This resource consists of a facsimile of the Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that slaves were not citizens, and could therefore not expect any protection from the Federal Government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.

Explore this documentary film clip and engage students in historical thinking using the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool. In this inquiry-based resource for Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom, students view a video clip describing Harriet Tubman's childhood in Dorchester County, Maryland, analyze primary source documents and images from the Library of Congress, and consider discussion prompts for more dialogue and deeper reflection.

This collection has been carefully selected by New York City educator and curriculum consultant Vivett Dukes to showcase ideas, achievements, and contributions by American people of all backgrounds across eras. The content highlighted within each topic is intended to expand the scope of voices traditionally centered in classroom curricula by elevating stories by and about Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. These resources are intended to inspire educators to use PBS LearningMedia intentionally and creatively to teach topics across all subject areas. For additional resources, lesson plans, worksheets, and professional development content rooted in skills supporting critical media literacy, visit Expanding Narratives Using Media: A Planning Kit.

PBS Learning video about how the US Constitutional Democracy created, empowers, and limits the office of the president. Information is provided about why presidential elections happen in the United States. Video available in both English and Spanish.

Explore this documentary film clip and engage students in historical thinking using the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool. In this inquiry-based resource for Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom, students view a video clip describing the impact of increased governmental restrictions and harsh penalties on Harriet Tubman and other freedom seekers, analyze primary source material from the Library of Congress and New York Public Library Digital Collections, and consider discussion prompts for more dialogue and deeper reflection.

As doctors and researchers continue to learn more about the relationships among genes, the environment, and diseases, they are making advances in predicting the likelihood of a person developing certain diseases as well as discovering innovations in the prevention and treatment of diseases. These are enhancing the notion of personalized medicine, which aims to customize an individual's health care by tailoring decisions and treatments based on his or her genetic information. The sequencing of the human genome was the first step in what many hope will be a new era in medicine. As in many medical advances, there are a number of ethical, legal, and social issues involved in personal genomics.

In this activity, students will analyze Benjamin Franklin’s body of work to better understand his contribution in the key areas of academics, innovation, and diplomacy during the Revolutionary War Era. Students will choose and research one of Franklin’s primary areas of work alongside similar or related works by others that preceded, coincided with, or may have influenced Franklin’s achievements. Students will examine the historical, political, and social circumstances that shaped Franklin’s work and made it possible for him to flourish. Students will investigate how Franklin’s achievements have been built upon by other inventors, politicians, diplomats, and writers since Franklin’s lifetime.

This inquiry kit features Library of Congress sources about countries who wanted to control the island of Manhattan.

Explore the evidence of evolution with this interactive worksheet based off of NOVA’s Evolution Lab. This resource is designed to be completed while playing through the Evolution Lab game and contains multiple choice and free response questions and covers Mission 1 of the Evolution Lab game with embedded videos. Mission 1 introduces students to natural selection and how to interpret and create phylogenetic trees.

Explore the evidence of evolution with this interactive worksheet based off of NOVA’s Evolution Lab. This resource is designed to be completed while playing through the Evolution Lab game and contains multiple choice and free response questions and covers Mission 6 of the Evolution Lab game with embedded videos. Mission 6 explores human evolution over the course of the past 6-7 million years using both fossil evidence and DNA analysis.

Discover the evolution of slavery in Colonial Virginia through the life of Anthony Johnson in this video from The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. An African American who lived in Jamestown, Virginia, Johnson owned a 250 acre tobacco farm until the booming tobacco industry in Virginia transformed slavery into a system based on race.

After Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, he assembled an expedition to explore this vast territory. Leading the expedition were two former army captains -- Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

During the seventeenth century, four French explorers plied North America’s great waterways to chart and traverse the center of the continent. The explorations of Samuel de Champlain, Jacques Marquette, Louis Jolliet, and Renee de LaSalle linked together the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River, opening the interior of North America to European settlement and trade. Retrace the expeditions that changed our understanding of the continent in this interactive Google Earth Voyager story.

Explore the famous Mount Vernon estate in this electronic field trip to the historic home of our nation's first president. Learn from Mount Vernon's interpreters and curators. This electronic field trip targets students in grades 4-8. It will give students the unique opportunity to visit one of America's most famous homes while enhancing their knowledge of early American history.

In this lesson plan drawing on material from Latino Americans, students analyze how regions such as Texas, New Mexico and California had established Mexican and Indigenous communities already in place as the United States expanded westward in the mid 1800s. Students review the different ways that Mexican citizens come to terms with the expansion of the United States and the ways in which they became foreigners in their own lands within a very short time.

INTERACTIVE. Frontline investigative document that examines how voting rights laws and access to voting have changed across the USA. Provides a state-by-state analysis.

Near the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine, a safe haven provides refuge for children who have been temporarily separated from their parents. A House Made of Splinters chronicles three displaced kids who, despite the perils surrounding them, find moments of joy and friendship, with the aid of dedicated social workers who work tirelessly to protect them from harm.

In this lesson, students will explore how people define a family and a home in the aftermath of war?

The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1870, the third of three “Reconstruction Amendments” ratified in the wake of the Civil War. It prevented the U.S. government and States from denying citizens the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Prominent suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, advocated for the inclusion of “sex” among these categories, but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Black men in Kentucky who wanted to fight for the Union Army faced extraordinary challenges. In January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation had declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate States were free. Black men could officially enlist in the Union Army as combat soldiers. But this did not apply to Kentucky because Kentucky had declared that it was on the side of the Union. Although Kentucky was on the Union side, the state did not want to end slavery.

This activity utilizes primary source documents, video from The Good Stuff: Time Capsule and the PBS series Mercy Street to examine the Black Lives Matter Movement and the racial conflicts of today and trace their roots to the Abolitionist Movement of the nineteenth century. For more resources from Mercy Street, check out the collection page. For more resources from Mercy Street, check out the collection page.