National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Culture of the Common Man: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Primary source material from Nathaniel Hawthorne's, My Kinsman, Major Molineux, 1831. With questions for discussion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: James F. Cooper: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
Essays written during the Age of the Common Man from James F. Cooper that question how much democracy can be relied upon as an effective political system. Primary source material and questions for discussion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Walt Whitman, Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
Whitman's poem celebrating the integrity and industry of the masses within a democratic culture.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Cult of Domesticity: Resource Menu
A collection of eight primary resources and reading guides focusing on women's issues in the 1800s including domesticity, slavery, and suffrage.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Cult of Domesticity: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Read this mid-nineteenth century short story that raises questions about the roles of women as wives and mothers. Discussion questions are included.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Cult of Domesticity: Caroline Gilman: The Planter's Bride
A Northern author who moves with her husband to South Carolina and reflects in this chapter on the domestic roles of women. Through this text, Caroline Gilman examines one woman's definition of a fulfilling life.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Cult of Domesticity: Catharine E. Beecher
A chapter from Catherine Beecher's book, "A Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School." Read how it contributes to the understanding of the American identity.
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National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Harriet Jacobs: "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," 1861
Several chapters from a slave narrative by Harriet Jacobs examining her abuse, her integrity, and her eventual escape from brutality, all of which raise important questions about power, equality, and gender roles in the mid-nineteenth...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Cult of Domesticity: Fanny Fern: Fern Leaves From Fanny's Portfolio
Short periodical pieces that examine the complex and challenging roles that women found thrust upon them in mid-nineteenth century American culture. Discussion questions are provided.
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National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Cult of Domesticity: Godey's Lady's Book, 1850
Published for much of the nineteenth century, Godey's Lady's Book provides a tapestry of differing images about the roles of women and of issues that concerned them. Discussion questions are provided.
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National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Cult of Domesticity: Theodore Parker: Of the Function of Woman
A sermon by a Unitarian minister who argues that women have a positive role to play in American life and that isolating them within a domestic sphere loses the power of what they can contribute. Discussion questions are provided.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Reading Guide: Elizabeth Cady Stanton: "Seneca Falls Address"
A powerful call for women's rights, particularly for suffrage, expressed in the "Declaration of Sentiments" and issued at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Includes discussion questions.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850: Religion
A collection of nine primary resources including historical documents, literary texts, visual images, and maps illuminated and contextualized by notes, thematic questions, and text-specific discussion questions for classroom instruction...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: William Cullen Bryant and Philip Freneau
Two poems examining divinity and concluding that while God is benevolent, one appreciates God either through a romantic lens or a rationalist calculation. Poems are William Cullen Bryant's, "To a Waterfowl," and Philip Freneau's, "On the...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Religion: John Mayfield
Primary resource of John Mayfield, as he discusses civic life, religion and the growth of American democracy in an excerpt from "Toward the Millennium," ch. 8 in The New Nation: 1800-1845, 1982 (rev. ed.)
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: De Tocqueville, Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
Three essays from the famous French visitor to America, Alexis de Tocqueville, in which he examines how religion in early nineteenth century America supported democratic tendencies.
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National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Religion: Frederick Douglass
The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: George Fitzhugh: Sociology for the South: 1854: Religion
Two chapters from an apologist for slavery and his claims that slavery is Biblically justified and that church-state separation would lead to moral decay.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Charles C. Jones, Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
Plantation owner, Charles Colcock Jones, argues in two chapters from his book on promoting religious education for blacks that plantation owners have an obligation to offer religious instruction to slaves.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Religion: Henry David Thoreau
The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Expansion: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
A collection of eight primary resources--historical documents, literary texts, visual images, maps--illuminated and contextualized by notes, thematic questions, and text-specific discussion questions for classroom instruction and teacher...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Charles Sellers: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
A secondary account from a contemporary historian that examines early nineteenth century forces and the interplay of markets and territorial expansion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Hezekiah Niles: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
Magazine excerpts that celebrate the government sponsored internal improvements of the early nineteenth century and the market economy that they fueled.
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National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Lewis Cass: Triumph of Nationalism: America, 1815 1850
An argument by the Michigan Territorial governor, Lewis Cass, that claimed state laws superseded the rights claimed by Native American tribes like the Cherokee.