What conditions provided the impetus for the Sedition Act? Partisan animosity was strong during Adams's presidency. The first two political parties in the U.S. were in their infancy"”the Federalists, to which the majority of members of Congress belonged, and the Democratic-Republicans, led by former vice-president Thomas Jefferson and four-term Congressman James Madison, who had left the House in 1796.

Lacking any organized army before 1775 (aside from local colonial militias), the Continental Congress had to assemble a more or less improvised fighting force that would be expected to take on the army of the world's largest empire. This lesson will trace events in the North from 1775 to 1778. By looking at documents of the time, and using an interactive map, students will see how an army was created and understand the challenges that Washington and his men faced during this critical early stage of the war.

Students examine Washington's ability to handle a wide range of problems during his time as Commander-in-Chief.

Using elementary documents, this lesson aims to introduce students to how the American revolutionaries employed religion in their arguments for independence.

The failure to restore royal authority in the northern colonies, along with the signing of an alliance between the American rebels and the French monarchy, led the British to try an entirely new strategy in the southern colonies. This lesson will examine military operations during the second, or southern, phase of the American Revolution.

During the Revolutionary War there were several attempts made to end the fighting. In this lesson students will consider the various peace attempts made by both sides during the Revolutionary War.

In this lesson, students examine Washington as a military leader and explore some of the difficulties he faced during the Revolutionary War.

Using elementary documents, this lesson explores how religion aided and hindered the American war effort; specifically, it explores how Anglican loyalists and Quaker pacifists responded to the outbreak of hostilities and how the American revolutionaries enlisted religion in support of the fight for independence.

Patrick Henry's impassioned plea at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775, "Give me liberty or give me death," defined the American Revolution. This one-hour documentary-drama captures this seminal moment in American history by balancing experts' commentary on the events preceding the Second Virginia Convention with dramatic re-enactments of the historic moments that followed.

This lesson encourages close study of Wood's painting, American Revolution elementary sources, and Longfellow's poem to understand the significance of this historical ride in America's struggle for freedom. By reading elementary sources, students learn how Paul Revere and his Midnight Ride became an American story of patriotism.

Native American groups had to choose the loyalist or patriot cause"”or somehow maintain a neutral stance during the Revolutionary War. Students will analyze maps, treaties, congressional records, first-hand accounts, and correspondence to determine the different roles assumed by Native Americans in the American Revolution and understand why the various groups formed the alliances they did.

While Paul Revere's ride is the most famous event of its kind in American history, other Americans made similar rides during the Revolutionary period.  After learning about some less well known but no less colorful rides that occurred in other locations, students gather evidence to support an argument about why at least one of these "other riders" does or does not deserve to be better known.

1 US History to 1877
1.1 Chapter 1: In the Beginning
1.2 Chapter 2: When Cultures Collide
1.3 Chapter 3: British Colonial North America
1.4 Chapter 4: Colonial Government and Economy
1.5 Chapter 5: Colonial Slavery
1.6 Chapter 6: A Brief Overview of Colonial Religion
1.7 Chapter 7: Cultures of Colonial America
1.8 Chapter 8: An Intellectual and Religious Flowering in Colonial North America
1.9 Chapter 9: Towards Independence, 1750-1776
1.10 Chapter 10: Creating These United States, 1776-1800
1.11 Chapter 11: The Agrarian Republic and the Symbolic End of the Revolution, 1800-1826
1.12 Chapter 12: The Age of the Common Man, 1826-1850
1.13 Chapter 13: 19th Century Reform Movements
1.14 Chapter 14: War Drums, 1845-1860
2 US history from 1877 to the Present

In this lesson, students will learn about the actions of Paul Revere during his midnight ride in April of 1775. They will study how his diligence in working towards American independence helped to advance the cause and use this example to better understand how they can be diligent in their own lives.

This essay written by a distinguished historian of American literature, gives an overview of the American slave narrative tradition, discusses five representative slave narratives, and provides a framework for cultural analysis of these works showing their intention and their arguments.

Was the American Revolution inevitable? This lesson is designed to help students understand the transition to armed resistance and the contradiction in the Americans' rhetoric about slavery through the examination of a series of documents. While it is designed to be conducted over a several-day period, teachers with time constraints can choose to utilize only one of the documents to illustrate the patriots' responses to the actions of the British.

This lesson focuses on the slave narrative of Solomon Northup, a free black living in the North, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South. Slave narratives are autobiographies of former slaves that describe their experiences during enslavement, how they became free, and their lives in freedom. Because slave narratives treat the experience of one person, they raise questions about whether that individual's experiences exceptional.

This course is the first in the introductory surveys of U.S. History. After exploring North America before the arrival of Europeans, students will study the early interactions of Europeans with indigenous peoples and, as the course progresses, study the history of peoples in the area now defined by the United States' borders. Those who would like to pursue their study of American history will also want to take Hist 147 (U.S. History II) and Hist 148 (U.S. History III).Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

This video shows the battles of the American Revolution and how it changed over time.

This lesson helps students "hear" some of the diverse colonial voices that, in the course of time and under the pressure of novel ideas and events, contributed to the American Revolution. Students analyze a variety of elementary documents illustrating the diversity of religious, political, social, and economic motives behind competing perspectives on questions of independence and rebellion.