Online Resources List
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Recommended Readings & Resources
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Great Event of the Nineteenth Century: Lincoln Issues the Emancipation
Proclamation
by Allen C. Guelzo
“Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was unlike any other presidential
proclamation in American history. It was, in fact, the single most far-reaching, even
revolutionary, act of any American president. At one stroke, Lincoln declared that over
3 million African American slaves “henceforward shall be free,” that the “military and
naval authorities” would now “recognize and maintain” that freedom, and that these
newly freed slaves would “be received into the armed service of the United States” in
order to make war on their former masters. Even Lincoln rated it as the greatest of his
accomplishments: “It is the central act of my administration and the great event of the
nineteenth century.”
But it almost did not happen.
Read more here: http://173.203.96.155/node/2974
Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History
Abraham Lincoln's views on slavery and its abolition were clearly expressed in
speeches and action throughout his political career. This online exhibition, based on a
document booklet of the same title produced in partnership with President Lincoln's
Cottage at the Soldiers' Home in Washington DC traces his evolution from antislavery
advocate to emancipator through speeches, letters, and acts from the speech at Peoria in
1854 to his second inaugural address in 1865.
Features include essays, multimedia and teaching resources
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/african-americans-andemancipation/interactives/lincoln-and-emancipation-proclamation
National Archives – Prologue Magazine
The Emancipation Proclamation An Act of Justice By John Hope Franklin
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1993/summer/emancipationproclamation.html
New York State Library
The Second Declaration of Independence: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
By Harold Holzer
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/features/ep/index.html
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PBS: Africans in America
The Growth of Slavery in America
Slavery became a highly profitable system for white plantation owners in the colonial
South. In South Carolina, successful slave owners, such as the Middleton family from
Barbados, established a system of full-blown, Caribbean-style slavery. The Middletons
settled on land near Charleston, Carolina's main port and slave-trading capital. They
took advantage of the fact that at the end of the 17th century, some of the earliest
African arrivals had shown English settlers how rice could be grown in the swampy
coastal environment. With cheap and permanent workers available in the form of
slaves, plantation owners realized this strange new crop could make them rich.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr5.html
Slavery and the Origins of the Civil War by Eric Foner
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/tguide/tgsocw.html
PRIMARY SOURCE SETS
Library of Congress Primary Source Sets
www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets
Sets of selected primary sources on specific topics, available as easy-to-print PDFs. Also,
background information, teaching ideas, and tools to guide student analysis.
National Archives
The Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863,
as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared
"that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall
be free."
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation
/
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LESSON PLANS
American Social History Project
Graduate Center – CUNY
“Colored Troops” under General Wild, liberating slaves in North Carolina”
Who Freed the Slaves in the Civil War?
Includes sketch and a worksheet to help students analyze an 1864 sketch of AfricanAmerican troops, many of whom were former slaves, liberating slaves on a North
Carolina plantation.
http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1767
The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns
Conflicting Newspaper Accounts: Classroom Activity
Overview
In this lesson, students write Civil War newspapers about the Battle of Antietam from
the opposing perspectives of North and South. They begin by analyzing a series of
photographs of the battlefield. After writing their newspapers, which encompass many
topics about the military, political and economic aspects of the war, students analyze
the consequences of the Battle of Antietam. The lesson ends with a set of documents
about the Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln issued shortly after visiting the
battlesite. The newspaper format outlined in the lesson can be adapted to focus on other
Civil War events (see Extensions).
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_accounts.html
DePaul University: Teaching with Primary Sources
The Emancipation Proclamation: The Nation’s Blessing or the Nation’s Burden?
This lesson seeks to engage fifth grade students to read and analyze the varied reactions
of diverse groups of both the Northern and Southern society to the Emancipation
Proclamation using primary sources on the Library of Congress Web Site and other
sources.
http://condor.depaul.edu/tps/Lincolns_UnitThe_Emancipation_Proclamation.htm
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Library of Congress
Slavery in the United States: Primary Sources and the Historical Record
Lesson Overview
This lesson introduces students to primary sources -- what they are, their great variety,
and how they can be analyzed. The lesson begins with an activity that helps students
understand the historical record. Students then learn techniques for analyzing primary
sources. Finally, students apply these techniques to analyze documents about slavery in
the United States.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/slavery/
PBS: Africans in America
For and Against Freedom: Teacher Guide & Lesson Focus
“There was a conspiracy of silence on the slavery issue. And one of the first things
abolitionists had to do was put the issue on the table in a way that it couldn't be
ignored. Or as Wendell Phillips said, our enemy is not the slaveowner only, it's also the
person of good will who simply doesn't want to talk about slavery. . . .”
Eric Foner, historian
This lesson uses a program segment and primary sources to deepen understanding of
the militant phase of anti-slavery activism inspired by the pamphlets, newspapers,
speeches, and organized campaigns of early 19th-century abolitionists.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/tguide/4tgfocus.html
Picturing U.S. History
Picturing United States History: An Interactive Resource for Teaching with Visual Evidence is
a digital project based on the belief that visual materials are vital to understanding the
American past. This website provides online "Lessons in Looking," a guide to Web
resources, forums, essays, reviews, and classroom activities to help teachers incorporate
visual evidence into their classrooms. The Picturing U.S. History site will also serve as a
clearing house for teachers interested in incorporating visual documents into their U.S.
history, American studies, American literature, or other humanities courses.
http://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/
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Did Lincoln free the slaves—or did the slaves free themselves?
Eastman Johnson, A Ride for Liberty—The Fugitive Slaves, c. 1862
Eastman Johnson's painting of fugitive slaves helps address ways to teach a pivotal
question in U.S. history.
[A copy of this painting will be in the Promise of Freedom exhibition at the Fairfield
Museum and History Center]
http://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/item.php?item_id=170
Teaching History
This website shows an 8th-grade teacher in Maryland teaching a lesson based on Civil
War letters. Source Analysis, a feature created for the Montgomery County (Maryland)
TAH website, has three sections focused on these primary sources: Scholar Analysis,
Teacher Analysis, and Classroom Practice.
http://teachinghistory.org/best-practices/teaching-in-action/21706
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