This is a facsimile of the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state so as not to upset the delicate balance between slave and free states; it also outlawed slavery above the 36º 30´ latitude line in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory.

This worksheet gives students an opportunity to show their understanding of the compromise through color coding the map and answering some questions about the compromise itself.

This one-minute video segment from IdahoPTV's Moments in Time presents the journal entries of Lewis and Clark from June 13, 1805, "The great falls of the Missouri".

In this unit students will develop a thorough knowledge of the text of the Monroe Doctrine and understand how this document represented a major shift in American foreign policy. Students will demonstrate learning by combining prior knowledge and outside sources to dig deeper and discover more relevant information related to the adoption and application of the Monroe Doctrine throughout United States history.

This page provides resources on the making of the Constitution. It largely relies on A More Perfect Union, a 21 minute film that covers the Articles of Confederation, the Constitutional Convention, and the ratification process. Use these resources to view the film, learn more about the journey towards our modern-day government, and find incredible source materials!

This video from The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross recaps the Nat Turner Rebellion, and how it affected Southern slaveholders.

In this interactive experience, students can explore the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia, the only museum solely dedicated to the American POW experience. The museum is one of three features at the Andersonville National Historic Site, along with the Andersonville National Cemetery and the former Andersonville Prison.

Native American: Nature to Nations explores the rise of great American nations—from dynastic monarchies to participatory democracies. What lies behind these diverse and sophisticated governments? Answers emerge from an archaeologist excavating America’s oldest temple in the Peruvian Andes, a tribe initiating a new chief at a ceremony surrounded by cedar totem poles in the Pacific Northwest, an expert reading ancient hieroglyphs from a sarcophagus to tell a forgotten history of Maya kings, and the return of an ancient shell wampum belt to the birthplace of democracy.

Take a look at Indigenous art, history, and culture as told through the historians, artists, students, and scientists in this featured resource collection.

This resource is part of The Ways, a collection of educational media resources from PBS Wisconsin Education for middle and high school classrooms. The collection explores connections between traditional ways and those of today and expands and challenges current understanding of Native identity and communities through language and culture stories from First Nations communities around the central Great Lakes.

Examine how the United States acquisition of Florida in 1821 impacted the Native American population in this video from Secrets of Spanish Florida: A Secrets of the Dead Special. Utilizing discussion questions, vocabulary, teaching tips, and primary source documents, students learn how the United States set out to dismantle the Native American population of Florida and how the tribes in this region found ways to survive.

Students will explore a physical map of West Africa that includes the location of natural resources, main transportation routes, and most populous cities. Then the students will complete a chart to help them take notes on the features of the map. Finally the students will apply what they have learned from the map to come to some conclusions about what these features suggest about the legacy of colonialism in West Africa. To launch the activity, click the "Map-Based Exploration" image.

This is a poem written by Del Abe Jones about the Trail of Tears. It serves as a secondary source and a way to connect poetry to history.

In 1889, Las Gorras Blancas (The White Caps) emerged in the New Mexico Territory and American Southwest to protect land rights. Three brothers, Pablo, Nicanor, and Juan Jose Herrera, organized this resistance movement to protect half a million acres of land from encroachment by cattle ranchers.

Using segments from the film Dutch New York, students learn about the early years of the New Netherland colony and identify economic, political and social objectives of the Dutch West India Company, the settlers of the colony, and the native population. Then, they role play a scenario from the perspective of each of these three groups.

Learn how enslaved African Americans in Richmond, Virginia, established what a historian in this clip calls “quasi-free communities, where they etched out lives for themselves, that paved the way forward.”

In the years immediately following the American Revolution, many citizens still felt ill-at-ease with the state of the union. Patriots felt the right to assert their victory over the land, and Loyalists felt oppressed and belittled over their defeat.

Mission US is a role-playing game (RPG). In each mission you’ll step into the shoes of a young person during an important time period in US history. While your character and many of the characters in the game are fictional, they are based on the experiences of real people. (You will also encounter some actual historical figures and witness historical events in the game!) In this simularion, the year is 1960. You are 16-year-old Verna Baker, born and raised in the Mississippi Delta. As you move to the city of Greenwood to start high school, a movement for civil rights is gaining momentum. How will you take part in the struggle for freedom and equality?

In this lesson, students will explore the expeditions of four French explorers. After viewing three short videos about Samuel de Champlain, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, students will analyze a painting that shows Champlain leading a fleet of canoes on an expedition and then read journal entries that describe Jolliet and Marquette’s expeditions. The lesson will conclude with students creating a game that encompasses the travels, settlements, and expansion of French territory in North America during the 1600s.

As he formed his own political voice and ideologies, Frederick Douglass broke away from his abolitionist mentor, William Lloyd Garrison, to start the newspaper "The North Star" and give Black abolitionists a voice. This caused a rift in their relationship, as Douglass started to emerge as a political leader in his own right. He used words as battle axes, which can be seen fully in one of his most famous speeches, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?".