StoryWorks Theater’s Teaching the Constitution Through Theater develops inclusive and transformative educational theater experiences that provides students with the opportunity to examine our history and to foster a deeper understanding of the U.S. Constitution. Through content consistent with school curriculum standards, the program engages students in experiential learning and inspires them to ask complex questions about the historical underpinnings behind contemporary issues. The process creates pathways to civic engagement, creates lasting memories and instills a tangible sense of social belonging. Now’s The Time opens at the dawn of Reconstruction, the Civil War has just ended but the nation is plunged again into crisis with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Andrew Johnson ascends to the Presidency determined to restore white supremacy in the South. Congressional radicals led by Thaddeus Stevens are fighting for a different vision. They intend to create a new society of full racial equality, where Black Americans will have real economic and political power, including ownership of land confiscated from the rebels, education, suffrage and election to public office. This titanic political battle between President and Congress culminates in the first impeachment and trial of a U.S. president, and to more than 150 years of continuing violence and discrimination against Black Americans.View the complete play Now’s The Time on the StoryWorks Theater site. Implementation1. Now’s The Time Performance Classroom watches a prerecorded, staged reading of the play Now’s The Time, written by Jean P. Bordewich and Produced by StoryWorks Theater.2. Lesson Plan Activities Following the six lesson plan structure, students will read aloud or act out scenes from the play. This participatory interaction with the text and the historical events promotes a high level of engagement from the students and encourages experiential learning. These activities directly correspond to scenes in the play and to specific content area standards. Throughout the curriculum, teachers will lead guided discussions and help to explain the historical context and theme of each scene. Students/actors will have the ability to share their experiences having portrayed these historical figures. Students/historians will have the unique opportunity to work with primary source materials to further their understanding of the complexities of the era and to gain insight into the critical legislative debates of the time.

Through the play Now's The Time and the accompanying curriculum, students will explore the Reconstruction Era through the life of Thaddeus Stevens and his colleagues as they sought to push for radical change in the making of a "new" America.  

In a race between the railroad and the telegraph the "telegraphic candidates," Lewis Cass and William O. Butler, are first to the White House. The artist ridicules Zachary Taylor for his hazy stance on major campaign issues and manages a jibe at the "dead letter" affair as well. (See "The Candidate of Many Parties," no. 1848-24.) Other presidential candidates Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, and a third (possibly John P. Hale) are also in the race, traveling in a small boat, on a horse, and in a wheelbarrow respectively. Taylor and his running mate Millard Fillmore ride a locomotive "Non-Comittal. No Principles." along a track toward the White House (left). Taylor (seated on the engine): "Why Fill, my boy, we must be on the wrong track!" Fillmore (in the cab): "Yes, but if you hadn't dealt so much in the Mail line, it would have been all right!" The "Mail line" is a reference to the dead letter affair. Above them, Cass and Butler walk across telegraphic wires to enter a window of the White House. Cass, holding a sword (a memento of his 1812 military service), declares "I seek the people's eternal happiness!" Butler, holding onto Cass's coattail and thumbing his nose, yells back to Taylor "Zack, for old acquaintance sake I should like you to have been on the right side." Butler, like Taylor, served as a general in the Mexican War. Butler also taunts Van Buren, who ambles along on a scrawny horse at the far right, "O, Marty how are greens?" Van Buren (in a mock-Dutchman's accent): "O, mine got! Shonny! we pe a great deal mush pehind our time!" To the right of the train is a wheelbarrow from which protrude the legs and arms of another contestant, probably Liberty party candidate John P. Hale. A black man, representing abolitionism, lies on the ground beside the cart. Hale: "You d--d lazy niger get up and push along or we shall never get there!" Abolition: "De lor bless us all, me satisfy I go sleepey!" Henry Clay, in a sinking boat on the left, laments, "A pretty pass affairs have come to!" Samuel F. B. Morse had installed the first telegraphic line, linking Baltimore and Washington, in 1844. While still a novelty in 1848, the line may have a metaphorical significance in "The Telegraphic Candidates--&1as the symbolic path between Baltimore, where Cass and Butler were nominated, and Washington. The print must have appeared in the summer of 1848, between the May convention, which nominated Cass and Butler, and Hale's withdrawal from the race in August. Weitenkampf cites a version of the print in the New York Historical Society with the title "Popular Conveyances, or Telegraphic Dispatches for the White House."|Signed in reverse: E.F.D. (E.F. Durang).|Sold by Turner & Fisher, N.Y. & Philada.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 93.|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 1848-41.

A pro-Democrat cartoon forecasting the collapse of Whig opposition to the annexation of Texas. James K. Polk, the expansionist candidate, stands at right near a bridge spanning "Salt River." He holds an American flag and hails Texans Stephen Austin (left) and Samuel Houston aboard a wheeled steamboat-like vessel "Texas." Austin, waving the flag of the Lone Star Republic, cries, "All hail to James K. Polk, the frined [sic] of our Country!" The Texas boat has an eagle figurehead and a star on its prow. Below the bridge pandemonium reigns among the foes of annexation. Holding onto a rope attached to "Texas" above, they are dragged into Salt River. Led by Whig presidential nominee Henry Clay, they are (left to right) Theodore Frelinghuysen, Daniel Webster, Henry A. Wise, and an unidentified figure whose legs are tangled in the rope. Clay: "Curse the day that ever I got hold of this rope! this is a bad place to let go of it--But I must!" Frelinghuysen: "Oh evil day, that ever I got into the footsteps of my predecessor." