Revealing African American Lives

Description

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of African American History at Harvard University, speaks about the development of the African American National Biography, the largest African American biographical collection ever published, spanning more than four centuries, with 4,100 entries in eight volumes. The series presents African-American history as told through the lives of its most notable historic actors, documenting and dramatizing the central role played by African Americans in our nation's history, from the 16th through the 20th centuries.

Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power

Description

Richard Carwardine is Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University, author of Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, and winner of the 2004 Lincoln Book Prize. In this lecture, he discusses different aspects of Lincoln's life. Why is Lincoln a mythic figure? How early in his career did he develop his views against slavery? What role did religion play in his life? Professor Carwardine analyzes Lincoln's greatness as well as his humility.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Description

According to the Gilder Lehrman website, "Henry L. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Gettysburg College Allen Guelzo examines Abraham Lincoln's motivations for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863. Guelzo contends that the proclamation is among the most misunderstood of the Civil War era, a necessary and even desperate attempt by Lincoln to enact a form of emancipation that would pass legal muster. Guelzo traces the evolution of Lincoln's views on emancipation with particular emphasis on the strategic and moral calculus that factored into the momentous proclamation of 1863."

Civil Rights Movement Veterans

Image
Photo, March to Montgomery, 1965
Annotation

This site celebrates the commitment and efforts of veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. Introduction provides an overview of the website and the Movement.

Veterans Roll Call provides biographies (in some cases, autobiographies) of more than 500 veterans. It includes dates of activity, organizational affiliation, states they worked in, home states, contact information, and personal essays (of lengths ranging from one sentence to full essays). In Memory records the names of men, women, and children killed during the Civil Rights Movement, as well as names of veterans who have died. The Speakers List lists men and women who are available to speak or answer email inquiries.

Photo Album features more than 15 photo essays on subjects including sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, and the March on Washington. Photo annotations link to more information on the events depicted. Other resources including Civil Rights Movement posters, album covers, and pins, as well as photographs organized by photographer.

History & Timeline lists events by year, from 1951 to 1968. Some events include short descriptions; all include recommendations for print and online resources on the events.

Articles gathers together more than 50 documents by Civil Rights Movement veterans, some contemporary to events and some written later. Visitors can also download samples of literacy tests from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana and view segregation laws. Documents archives contemporary documents created by CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, SSOC, and other organizations. Documents include newsletters, maps, plans, reports, minutes, government reports, and more. Also see Letters from the Field for more than 40 letters by Civil Rights Movement participants.

Our Stories includes interviews, stories, and other recollections from more than 80 veterans, while Our Thoughts includes more than 40 retrospective articles by veterans. Discussions preserves more than 20 online and transcribed discussions looking back on the Civil Rights Movement (most are modern, but they also include a 1956 discussion with Rosa Parks).

In addition, the website includes poetry by veterans, related links organized by topic, and a bibliography featuring age-specific book lists.

With the interviews, autobiographies, photos, documents, and discussions, the site includes a wealth of primary sources, and would be invaluable for any student researching the human side of the Civil Rights Movement.

Causes of the American Revolution

Question

What were the causes of the American Revolution?

Textbook Excerpt

Textbooks tend to emphasize a political and military story that makes the American Revolution seem like a unified, logical, and inevitable event.

Source Excerpt

Primary sources reveal the diversity and complexity of the revolutionary movement. There was no single American Revolution, but many different American revolutions.

Historian Excerpt

Historians emphasize the diversity of participants, contradictions among their motives, and the variety of long-term causes of the American Revolution.

Abstract

Most elementary and middle school American history textbooks continue to portray the coming of the American Revolution in terms of a series of discrete political and military events that culminated, more or less inevitably, in the separation of the North American colonies from Great Britain. Little attention is given to underlying social conditions, the diversity among participants, and the wide variety of intellectual traditions that contributed to the revolutionary movement. By ignoring the insights of new scholarship, textbooks fail to convey a sense of the long-term causes of the Revolution, the movement's tremendous complexity, or its limitations as well as its achievements.

Reconstruction

Description

Donald L. Miller and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. follow the Civil War from after the Battle of Vicksburg to its conclusion and into Reconstruction, from 1863 to 1875. The presentation looks at the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address; Lincoln's reelection and assassination; Reconstruction challenges and policies, including the expectations of the newly freed slaves; the presidencies of Andrew Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant; and the reemergence of white supremacy and racial violence in the South.

African-American Perspectives: Pamphlets from 1818-1907

Image
Image, Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
Annotation

Nineteenth-century African American pamphlets and documents, most produced between 1875 and 1900, are presented on this website. These 350 works include sermons, organization reports, college catalogs, graduation orations, slave narratives, Congressional speeches, poetry, and play scripts.

Topics cover segregation, civil rights, violence against African Americans, and the African colonization movement. Authors include Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, and Emanuel Love. Publication information and short content descriptions accompany each pamphlet.

The site also offers a timeline of African American history from 1852 to 1925 and reproductions of original documents and illustrations. A special presentation "The Progress of a People," recreates a meeting of the National Afro-American Council in December 1898. This is a rich resource for studying 19th- and early 20th-century African American leaders and representatives of African American religious, civic, and social organizations.

Africans in America

Image
Image for Africans in America
Annotation

Created as a companion to the PBS series of the same name, this well-produced site traces the history of Africans in America through Reconstruction in four chronological parts. The site provides 245 documents, images, and maps linked to a narrative essay.

"The Terrible Transformation" (1450–1750) deals with the beginning of the slave trade and slavery's growth. "Revolution" (1750–1805) discusses the justifications for slavery in the new nation. "Brotherly Love" (1791–1831) traces the development of the abolition movement. "Judgment Day" (1831–1865) describes debates over slavery, strengthening of sectionalism, and the Civil War. In addition to the documents, images, maps, and essay (approximately 1,500 words per section), the site presents 153 brief (150-word) descriptions by historians of specific aspects on the history of slavery, abolition, and war in America. The site provides a valuable introduction to the study of African-American history through the Civil War.

An American Family: The Beecher Tradition

Image
Photo, Picture of the Beecher family, Matthew Brady, c. 1850
Annotation

This exhibit, based on an exhibit at the William and Anita Newman Library of the City University of New York, explores the history of the Beechers, a New England family influential in religious, abolitionist, and women's rights movements. The site provides 500-word biographies, photographs, and excerpts from letters for seven members of the Beecher family, beginning with patriarch Lyman Beecher, Presbyterian minister and President of Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. It also profiles Lyman's two wives; five of his children, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin and more than 30 other works; and his great-granddaughter Charlotte Perkins Gilman, women's rights activist and author of Women and Economics. The site also offers links to six related websites and a bibliography of six related scholarly works. It is a good resource for those researching abolitionism, women's rights, or the lives of the Beechers.