Our Documents is home to one hundred milestone documents that influenced that course of American history and American democracy. Includes full-page scans of each document, transcriptions, background information on their significance, and...

This section from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History's exhibition Separate Is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education gives the history of Jim Crow laws and how they affected not only the voting rights of...

Interactive and animated maps and timelines of historical events and time periods in Latin American history from 1898 to 2000.

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 the very beginning and through the twentieth century, this comprehensive collection of lessons will enrich students studying the history in between and the effects on South Dakota.

Article provides an in-depth look at the cruel institution of slavery. The author confronts the mythology of slave life and attempts to find some truth while offering readers a glimpse of slave plantation life in the Ante-Bellum South.

Article with primary source secession resolutions from three states including, South Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi. Each declaring intent to secede from the Union and outlining reasons for doing so.

With the French now involved, the British stepped up their efforts in the southern colonies since they felt that most Southerners were Loyalists. A campaign began in late 1778, with the capture of Savannah, Georgia. Shortly thereafter,...

Following Eli Whitney's invention in 1793 of the cotton gin -- a machine that separated raw cotton from seeds and other waste -- the cotton market boomed. Planters in the South bought land from small farmers who frequently moved farther...

Toward the end of his first term in office, Jackson was forced to confront the state of South Carolina, the most important of the emerging Deep South cotton states, on the issue of the protective tariff. Business and farming interests in...

Most settlers who came to America in the 17th century were English, but there were also Dutch, Swedes and Germans in the middle region, a few French Huguenots in South Carolina and elsewhere, slaves from Africa, primarily in the South,...

In contrast to New England and the middle colonies were the predominantly rural southern settlements: Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

Whatever early colonial prosperity there was resulted from trapping and trading in furs. In addition, the fishing industry was a primary source of wealth in Massachusetts. But throughout the colonies, people relied primarily on small...

As the country prepared for yet another war with Britain, the United States suffered from internal divisions. While the South and West favored war, New York and New England opposed it because it interfered with their commerce. The...

An overview of the status and experiences of African Americans in the mid-1800s, both free and enslaved. Includes references to Frederick Douglass and his efforts to enlighten people about the discrimination and prejudice faced by...

A detailed and comprehensive resource for finding much information on the South American republic of Ecuador. Organized by quick facts in chart form or longer commentaries.

Learn unique facts about each American state. You can also read a more in-depth history of each state, watch videos and play a game about all the states.

This broad resource is broken into two main sections, topical history of the Americas and regional history of the Americas, and covers politics, social history and economic history. Includes coverage of both North and South American...

Overview of the challenges African Americans in the South faced and attempts to overcome the rising issues of discrimination and segregation after Reconstruction.

Brief overview of the Revolutionary War in the South including campaigns of Savannah, Charleston and the significant battle at Cowpens, South Carolina.

An informative exploration of the life of Simon Bolivar, the man known in South America as the "Liberator," because he led revolutions against Spanish colonial overlords in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia.

A brief look at the declaration of independence from Mexico by Texas in 1836, the removal of restrictions on slavery, and how this dramatically increased the population and led to a much greater reliance on the cotton industry in the...

Part of a unit on the Civil War and Reconstruction, this section provides an overview of the formation of the Confederacy and subsequent secession of states in the South.

Outline about the promising economic times of an expanding America during the 1800s, including changes taking place in New England, the South, the Midwest and West.