Students examine the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass to discover how his skilled use of language painted a realistic portrait of slavery and removed some common misconceptions about slaves and their situation.

One of Douglass's goals in his autobiography is to illustrate beyond doubt that slavery had an insidious, spirit-killing effect on the slaveholder as well as the slave.

This lesson plan will explore the wide-ranging debate over American slavery by presenting the lives of its leading opponents and defenders and the views they held about America's "peculiar institution."

Many accounts portray Harrison's image as manufactured and Van Buren's image also open to criticism and ridicule. This lesson offers students the opportunity to reflect on the nature of the candidates in 1840. Though intended for the teacher, all or part of the following background information may be useful for some students.

Sometimes, people will fight to keep someone else from being treated poorly. Disagreement over slavery was central to the conflict between the North and the South. The nation was deeply divided.

Frederick Douglass's 1845 narrative of his life is a profile in both moral and physical courage. In the narrative Douglass openly illustrates and attacks the misuse of Christianity as a defense of slavery. He also reveals the turning point of his life: his spirited physical defense of himself against the blows of a white "slave-breaker."

By 1828, the United States had changed greatly, though it was still a young country. Instead of 13 states, there were 24, and enough territory to make quite a few more. What was the source of Andrew Jackson's popularity?

Many accounts portray the campaign of 1840 as almost exclusively about image, and manufactured images at that. This lesson gives students the opportunity to reflect on that point of view as they analyze campaign documents and accounts. Though intended for the teacher, all or part of the following background information may be useful for some students.

Popular sovereignty allowed the settlers of a federal territory to decide the slavery question without interference from Congress. This lesson plan will examine how the Kansas"“Nebraska Act of 1854 affected the political balance between free and slave states and explore how its author, Stephen Douglas, promoted its policy of popular sovereignty in an effort to avoid a national crisis over slavery in the federal territories.

Students demonstrate their knowledge of life before the Civil War, with an emphasis on differences between the North and South.

How were party politics reflected in the campaign of 1828? What were the positions of the fledgling Democratic Party and its opposition?

This course explores the history of the ideal of personal freedom with an eye towards contemporary debates over the pros and cons of the regulatory state. The first part of the course surveys the sociological and theological sources of the concepts of freedom and civil society, and introduces liberty’s leading relatives or competitors: property, equality, community, and republicanism. The second part consists of a series of case studies in the rise of modern liberty and libertarianism: the abolition of slavery, the struggle for religious freedom, and the twentieth-century American civil liberties movement. In the last part of the course, we take up debates over the role of libertarianism vs. the regulatory state in a variety of contexts: counter-terrorism, health care, the financial markets, and the Internet.

A bitter indictment of the Democratic administration's responsibility for violence and bloodshed in Kansas in the wake of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. (See also "Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler" and "Democratic Platform Illustrated," nos. 1856-8 and 1856-11.) The print appeared during the presidential campaign of 1856. In the center stands Democratic incumbent Franklin Pierce, dressed in the buckskins of a "border ruffian," as the violent, proslavery invaders of the Kansas territory from Missouri were known. He has planted his foot on an American flag which is draped over Liberty, who kneels at his feet imploring, "O spare me gentlemen, spare me!!" Pierce is armed with a rifle, and has a tomahawk, dagger, pistol, and scalp on his belt. At right a similarly outfitted Lewis Cass stands licking his lips and scoffing, "Poor little Dear. We wouldnt hurt her for the world, would we Frank? ha! ha! ha! . . ." At the far right Democratic senator Stephen Douglas kneels over a slain farmer and holds up the hapless victim's scalp, exclaiming, "Hurrah for our side! Victory! Victory! "We will subdue them yet." "On the far left Democratic candidate James Buchanan and secretary of state William Marcy (with his characteristic fifty-cent" trouser patch) kneel over another victim and empty his pockets. Buchanan lifts the man's watch, saying,"T'was your's once but its mine now, "Might makes right," dont it." Pierce responds, "You may bet your life on that, ole Puddinhead," and says to Liberty, "Come Sis--sy, you go along wid me, I'le take Good care of "you" (hic) "over the left."" In the left background a cottage burns, and the mad widow of a murdered settler stands before a group of ruffians. Widow: "Come husband let us go to heaven, where our poor Children are." Ruffian, thumbing his nose: "Ho! ho! She thinks I'm her husband, we Scalped the Cus and she like a D--m fool went Crazy on it, and now she wants me to go to heaven with her, . . . " In the distance are further scenes of pillage and murder. Attribution to Magee is based on the print's clear stylistic similarity to his "Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler" (no. 1856-8). A number of satires published by John Childs during the 1856 campaign are also attributable to Magee on stylistic grounds.|Drawn by John L. Magee.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Murrell, p. 190.|Weitenkampf, p. 115.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1856-9.

