A Patriot's History of the United States, Part One: Liberty and Property in the American Past

Description

Professor Larry Schweikart argues that most popular textbooks today show a liberal, left-wing bias. He reexamines specific periods in U.S. history from a conservative perspective, focusing on Ronald Reagan's presidency and the colonization of the original colonies, particularly as documents from the latter discuss property rights.

This lecture continues in A Patriot's History of the United States, Part Two: Reinterpreting Reagan and the Cold War.

The Boston Slave Petitions

Description

From the Colonial Williamsburg: Past and Present Podcasts website—

"The founders demanded freedom for themselves, but not for their slaves. Early protests show that the enslaved noticed the flaw in the logic. Historian Harvey Bakari introduces the Boston Slave Petitions."

Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s

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Illustration, Cover of Comic Book, Library of Congress
Annotation

This site features two "special presentations" and presents hundreds of primary materials relating to baseball in America. Materials include letters, manuscripts, trading cards, lobby cards, newspaper images, photographs, advertisements, sheet music, and transcripts of interviews, speeches, and television broadcasts. The first presentation, "Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson, 1860s-1960s," furnishes approximately 30 documents and photographs in a 5-section timeline that examines the history of Jackie Robinson's entry into the major league baseball. It includes material on the Negro Leagues, the nature of baseball's color line, Robinson's career as a Brooklyn Dodger, and his role as a civil rights activist.

A second presentation, "Early Baseball Pictures," presents 34 images dealing with baseball from the 1860s to the 1920s divided into five sections. The site also includes an annotated bibliography comprised of 82 titles and a list of six links to related resources. While limited in size and focus with regard to general baseball history, this site is valuable as an introductory look at Jackie Robinson's life and the topic of race in American sports history.

Freedom Now! An Archival Project of Tougaloo College and Brown University

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Brochure, Fundraising to aid. . . , 1970, NAACP, Tougaloo College Archives
Annotation

This searchable archive offers more than 250 documents from the Mississippi Freedom Movement, the struggle to register African Americans to vote in Mississippi in the early 1960s, and the continuing Brown-Tougaloo Cooperative Exchange that grew out of it. The Freedom Movement was "one of the most inspiring and important examples of grass-roots activism in U.S. history." The archive includes books; manuscripts; periodicals; correspondence; interview transcripts; photographs; artifacts; and legal, organizational, and personal documents.

The collection can be searched by document type, keyword, or topic, including black power/black nationalism, college students, gender issues, incarceration, labor issues, legislation, media, non-violence, protest, segregation, and state government. The site offers two lesson plans on the Mississippi Freedom Movement based on documents in the database, one focused on the experiences of college-aged civil rights workers during the Freedom Movement and the other on voter registration. Other teaching resources include links to five websites on teaching with primary documents, six sites related to the African-American civil rights movement, and eight related books. This site is a useful resource for researching the Mississippi Freedom Movement, the history and people of the civil rights movement, or African-American history.

National Women's Hall of Fame [NY]

Description

The National Women's Hall of Fame honors U.S. women who have made significant contributions in government, science, philanthropy, education, athletics, the arts, business, and the humanities. The hall is located in Seneca Falls, NY, site of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention at which the struggle for women's rights within the United States officially began.

The hall offers exhibits, children's activities, and tours. School and children's groups are asked to make reservations. The hall is closed to the general public in January, although group tours may still take place with two weeks advance notice.

Constitution Square State Historic Site [KY]

Description

Constitution Square State Historic Site preserves the location where 10 constitutional conventions took place, culminating in 1792 when Virginia's Kentucky County gained entry into the Union as the 15th state. The site includes the Isaac Shelby State Historic Site which honors Kentucky's first governor Isaac Shelby (1750-1826), a surveyor and Revolutionary War hero. The 1785 log courthouse, Shelby's grave, a replica of the original jail, a replica of the meetinghouse, a pre-1792 post office, the Wilderness Trace Art League, Education Center, Danville/Boyle County Historical Society Museum, and Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau are located on site.

The site offers self-guided and guided tours of Constitution Square buildings, a history scavenger hunt for students, and picnic tables. Guided tours, self-guided school tours, and scavenger hunts are by appointment only. Buildings are accessible to the public March through December.

Ohio Statehouse Education and Visitors Center

Description

The Statehouse Education and Visitors Center interprets the state capitol's history and significance for the public, and guides school groups in their study of government, citizenship, and Ohio history. The Statehouse complex represents one of America's finest examples of Greek Revival civic architecture, and is one of the oldest working statehouses in the United States. Visitors can see where and how the vital business of state government is conducted, view architectural and artistic treasures, and learn more about Ohio through guided tours, educational displays, and interactive touch-screen kiosks.

A second site, specifically for the Statehouse, can be found here.

The center offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and educational and recreational events.

Harriet Beecher Stowe House [OH]

Description

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is operated as an historical and cultural site, focusing on Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The site also includes a look into the family, friends, and colleagues of the Beecher-Stowe family; Lane Seminary; and the abolitionist, women's rights, and Underground Railroad movements in which these historical figures participated in the 1830s to 1860s, as well as African-American history related to these movements. The house was home to Harriet Beecher Stowe prior to her marriage and to her father, Rev. Lyman Beecher, and his large family, a prolific group of religious leaders, educators, writers, and antislavery and women's rights advocates. The Beecher family includes Harriet's sister, Catherine Beecher, an early female educator and writer who helped found numerous high schools and colleges for women; brother Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, a leader of the women's suffrage movement and considered by some to be the most eloquent minister of his time; General James Beecher, a Civil War general who commanded the first African-American troops in the Union Army recruited from the South; and sister Isabella Beecher Hooker, a women's rights advocate. The Beechers lived in Cincinnati for nearly 20 years, from 1832 to the early 1850s, before returning East.

The house offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational programs and events.

Wormsloe Historic Site [GA]

Description

Wormsloe Historic Site preserves the ruins of Noble Jones' estate. Jones (1702-1775) entered Georgia in 1733 as one of the state's first English settlers. He served as a physician, carpenter, Royal Councilor, surveyor, constable, Indian Agent, and military commander prior to his death in the Revolutionary War. The site interprets both Noble and his home, and the early settlement and founding of Georgia. A museum presents artifacts from the estate.

The site offers an introductory film, exhibits, a nature trail, living history demonstrations, and picnic facilities.