U.S. Era 4

Primary Sources

• African-American Pamphlets from The Daniel A.P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1820-1920 [Eras 4-7]
• The Avalon Project: 
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848
• The Gadsden Purchase of 1853
• Extradition of Criminals of 1861
• Postal Convention 1861
• Treaties between the U.S. and Native Americans from 1778 to 1868 
• Diplomacy regarding Texas’ declaration of independence in 1836 and annexation by the U.S. in 1845
• Godey’s Lady’s Book Online: full digital images and text of the 1850 issues of this popular lady’s book.
• Transcendentalists: background information on the Transcendentalists, with special attention on Emerson and Thoreau.
• 19th-Century Schoolbooks: digital editions of 140 schoolbooks, accessible as both page images and searchable text. It also has two academic surveys of the schoolbooks.
• Common School Period: digital images and essays about American education from 1840 to 1880, including Horace Mann, controversial anti-Catholic textbooks, McGuffey Readers, and the development of kindergartens. [Eras 4-6]
• Letters from the Slave States: excerpt from a book by a British traveler who interviewed plantation owners and former slaves in 1857. [Eras 4-5]
• Slave Narratives: digital collection of North American slave narratives published before 1920. 
• American Mountain Men: digital versions of diaries, narratives, and letters written by the men who participated in the Rocky Mountain fur trade from 1810 to 1840.
• Moving Uptown, 19th-Century Views of Manhattan: annotated exhibition of 19th-century images that explore New York City’s urban growth from 1800 to the construction of Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge. (Eras 4-6]
• Calisphere’s “Themed Collections”: digitized photographs, written documents, oral histories, and artifacts which reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history. 
• Californio Society
• Rich Resources

Lesson Plans

• EDSITEment: the humanities website of the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the National Trust for the Humanities, and the Verizon foundation.
• The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson and the Growth of Party Politics (four lessons): students analyze changes in voter participation and regional power, and review archival campaign documents reflecting the dawn of politics as we know it during the critical years from 1824 to 1832. (Grades 9-12)
• The Campaign of 1840: William Henry Harrison and Tyler, Too (three lessons): allow students to become familiar with the issues and personalities and to review an assortment of primary documents. As students analyze them, they reflect on the presidential campaign of 1840. (Grades 9-12)
• An Early Threat of Secession: The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Nullification Crisis:  students will gain a better understanding of how the controversies over slavery's expansion and federal tariffs further entrenched the dividing line between northern and southern interests. (Grades 9-12)
• African American Communities in the North Before the Civil War:  students will tour and/or read about some important free African-American communities thriving in the North before the Civil War. 
• Families in Bondage:  draws on letters written by African Americans in slavery and by free blacks to loved ones still in bondage, singling out a few among the many slave experiences to offer students a glimpse into slavery and its effects on African American family life. (Grades 9-12)
•  Slave Narratives: Construcing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources: students research narratives from the Federal Writers' Project and describe the lives of former African slaves in the U.S. -- both before and after emancipation.
• Slave Narratives: lesson plans and other resources.
• National Archives
  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition
  • Anti-Railroad Propaganda Poster: The Growth of Regionalism, 1800-1860
  • The Amistad Case
  • Lincoln's Spot Resolutions
  • The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
  • Petition of Amelia Bloomer Regarding Suffrage in the West
  • Migration North to Alaska
  • The Sioux Treaty of 1868
• The “Teaching with Historic Places” website Recommended for grades 4-12.
• When Rice Was King
• Martin Van Buren’s ‘Return to the Soil’
• New Philadelphia: A Multiracial Town on the Illinois Frontier
• The McClintock House: A Home to the Women’s Rights Movement
• Calisphere’s “California Cultures”: All collections are accompanied by discussion questions, historical and image overviews, and lesson plan activities that support the California Content Standards  in History-Social Sciences and English-Language Arts. 
• American Memory: 
• Marco Paul’s Travels on the Erie Canal: An Educational Voyage (Grades 4-8)
• Thomas Jefferson’s Library: Making the Case for a National Library
• African Americans in Delaware: essays and lesson plans about free blacks, fugitive slaves, and abolitionists in antebellum Delaware and Maryland’s eastern shore.