Slavery and Civil Rights in American History
Congress Debates Slavery, 1790-1800
Petitions from Absalom Jones and Benjamin Franklin eloquently present the case against slavery in late eighteenth-century America. Students analyze biographical information of many congressmen and evaluate the positions taken during the congressional debates over slavery, including constitutionality of congressional action to purchase the freedom of all slaves in the southern states.
66 p. Grades 10–12
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[NH123-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
Slavery in the 19th Century
Through a variety of documents, including letters by abolitionists, slave codes, parish records, and folktales, students will explore the effects of slavery throughout society in the first half of the nineteenth century. Includes lessons on African-American culture, slaves' resistance, abolition, women's rights, and an annotated bibliography. 68 p. Grades 5–8
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[NH122-LA6] $14.95 Reproducible
Avenging Angel? John Brown, the Harpers Ferry Raid and the "Irrepressible" Conflict
To his supporters, John Brown was a Christian martyr who sacrificed his life for the emancipation of African Americas; his opponents viewed him as a deranged fanatic willing to inaugurate a bloody servile insurrection to advance his blood-thirsty design. These lessons explore Brown from both perspectives. Two readers' theater scripts drawn from primary sources (the words of John Brown, members of the "Secret Six" who financed Brown's abolitionist crusade, remarks by prominent figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Frederick Douglass) relate the Harpers Ferry raid and its aftermath. Other sources include excerpts from Robert E. Lee's report on Brown's capture, the Mason Senate Committee report investigating the raid, an exchange of letters between Lydia Maria Child and the Governor Wise of Virginia, photographs, engravings, and art work depicting Brown and the raid. 109 p. Grades 9–12
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[NH170-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
Abraham Lincoln and Slavery
Lessons examine Abraham Lincoln's attitudes and actions regarding slavery, abolition, the use of African-American troops during the Civil War, and the development and implementation of his emancipation policy. Through primary source documents, students encounter Lincoln's words in the context of his era from several of his private letters to friends and political advisors, public speeches, and excerpts from the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Other contemporary voices include Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and editorials from "Copperhead" newspapers.
95 p. Grades 8–12
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[NH124-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
The Freedmen's Bureau: Catalyst for Freedom?
Students investigate primary source documents to evaluate federal government policy regarding the transition of some four million African Americans from slavery to freedom at the conclusion of the Civil War. Lessons examine the political debate over the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, its goals, the problems encountered in pursuing stated goals, and an evaluation of its effectiveness. Documents include excerpts from federal legislation, diary entries, letters, bureau records, land regulations, and labor contracts. Students are actively involved in a military hearing using evidence culled from official transcripts. 81 p. Grades 8–12
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[NH159-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
Keeping Them Apart: Plessy v. Ferguson and the Black
Experience in Post-Reconstruction America
Students study the effects of Reconstruction-era legislation on race relations in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, they examine protests by African-American legislators, a letter to an Alabama editor by Booker T. Washington, Boston's School Board rulings, restrictive labor laws in the South, and a description of racial violence in New York in 1900. 56 p. Grades 8 –12
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[NH128-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
Stride Toward Freedom:
The Aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
The landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education overturned 50 years of segregation affirmed by the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Students will read Chief Justice Earl Warren's opinion on the case, the reaction to the ruling by the North Carolina legislature, as well as letters by ordinary citizens to President Eisenhower, a letter from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Vice President Richard Nixon, a letter from a Kentucky school teacher to the ICC, and the transcript of a speech delivered by President Kennedy. 54 p. Grades 9 –12
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[NH133-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
The Port Royal Experiment: Forty Acres and a Mule?
Students read about the military emancipation of slaves in South Carolina during the Civil War and learn that promises of land ownership for freed men and women were broken immediately after the war. Documents present the views of the field commanders, President Lincoln, the abolitionists, and the former plantation owners. 54 p. Grades 8 –12
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[NH125-LA6] CLEARANCE: $6.00 Reproducible
For this theme, see also:
Ralph Bunche and His Struggle for Peace and Justice
World History
Atlantic Slave Trade
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