From the National Humanities Center website:

"In the three decades after the American Revolution, the identity of the new nation remained far from settled. American writers and politicians asserted that the United States differed from Europe, but they disagreed about how. Did the American people possess a new 'national character,' based on shared experience or a new environment? What policies and practices would best ensure the survival of the republican experiment? And how would a nation founded on the principle that 'all men are created equal' address the contradictions of its own inequalities? With selected primary sources from the new republic—in words and pictures—the seminar will explore these questions."

The Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier will host the Washington, DC We the People Summer Seminar for middle and high school teachers. The seminar will begin with lectures, discussions, and group activities and conclude with a simulated congressional hearing. Teachers will receive a full classroom set of We the People textbooks.

The Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier will host the Maryland We the People Summer Seminar for middle and high school teachers. The seminar will begin with lectures, discussions, and group activities and conclude with a simulated congressional hearing. Teachers will receive a full classroom set of We the People textbooks.

The Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier will host the Virginia We the People Summer Seminar for middle and high school teachers. The seminar will begin with lectures, discussions, and group activities and conclude with a simulated congressional hearing. Teachers will receive a full classroom set of We the People textbooks.

This Institute will explore segregated education in Virginia and trace the efforts of African Americans who fought for quality schools in the years before Brown v. Board of Education. It will examine Brown and both efforts to implement and resist the decision in Virginia. Finally, it will look at the legacy of Brown. Participants will interact with historians and educators and will take part in lectures, discussions, and workshops and go on field trips to Farmville and the state capitol. They will work with Virginia Historical Society staff to explore teaching strategies and the Society's resources.

This institute will help teachers take advantage of the instructional power of primary sources. Though many teachers are familiar with the importance of primary sources, they are not sure how to use them in the classroom, how to develop inquiry-based lessons, or how to help students use them in projects. In this workshop, Library of Congress specialists will introduce participants to the unique characteristics of primary sources, while helping explore some of the millions of digitized primary sources available on the Library's website. Participants will look at ways to introduce students to primary sources and how to incorporate them in inquiry-based classroom activities.

The story of sugar's transformation from luxury product to ubiquitous commodity in the modern Western diet offers a rich vantage on transatlantic and world history. It also prods students and scholars to deeper consideration of the myriad social, cultural, and economic processes within which even the most seemingly banal substances can be enmeshed. Seminar participants will explore these connections and processes, with special attention to the Caribbean. The link between sugar cultivation and the transatlantic slave trade—and the enduring, intertwined legacies of both—will be an important area of discussion and analysis.

One way citizens of large republics are educated in the principles of government is through novels. With this in mind, this course examines selections from the work of Mark Twain. Not only is Twain America's most enduringly popular author, but his novels depict important aspects of the American character and have much to say about such themes as equality, slavery, freedom, modern science, Christianity, and democratic leadership, all of which are crucial for understanding American history and politics. The main texts will be Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; if time permits, participants will also consider The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson.