This virtual journey explores the complexities of slavery and freedom in antebellum Savannah through the lens of the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. Students learn about the connections between the institution of slavery and the global economy and discover how one city can teach us about society and culture before the Civil War. Key concepts are presented through interactive elements like primary source letters and images, navigable maps, videos, and virtual walking tour.

In this lesson, students will learn more about Charlie Russell and his work by watching videos and looking closely at his art. Then they will create their own piece of art, a meme, or an illustrated photo, that shows what they learned about Charlie Russell.

Find innovative ways to integrate works of art into your teaching with this collection of resources based on video from Picturing America on Screen. The artworks are those included in the Picturing America project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, launched in 2008 to introduce Americans to their artistic heritage and to the possibilities inherent in using art as a link to teaching and understanding America’s past.

Pirates! The very word brings shivers to those who sail the seas. Popular movies romanticize their deeds, but to Georgia colonists in the mid-18th century, their exploits were to be feared rather than admired. Georgia’s coast and coastal islands were havens where pirates could hide. Blackbeard Island off the Georgia coast from McIntosh County is named for none other than Edward Teach, the fearsome pirate who sailed the along the coast. David Gurnsey of the Ships of The Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah answers many questions about pirates.

Rare books and manuscripts appraiser Martin Gammon examines a map that the owner’s great grandfather, a 49er (miner in the 1800s), used to prospect for gold in this video produced for ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. The early rendition of the Britton and Rey map depicts, more accurately than others of its time, the border region between California with what was called Utah, now Nevada. Very few of the maps survived because they were generally carried in the pockets of miners.

When authors create words for a one-time usage, they’re known as nonce words: words to be used only once. It can be very difficult to discern why some nonce words have survived and spread while others didn’t. A single writer can coin a word, but they can’t make it popular. All of us, collectively, through our behavior and interactions, get to decide what becomes a real word.

As you begin this lesson, lead a class discussion about the evolution of language as it relates to race. At the time of the Civil War, the term “colored” did not carry the same negative connotations that it does today. On the other hand, it was often used to suggest racial inferiority. Review the Teacher’s Guide to Language in the support materials. The video “Focus on Black Humanity” is useful for leading a class discussion.

In this lesson, students will engage in station activities to learn about Benjamin Franklin’s experience as a master printer and wordsmith. Specifically, students will learn about Franklin’s apprenticeship at the New-England Courant, the inception and growth of the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the invention of Poor Richard’s Almanack. Students will interact with excerpts from the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanack, comparing and contrasting these foundational pieces to modern day newspaper and media examples.

In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills in U.S. history, students learn about the three branches of the United States government. Students explore the powers that the Constitution assigns to each branch—legislative, executive, and judicial—and how the three branches work together. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and engagement activities.

Students will read four primary source accounts of European trade and raids in West Africa, reflect on the readings by taking notes in a graphic organizer, and finally write three diary entries as if they were themselves a European explorer in Africa.

This inquiry kit features Library of Congress sources and focuses on the battles between Europeans and pirates in the New World.

Pronouns serve one main role in society: to replace nouns so that we don’t have to repeat the same words or phrases that may be long and unwieldy over and over and over again. And while there are lots of different kinds of pronouns, there’s one type in particular that people tend to care about the most: the personal pronoun. But that’s just scratching the personal pronoun surface. In this episode, we dig deeper!

Learn how the production of indigo and denim relied on the skills and labor of enslaved people brought to colonial America from Africa and how these products became vital to the economies of the South and the North in these videos excerpted from Riveted: The History of Jeans |AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. The history of denim reveals the economic contributions of enslaved people as well as their cultural and social connections to clothing that became closely associated with America.

Learn how race became a wedge issue during the Reconstruction Era, dividing formerly united abolitionists and suffragists, in these videos adapted from The Vote |AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. When suffragists put aside their own agenda to fight for an end to slavery, they expected support from newly freed black men. Congress's decision to push for suffrage for black men only in the 15th Amendment set these two historic causes in opposition.

Learn about Loreta Velazquez, a woman who disguised herself as a man and joined the Confederate army, served under Union forces as a spy, and published a written account detailing the horrors of war.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s documentary series, Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change. The twelve years that composed the post-war Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of our democracy, with millions of former enslaved people and free Black people seeking out their rightful place as equal citizens under the law. Though tragically short-lived, this bold democratic experiment was, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, a ‘brief moment in the sun’ for African Americans, when they could advance, and achieve, education, exercise their right to vote, and run for and win public office.

At the end of the 19th century, Jim Crow laws were enacted widely throughout the Southern United States. These state and local laws sought to mandate and enforce racial segregation in public transportation, schools, public places, restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains. Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional Amendments, Jim Crow laws persisted for decades, many enforced until 1965.

After the war was over and slavery abolished, Reconstruction was underway. Although there were challenges ahead, African Americans were filled with unprecedented hope. In 1867, Congress granted the right to vote to Black men in most of the South. In 1869, the 15th Amendment was passed (ratified in 1870), barring racial discrimination in voting. And with that, Black men took to the polls. Over the next several years, African American men moved into public leadership, including legislative positions. Two such stories belong to Hiram Revels and Robert Smalls.

Learn about the idiom "red herring" in this video from Say What?! that explains how the phrase signifies something that diverts attention from what's truly important. Students will explore its historical origins among British fishermen and its integration into storytelling and popular culture.

This resource includes teaching tips, discussion questions, vocabulary, and a critical thinking activity where students must identify “red herrings” that are a distraction from the main goal.