A lesson plan from the producers of the 16-episode PBS series "Freedom: A History of US" that examines how new technology and scientific advances of the nineteenth century changed America. Includes ideas for directing students through a...

This site presents a general picture of what life was like in the United States at the turn of the century. Content includes compelling images, information, and documents about American life.

This lesson plan is from a larger site examining the Chinese Experience in the United States in the 19th century. Discover the role the official support by the labor movement played in the discrimination, and in the case of the Rock...

This primary source set uses illustrations, documents, and photographs to tell the story of how the steam engine transformed the railroad industry and played crucial roles in the Industrial Revolution and westward expansion.

Discussion of a landscape painting by George Inness will introduce students to the impact of the railroad on the countryside in mid-nineteenth-century America. They will depict this same scenery as they envision it in the past and in the...

Discover how connecting Santa Cruz, California to the national railroad network in the late 1800s helped the town prosper and change.

This extensive learning module examines the impact of the Gilded Age upon new cultural and intellectual movements, expansion of foreign trade, and political debates over economic and social policies, as well as the impact of the rise of...

The 1880's in America were chock full of new architecture, technologies, businesses, modern conveniences such as gas and electric, operas, fashions, and much more as featured in this resource.

This site describes how as railroads became more important to the industrial success of the U.S., more and more rail lines figured out ways to make the best profit. Oftentimes, unfair business practices were established which eventually...

This site's section, which is part of a larger article on the Gilded Age, focuses on the railroad which began to grow in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Contains a guide for travel to and through Western America on the Central Pacific Railroad written by Samuel Bowles in 1869.

From a 1969 publication by the Chinese Historical Society of America comes this extensive look at the Chinese role in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad from California east to Utah.

An overview of slave revolts and abolitionist efforts during the first half of the nineteenth century, leading up until the Civil War. Read about the Underground Railroad, the colonization movement, and various anti-slavery books.

A detailed account of the history of African Americans is presented in this article. Divided by main topics or periods of time, the coming of slavery to America is the first focus. Followed by plantation life and escapes to freedom and...

From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section describes the early beginnings of railroads in America.

Allan Pinkerton saved Abraham Lincoln from an assassination attempt, started the United States Secret Service and helped slaves seek freedom via the Underground Railroad. Learn about his early life in Scotland and view a photograph of...

Oral and written narratives of the experiences of the Underground Railroad and documents identifying efforts by northern societies to free slaves during the 1850s.

This site covers both the initial Industrial Revolution in the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and the second revolution that highlighted new inventions and the businessmen who financed industry. Read brief...

In this lesson, 6th graders will come to understand how the Industrial Revolution impacted individuals.

By 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected president, 16 percent of the population lived in urban areas and a third of the nation's income came from manufacturing. Funds were flowing into large-scale industrial development and into...

Railroads changed agriculture. As railways linked farms to a wider commercial world, city dwellers could buy fruits and vegetables year-round. Farms became commercialized, often specializing in single crops and tied to the ups and downs...

This collection uses primary sources to explore twentieth-century mining in the Mojave Desert.

This site provides in-depth information about the Mexican Revolution and the people that took part in it.

A very thorough lesson plan from EDSITEment that explores the role of the robber barons in American industry in the 19th century. It explores the question of whether the robber barons were harmful or "Captains of Industry." You'll find...