More Americans lost their lives in the Civil War than in any other conflict. How did the United States arrive at a point at which the South seceded and some families were so fractured that brother fought brother?

Rival presidential nominees Lincoln and Douglas are matched in a footrace, in which Lincoln's long stride is a clear advantage. Both sprint down a path toward the U.S. Capitol, which appears in the background right. They are separated from it by a rail fence, a reference to Lincoln's popular image as a rail-splitter. Douglas, whose characteristic shortness is here exaggerated to dwarfish dimensions, wonders aloud, "How can I get over this Rail Fence." Over his shoulder he carries a cane on which hangs a jug marked "M.C.," which probably refers to the Missouri Compromise, repealed in 1854 largely through Douglas's efforts. As he runs, playing cards spill from his pockets (suggesting perhaps a penchant for gambling). Lincoln, whose height is equally exaggerated, runs along beside him waving his hat and carrying a rail-splitter's maul over his shoulder. He says confidently, "It [i.e., the rail fence] can't sto\p me for I built it." From the fence on the far right a black youth taunts Douglas, "You can find me in dis yer Fence Massa Duglis." The last is evidently a reference to the slavery question central to the election campaign. The print probably appeared late in the campaign, as the Library's impression was deposited for copyright on September 21, 1860. The footrace image is also used in a similar cartoon discussed by Wilson, entitled "A Political Race" (Wilson, p. 52).|Entered . . . 1860 . . . by J. Sage & Sons.|Published by J. Sage & Sons 209 Main St. Buffalo N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 121-122.|Wilson, p. 20-21.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1860-38.

This Political Cartoon, published in Harper's Weekly in October 1862, shortly after the Battle of Antietam, summarizes the idea behind the Emancipation Proclamation. In it an axe-wielding President Lincoln threatens to cut down the tree a Confederate Soldier is using as refuge. Labeled "Slavery," the tree/soldier relationship in the cartoon is meant to convey the idea that slavery in the south was supporting the Confederate war effort - note also the poor state the Southern soldier appears to be in, shoeless and ragged (one Maryland resident who observed the invading Confederate army described them as "scarecrows"). Lincoln sought to frame the Emancipation of slaves as a "fit and necessary war measure for suppressing [the] rebellion," arguing that ending slavery in the south would deprive the Confederate army of the Home Front labor support slaves provided, thus ending the war quicker. The comic is specifically about the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (issued at the end of Sept, 1862), which was a warning to the South that if they did not cease their rebellion before January 1, 1863, he would pass the formal Emancipation Proclamation - hence the title "Lincoln's Last Warning."

In this lesson, students will listen, analyze, and respond to episodes of the 1619 podcast. The lesson includes time-stamped sections, guided questions, and extension activities for each episode. Students will be able to engage meaningfullywith The 1619 Project and consider how they can utilize podcasts and other media to tell their own stories.

The focus of this lesson is the Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Students will put themselves in the shoes of the men of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment as they read, write, pose, and then create a comic strip about these American heroes.

