A presidential message detailing Jackson's view that the Bank of the U.S. is unconstitutional and is a monopolistic threat to common citizens. A link to this message is provided as well as questions for discussion.
An excerpt from Abraham Cahan's novel, "Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto," and Charles Chesnutt's short story, "The Wife of His Youth," that describe challenges of assimilation into American culture for both European immigrants and African Americans. Questions for discussion included.
Two short stories from Polish immigrant, Anzia Yerzierska, about the challenges of Americanization that immigrants faced in the early-twentieth century. Includes questions for discussion.
Primary resources for U.S. history and literature offer a French and a Norse account of the earliest documented exploration on the Atlantic coast of North America and encounters with native peoples. Includes questions for discussion.
Explore these primary source documents detailing the growth, peoples, economies, and ideas relating to the British American Colonies in the 18th century. Features notes and discussion questions.
Primary resource material on the ideas, scientific and religious, of the colonial period from 1690 to 1730.
Primary source documents on how the political relationship between the colonies and Great Britain changed from 1690 to 1763 and how the colonists responded.
Primary source documents, including text and art, provides a look at the diversity and identity of the people in the New England colonies.
Primary resource material on the economies of the New England colonies between 1690 and 1763.
An audio clip of a Yoruba drum and two accounts by slaves or their descendants that offer African perspectives on life and culture in the Niger River Delta.
A painting and an appeal that explore the role business played in black uplift in nineteenth-century America. This resource focuses on the work of Edward Bannister (1828-1901), one of the leading black painters of the nineteenth century.
Several narratives of the capture of West Africans, including the famous autobiography of Venture Smith, from the eighteenth century, two accounts of conditions on slave ships, and an audio recording of the memories of the descendants of slaves from the 1930s.
A secondary account from a contemporary historian that examines early nineteenth century forces and the interplay of markets and territorial expansion.
Four accounts of the visits to and growth of colonial cities in Spanish, British, and French New World settlements that demonstrate why certain communities developed successfully.
Discusses the efforts of African Americans to be recognized as equal citizens after the Civil War, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Includes links to supplemental information.
Public addresses, letters, and narratives about the absence of and the need for citizenship rights for African Americans. Links to resources used to lobby for equal rights are provided at the top of the page.
Twenty nine primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore how enslaved individuals and families coped with, adjusted to, maintained communities within, and opposed the system of oppression.
An interview illustrating some of the ways community functioned in the lives of African Americans. It explores how external pressures of racism brought African Americans together to form fraternal organizations and entire towns.
Excerpts from a 1941 film that depicts black and white communities in Kannapolis, NC, by H. Lee Waters (1902-1997). This two part film characterizes the differences in economy, community, and values of two separate cultures.
A Thomas Edison film and an essay about the amusement park experience, a new leisure pastime made possible by urbanization and industrialization.