Lesson Plan The Soldier's Experience: Letters from Four American Wars 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Click to download this four-lesson unit.
Essay Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877 Eric Foner Government and Civics, World History 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ In 1877, soon after retiring as president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, embarked with his wife on a two-year tour of the world. At almost every location, he was greeted as a hero. In England, the son of the Duke of...
Essay The Failure of Compromise Bruce Levine Government and Civics K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ In the spring of 1861, the United States of America split into two hostile countries—the United States and the new Confederate States of America. The two opposing heads of state agreed about what was causing the rupture—the long...
Essay The American Civil War Gary W. Gallagher 6, 7, 8, 9 The Civil War marked a defining moment in United States history. Long simmering sectional tensions reached a critical stage in 1860–1861 when eleven slaveholding states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. Political...
Essay The Civil War and Reconstruction in the American West Elliott West 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ The histories of the Civil War and of the emerging West were tangled together from their beginnings. Although the war was fought mostly in the East, the events that set it off were born of the expansion of the 1840s, and in turn the...
Lesson Plan The Gettysburg Address: Identifying Text, Context, and Subtext Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Objective This lesson is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based teaching resources. These resources were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical...
Lesson Plan Who Was John Brown? Government and Civics 6, 7, 8 "Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic." —Frederick Douglass Background The late 1840s and the 1850s were a turbulent and complex time in American history as the...
Lesson Plan Events at Sand Creek, 1864 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Historical Context When the Civil War broke out, John Milton Chivington, a missionary in Kansas, was offered a commission as a chaplain but refused it as he wanted to fight. As a result he was given a commission as a major in the 1st...
Lesson Plan The Gettysburg Address Literature, Religion and Philosophy 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Click here to download this four-lesson unit.