In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor and the author of the book The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President, discusses the dichotomies between Madison’s moral views of slavery and his actions. Delving into the past, he contends, can provide us with lessons in racism for…
In a Fox News interview with White House chief of staff John Kelly on Oct. 30, 2017, the former marine general said that “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War”. Kelly’s statement set off a firestorm of impassioned responses across traditional and social media about the cause of the Civil War…
Primary Source sets with teacher guides Guided primary source analysis activities Lesson plans Collection Connections: primary source activity ideas Timely Connections: ideas for linking past to present Teaching with the Library: Primary Sources & Ideas for Educators More teaching resources Primary Source Spotlight: Black American History & Heritage
Zoom into the selected section of the primary source shown above. Look closely at the details and answer the questions below. What do you see? What is happening in this scene? How do you feel when you look at this scene? What do you wonder about? Now look at the complete primary source and answer the questions below….
Lesson plans & activities Collection Connections: Arts & Humanities, Critical Thinking & U.S. History teaching ideas Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 Guided primary source analysis activities Afro-American Monument Slave market of America Synopsis of the…
Abolition newspapers Anti-Slavery Bugle (weekly) New-Lisbon, Ohio 1845-1861 The Examiner (weekly) Louisville, Kentucky 1847-1849 Primary source collections Abolition primary source set History of American Abolitionism 1861 More abolition books & articles Songs Related to the Abolition of Slavery Library of Congress article Abolition sheet music Abolition images Abolition webcasts Abolition in D.C. primary source collections Album: Abolitionist Cartoons and Images John Brown primary source…
This is a guest post from Barbara Evans, a middle school language arts teacher at Holden Elementary in Chicago, Illinois. After working with TPS-Barat during the past year as part of the Chicago Public Schools Social Science Academy, I was excited to use primary sources in our literature studies. The primary source analysis tool is a great resource that I…
Why is the information provided in both English and French? The pie graph gives statistics for which group of people? Use the information provided in this text as well as the bibliographic record to determine one or more purposes of this text. What other observations, reflections or questions does this source inspire? Let us know!…
Today in History–October 16–the Library of Congress features John Brown, who led a raid of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) on this day in 1859, seizing the town’s United States arsenal and rifle works and taking 60 prominent locals hostage. The group hoped to spark a rebellion of freed slaves and to lead an “army of emancipation.” The group…
Today in History–May 21–the Library of Congress features attorney and statesman Reverdy Johnson, born on this day in 1796. Although personally opposed to slavery (he emancipated slaves inherited from his father), Johnson represented the slave-owning defendant in the 1857 Dred Scott U.S. Supreme Court case, which decided that slaves could not be citizens. Learn more about this politician by visiting the Today in…