An address, a declaration of principle, and the Black National Anthem illustrating differing approaches to political action. The texts examine how Washington and Du Bois turned their political objectives into action organizations in the early 1900s.

A speech by Mary Church Terrell, a letter by Booker T. Washington, a letter by W.E.B. DuBois, and the Niagara Movement's Declaration of Principles describe African American civil rights strategies in the early-twentieth century.

Four accounts of the complex power relationships between slaves and slave holders within English colonies in Barbados, Virginia and Pennsylvania, as well as documents about slave revolts and anti-slavery agitation.

Three illustrations and five documents about slave codes, master-slave power dynamics, and free blacks within French and Spanish settlements of the Caribbean.

The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards historical documents, literary texts, and works of art thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. Topics discussed in this unit include the following: Living the Revolution: America, 1789-1820: The Northwest Ordinance, 1787. The Northwest Ordinance addressed the problem of unifying the new republic. It set forth the means to create new states west of the Appalachians and eventually admit them into the Union. It placed new territories under its dominion on an equal footing with the original states and guaranteed equal citizenship to settlers in those regions.

Links to Senator Daniel Webster's famous plea, amidst the turmoil of sectional conflict, for national unity and his support of the Compromise of 1850.

The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. Topics discussed in this unit include the following: The Triumph of Nationalism / The House Dividing: Frederick Douglass, "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?," July 5, 1852.

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.