U. S. History, 1810 - 1870

The following are sources, both print and online, that comprise primary material.  Print material can be located in the WHS library.  Links will lead you to sites (mostly government) where some searching will be necessary, so patience will be required.

Gereral Sources/Sites  |  Slavery   |  Women's Rights/ Abolition/Etc. | Presidents
Laws and Legislation  | The Courts  |  Statistics

General Sources/Sites

Annals of America (22 vols.) – Ref 973 ANN

Atlas of American History - REF 911.73 ADA
A chronological listing of maps that assist in interpreting our history through the location of places as they actually existed and exactly where they existed at a given time.

Railroad maps of North America : The first hundred years - (Oversized shelf) REF 912 RAI

Library of Congress (United States).- http://www.loc.gov
The gateway to America's history in print (via digitization).  See also:

http://memory.loc.gov/  - The LOC's American Memory site.  Contains full-text and digitized documents:  speeches, photos, Congressional papers (bills, laws, testimony), and much, much more.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) http://www.archives.gov/research_room/index.html
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent federal agency whose mission is to preserve the national history of the United States by overseeing the management of all federal records. The Web site includes a comprehensive list of archival information maintained by various branches of the Federal government, as well as online exhibits, educational material, and information about programs and events.

Core Documents of US Democracy - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/coredocs.html
"To provide American citizens direct online access to the basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society, a core group of  current and historical Government publications is being made available for  free, permanent, public access via the GPO Access service. These titles contain information which is vital to the democratic process and critical to an informed electorate. They support the public's right to know about the essential activities of their Government. Immediate, online access to authenticated versions of these Core Documents of Democracy increases in importance as Americans grow ever more dependent on remote electronic access to basic information resources -- both past and present. "

19th Century Documents Project - http://www.furman.edu/~benson/docs/
When completed this collection will include accurate transcriptions of many important and representative primary texts from nineteenth century American history, with special emphasis on those sources that shed light on sectional conflict and transformations in regional identity. (Furman College, Greenville, SC)

Images of American Political History (1800-1850) - http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/_browse1850.htm
The intent of this collection is to support the teaching of American political history by providing quick access to uncopyrighted images for inclusion in teaching materials.  All images are strongly believed to be in the public domain. They were obtained from non-copyrighted U.S. government holdings and publications and from published works with clearly expired copyrights. Thus there are absolutely no restrictions on their use.

The Alexis de Tocqueville Tour:  Exploring Democracy in America - http://www.tocqueville.org/
This site provides access to a collection of resources prepared by C-SPAN. They relate to the classic text 'Democracy in America' by Alexis de Tocqueville and include biographical information on the writer, excerpts of famous passages from his texts, lists of modern interpretations of them and bibliographies of further readings.

U.S. Historical Documents Archive - http://www.ushda.org/

Making of America - This unique project has two host sites, each with different primary and historical materials.

• Cornell University - http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/
• University of Michigan - http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/

Douglass (Frederick) Archives of American Public Address - Speeches and Documents Listed Chronologically http://douglassarchives.org/
 
 
 

Slavery

American Slave Narratives : an online narrative - http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
Annotated index providing access to narratives of interviews with former American slaves, given in the 1930s.  Photographs are included, and many of the narratives have been taken from journals about slavery.

"Been Here So Long" - Selections from the WPA Slave Narratives  - http://newdeal.feri.org/asn/
Collection of narratives from interviews with ex-slaves collected between 1936 and 1938 by journalists and writers employed by the Federal Writers Project. Also features lesson plans based on the narratives and links to online resources about American slavery.

Excerpts from Slave Narratives -  http://www.vgskole.net/prosjekt/slavrute/primary.htm
Transcriptions retelling experiences of slavery between
the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Information is
gathered from both slave traders and slaves, and relates to
aspects of capture, work, and social conditions, as well as
the attitudes of society following the abolition of slavery.

Social Science Information Gateway - http://www.sosig.ac.uk/roads/subject-listing/World/slavery.html
Set of links to selected, evaluated and annotated Internet resources about slavery.

Spartacus Internet Encyclopedia: US Slavery - http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAslavery.htm
Resources relating to slavery in the USA featuring an outline of the slave system, accounts of experiences, and key events in the development and abolition of slavery.  Also offers biographies of anti-slavery campaigners in the USA and Britain.

Exploring Amistad - http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/
This site explores the Amistad Revolt of 1839-1842 and how we make history of it.  The Amistad Revolt was a shipboard
uprising off the coast of Cuba that carried itself, inadvertently but fatefully, to the United States--where the Amistad Captives set off an intense legal, political, and popular debate over the slave trade, slavery, race, Africa, and ultimately America itself.

Dred Scott Case - http://www.library.wustl.edu/vlib/dredscott/
In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark decision declaring that Scott remain a slave. This decision contributed to rising tensions between the free and slave states just before the American Civil War.
 

Women's Rights/Abolition/Etc.

Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment - http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/woman/home.html
Primary Sources, Activities, and Links to Related Web Sites for Educators and Students .http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/woman/home.html
 

Presidents

POTUS - In this resource you will find background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents. Links to biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, and other presidential sites are also included to enrich this site.  http://www.ipl.org/ref/POTUS/index.html

Presidential Speeches -  A resource for people interested in presidential rhetoric. Since presidential rhetoric is not a thing of the past, but a continuous process, the amount and extent of the documents contained here will be evolving along with the production of new messages by the chief executive.  http://www.tamu.edu/comm/pres/speech.html

Lincoln/Net - http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/
Lincoln/Net (Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitazation Project) presents historical materials from Abraham Lincoln's Illinois years (1830-1861), including Lincoln's writings and speeches, as well as other materials illuminating antebellum Illinois.

Laws and Legislation

Legal Information Institute - Cornell Law School offers an excellent guide to primary law documents and secondary information sources on Internet. It was of the first extensive legal guides available and remains a leader in this category.  http://www.law.cornell.edu/
 
 
 

The Courts

Selected Historic Decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court -
This site contains about 300 of the most historic decisions.  http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm
 
 

Statistics

Historical Statistics of the United States - Colonial Times to 1970. (2 vol.) - REF 317.3 UNI

Bureau of the Census (US Government) - http://www.census.gov/

US Historical Census Data Browser - http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/
The data presented here describe the people and the economy of the US for each state and county from 1790 to 1960.

US Government Federal Statistics - http://www.fedstats.gov/

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office - The US Patent Office web site has some great resources for teachers as well as students.  The Calendar of Trivia (click link for TimeMachine) takes students to a monthly calendar that lists the inventions patented on that date.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/kids/special/kidbright.html
 
 

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