze slavery and its effects on humanity using Frederick Douglass' autobiography. In this slavery instructional activity, students analyze instances of reality and romanticized myth using a slave narrative. Learners explore...
National Endowment for the Humanities
From Courage to Freedom: Frederick Douglass's 1845 Autobiography
Students study slavery from the perspctive of an American slave. In this Frederick Douglass lesson, students complete the suggested pre-reading and post-reading activities included for Douglass's autobiography, Narrative of the Life of...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: American Literature and Composition: American Romanticism
This lesson is an introduction to a unit on American Romanticism, from about 1800 to 1850. It defines the types of writing of the period and the power of poetry including the Fireside Poets: Longfellow, Bryant, Whittier, Lowell, and...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: American Literary Time Periods and Mla Format Introduction
This is an introduction to a unit on American Literary Time Periods and the MLA Format. It features an interactive that provides definitions of the nine literary time periods and links to American Literature background information and...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: Intellectual Climate
Discusses the intellectual atmosphere in the 1800s as America struggled to find its identity. The influences of the Enlightenment and Romanticism are described, and the ideas of various writers and philosophers.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: From Courage to Freedom:frederick Douglass's 1845 Autobiography
In this 3-lesson plan unit, students will read Douglass's narrative. They will analyze Douglass's vivid first-hand accounts of the lives of slaves and the behavior of slave owners to see how he successfully contrasts reality with...