An imaginative but puzzling commentary on sectional tensions over slavery between New England abolitionists and southern agrarian slaveholders. In his sweeping satire the artist also portrays a considerable hostility toward blacks as existing among various ethnic groups, including the Germans, French, Irish, and Scots. The title and main conceit here play on the differing regional cuisine: Cod-Fish as the staple of the North and, for the South, "Hopping-John," which he identifies as "Stewed Rice, Cow-Peas, & Bacon a Noble & invigorating dish much in Vogue," and "Johnny-Cake" or "Indian Corn-Bread the stamina of the South." A crowd has gathered at a wharf to witness a confrontation between a man draped from head to foot with cod-fish and onions and a wealthy southerner (center). The former grips the hand of a black youth (far right) and declares "Massachusetts never will relax in her demand, for this gentleman and friend of mine [i.e., the black man], enjoying his rights & protection, in the true spirit and meaning of the Constitution of the United States." A young woman stands at the man's side, her arm around his, and reassures the black youth, "Poor Soul Sir will do all he can to save you, from these wretched varmints." The southerner, who is dressed in white breeches, riding boots, and coat, reacts angrily, waving his riding crop, "There lies your path! be off at once, with that Black Villain for we are resolutely determined to permit no innovations in our Constitution and Sacred Laws at the hazard of Life & Fortune." A stout man in a long coat to the left chimes in on the southerner's behalf, "Why you must be a downright Ass to presume that our Sacred Constitution and Laws can be altered to suit your nonsensical Cod-Fish and Onion Notions." The black man, who is barefoot, says to his protector, "Ole Massa I tink wee best go way kase dees Bockara is blongst foh make Swonga dat fashion. But dem hadn't ought foh call you ole ho! Dem is too Cubbitch to gie me right!" Various comments come from the crowd. An Irishman: "Tunder & turf de darn Nagur has nie call wid de Repeal My honey." The Repeal movement was a source of strife in Ireland at the time (see "O'Connell's Call and Pat's Reply," no. 1843-1.) A Frenchman: "Vous etes bougres black dem rasskal. Je ne parle wis un Diable." A German or Dutchman: "Verdam black baese quiesta. Der fisch isch more schtink auer saur-Crout und kase!" A club-wielding Scotsman: "A'l noke ye doon ye black veelain gin ye 'mak anither wee whimper." Another man: "Hold your jabbering You black Son of a ----." Several slaves and their master appear at far left. The slaves remark, "Please ole massa let me gie that Yankee Nigga one Punch in e gut," "Ole Massa Chase it foh ebery body gwine free," and "Hold you mout you is one dam fool." In the foreground sits a large cannon with mottoes inscribed: "Pro Patria" and "Animis opibusque parati." Beneath the cannon a pile of spilled coins, "Our Blood & Treasure."|James Akin of South Carolina Lithographer, Philadelphia, April 1845.|Published at no. 18 Prune St. Philad.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Purchase Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Fund.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1845-6.

A satire on the Democrats' approach to the delicate question of the annexation of Texas. In marked contrast to his portrayal of the issue as a beautiful woman in "Virtuous Harry" (no. 1844-27), the artist here presents Texas as the ugly hag War or Chaos, brandishing a dagger, pistols, whips, and manacles. She embodies the threat of war with Mexico, feared by American opponents of annexation. The whips and manacles in her left hand may also allude to slavery, whose expansion into the new territory was desired by southern annexationists. Bucholzer parodies Van Buren's evasion of the controversial and sectionally divisive issue and Democratic candidates Polk and Dallas's motives in favoring the measure. Senators Thomas Hart Benton and John C. Calhoun confront Van Buren with Texas, whom they support on a plank across their shoulders. Calhoun says, "Come, Matty, we introduce you to the Texas Question, what do you say to her Ladyship?" Van Buren, backing away, replies, "Take any other shape but that and my firm nerves shall never tremble!" Andrew Jackson, who prods Van Buren from behind with his cane says, "Stand up to your lick-log Matty or by the Eternal you'll back into Salt River before you know it." In the background right are Polk and Dallas. Polk says, "What say you Dallas? She's not the handsomest Lady I ever saw but that $25,000 a year-- Eh! it's worth a little stretching of Conscience!" (The annual salary of a U.S. President was $25,000.)|Drawn by H. Bucholzer.|Entered . . . 1844 by James Baillie.|Lithography & print coloring on reasonable terms by James Baillie No. 33 Spruce St. N.Y.|The Library's impression of the print was deposited for copyright on July 24, 1844.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 76.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1844-36.