Curated OER
Black Separatism or the Beloved Community? Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. In this African American history lesson, students compare and contrast the tactics employed by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King,...
Curated OER
Looking at Human Struggle Through The Language Arts Curriculum: The Faces of Slavery
Sixth graders examine the use of slavery in the United States. Using a map, they draw the route of the Tecora and Amistad voyages. Individually, they write an essay describing their opinions on whether the Africans on the ships should be...
Curated OER
Economy vs. Humanity Exploring the Triangle Trade and The Middle Passage
Young scholars examine the economic factors of the Triangle Trade as they related to slavery in the US. They use primary sources to study the experience of Africans as they traveled through the Middle Passage.
Curated OER
Slave Trade Memorial
Students develop a memorial to the slave who endured the Middle Passage. In this slavery memorial lesson, student culminate a unit of study about slavery by creating a memorial for Africans who traveled the Middle Passage to slavery....
Curated OER
Open Door, Closed Door Lesson Plan: Discrimination in Immigration And Migration
Students read The Northern Migration and research immigration policies of different nations for the past and the present. They create a bulletin board or spreadsheet using their information.
Curated OER
Building New York
Eleventh graders examine the role African Americans played in the expansion of New York. In this American History lesson, 11th graders compare and contrast the images of a wealthy, free black against a black who was poor and...
Curated OER
Unsung Military Heroes
In this instructional activity, students are introduced to the contributions made by African-American soldiers that have been excluded from traditional textbooks. To gain an appreciation for these unsung heroes, students engage in...
Curated OER
Heaven, Hell, and Baltimore
This lesson allows learners to research and compare the city of Baltimore to other northern cities of interest during the Great Migration. After reading a narrative entitled Return South Migration and conducting extensive research,...
Council for Economic Education
The Columbian Exchange
What did you have for dinner last night? Many scholars ask that question without considering the history behind the foods they eat. Using a simulation, scholars investigate how the foods they eat are the product of the Columbian...
Curated OER
Afro-Caribbean Americans and the Sugar Economy
Students read the narrative, Caribbean Immigration and examine how sugar production and migration of people of African origin have been intertwined for centuries. Working in three groups, they present oral reports on the three eras of...
Center for History Education
Maryland: A Middle Ground?
Is Maryland in or out? Using primary source documents that examine the state's geopolitical location, learners discuss whether the Old Line State is Northern or Southern to its core. The resource includes numerous documents and...
Curated OER
Mixing Races in New Orleans
Students discuss the changes in the legal, social, and political status of African Americans and those of mixed ethnicity after reading the narrative, Haitian Immigration: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
Curated OER
The Emancipation Proclamation Through Different Eyes
Students examine how various segments of the American population viewed the Emancipation Proclamation. They read the Emancipation Proclamation, analyze key terms and statements in the document, and participate in a debate.
K12 Reader
Reading Comprehension: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Introduce your high schoolers to one of the most important pieces of American literature with a reading comprehension lesson. As class members read a short passage from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, they learn...
K12 Reader
Underground Railroad: On to Freedom
The Underground Railroad is the focus of a coloring worksheet, which provides background information about the volunteers who aided escaping slaves.
Curated OER
Who Freed the Slaves During the Civil War?
Pose the question to your historians: who really freed the slaves? They critically assess various arguments, using primary sources as evidence. In small groups, scholars jigsaw 5 primary source documents (linked), and fill out an...
Curated OER
Active Viewing: Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided
Young historians consider the cause and effects of the Emancipation Proclamation. They use handouts, response sheets, and class discussion to build an opinion about the subject after viewing the PBS documentary Abraham and Mary Lincoln:...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
History of Immigration Through the 1850s
Everyone living in the United States today is a descendant from an immigrant—even Native Americans. Learn about the tumultuous history of American immigration with a reading passage that discusses the ancient migration over the Bering...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
What Was Everyday Life like in Colonial Virginia?
After reflecting on jobs people perform in the present day, scholars discuss what they believe jobs would have been like in Colonial Virginia during the American Revolution. Small groups then perform a jigsaw using informational packets....
Curated OER
The Age of Early European Explorations & Conquests
Your students' world will literally take shape in this presentation, which chronicles the growing edges of the (flat) earth during European Exploration of New Worlds. Dias, da Gama, Magellean, and Columbus are key players in this game of...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
What Was Everyday Life like in Colonial Virginia?
What was everyday life like in Colonial Virginia? To find the answer cooperative groups work collaboratively to read an informational handout and complete a graphic organizer. The speaker of the group then shares their new-found...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Making a Patriot Inquiry: Are Independence, Freedom, and Liberty the Same Thing?
As part of a study of the American Revolution, class members engage in an inquiry-based lesson that has them watch a scene from the play Slave Spy, examine multiple primary source documents, and then discuss the similarities and...
Curated OER
Benjamin Franklin: Goods and Services in Colonial America
Fifth graders examine the impact of Benjamin Franklin's ideas on the goods and services available in Colonial America as well as analyze the importance of Franklin to modern society. While listening to "How Ben Franklin Stole the...
Curated OER
A Case Study: Slavery and Anti-Slavery in Philadelphia, PA, (17th-19th Centuries)
Eleventh graders work in teams of three. Each team visits a workstation to interpret, analyze, and apply information from documents for their final project. The final project is an exhibit at Independence National Historic Park