In late May, 1864, Generals Grant and Lee raced for a Virginia crossroads called Cold Harbor, near the Chickahominy River. When the bugles blew for the attack at 4:30 a.m. on June 3, 60,000 Union men started toward the unseen enemy. Within 20 minutes, 7,000 of them had been shot by Confederate forces.

This segment tells the story of the Battle of Perryville, which took place in Boyle County, KY, in October 1862. Historian Kent Masterson Brown discusses the importance of the Battle of Perryville for the course of the Civil War. It was crucial because the Union Army successfully drove the Confederate Army from Kentucky and ended its attempt to recapture the state.

Frederick Douglass' time with famed "slave breaker" Edward Covey is considered a turning point in his life. Seen as unruly, Douglass was sent to Covey, who subjected him to verbal and physical abuse. It culminated in a two-hour long fight between them, where Douglass emerged even more determined to escape into freedom.

Ben, the Mount Vernon miller, discusses wheat production at Mount Vernon and trade at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

This media gallery contains resources on Benjamin Franklin when he served as Ambassador to France from 1776-1785.

Franklin’s widespread interests and numerous fields of endeavor make him the American epitome of the Age of Enlightenment. In this lesson, students will reflect on the parallels between our own age and the one in which Franklin lived and worked. After viewing a short video about Franklin, they will read some of Franklin’s adages through an Enlightenment lens and examine a symbol-rich portrait of Franklin. The lesson culminates with students imagining Benjamin Franklin’s present-day social media presence.

In this lesson, students will explore Benjamin Franklin’s roles as scientist, inventor, printer, business owner, civil servant, and philanthropist. As a well-known Enlightenment philosopher, Franklin embodied the concept of the Common Good and applied this to his life and livelihood.

This document includes images of the 1791 Bill of Rights. Although 12 amendments were originally proposed, the 10 that were ratified became the Bill of Rights in 1791. They defined citizens' rights in relation to the newly established government under the Constitution.

In this lesson, students will examine a copy of twelve possible amendments to the United States Constitution as originally sent to the states for their ratification in September of 1789. Students will debate and vote on which of these amendments they would ratify and compare their resulting “Bill of Rights” to the ten amendments ratified by ten states that have since been known by this name.

This lesson relates to the westward movement in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Students analyze the role that gunfighters played in the settlement of the West and distinguish between their factual and fictional accounts using American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.

Examine how the horrors of the Civil War battlefield forced medicine in America to evolve from a crude practice to a profession grounded in science, in this video from The Good Stuff: Time Capsule. Using video and discussion questions, students learn about how medical innovations like the triage system, limb amputations, and general hospitals saved thousands of lives and changed Americans’ expectations regarding healthcare after the war.

The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song is a two-part, four-hour documentary series from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., tracing the 400-year-old story of the Black church in America.

Discover how Southerners resisted the rights granted to African Americans in the years following the Civil War. In November 1865, the government that President Andrew Johnson had set up in Mississippi passed a set of oppressive laws that only applied to African Americans known as the Black Codes. Other Southern states quickly followed suit. The intent of these laws was to restrict African Americans’ freedom, and compel them to work for white employers in a situation reminiscent of slavery.

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 short video “Focus on Black Humanity” is an excellent resource for student viewing and for initiating a classroom discussion. (See Discussion Questions for suggestions.)

Explore issues connected to representation and point of view in depictions of 19th century Native Americans by George Catlin and Black Hawk in this video from Picturing America On Screen. Catlin’s paintings provide testimony not only to the country’s fascination with American Indians but also to the artist’s ambition to document disappearing frontier cultures. Black Hawk’s work provides invaluable visual testimony to the nation’s Native American heritage and reveals intriguing details of the Lakota people—from manner of dress to social customs. In doing so, he captures a way of life that was fast disappearing as settlers moved West in increasing numbers and tribes were moved to reservations.

In this interactive image, students view four paintings and drawings, with accompanying commentary, to learn about Black soldiers in the Revolutionary War, including the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, Peter Salem, James Armistead Lafayette, and Black Loyalists who responded to Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation.

Learn why New York City’s poor white and immigrant working class protested the Conscription Act of 1863 and eventually killed at least 120 people, targeting African Americans, during the New York City Draft Riots, the bloodiest race riots in U.S. history.

Freed from the bonds of slavery by the Emancipation Proclamation, Booker T. Washington worked relentlessly to become a teacher, an accomplished orator, and an advisor to two Presidents. He was considered a hero in the late 1800s, although some opposed his philosophy that equality and respect must be patiently earned. Through two primary source activities and watching a short video, students will learn about Booker T. Washington’s commitment to African American education, and assess his ideas about how to achieve equality for African Americans in the years after the Civil War.

In this lesson, students practice sourcing to understand what took place in Boston on March 5, 1770. First, students analyze two illustrations of the event and reason about how each illustration’s source and context influenced the way the work depicted the Boston Massacre. Then, students examine a colonist’s testimony and a British army official’s narrative of the incident and consider why the accounts strongly differ.

1 hour and 14 min. tour of historic Boston, this could be used to prepare students for the American revolution and look at the importance of the City.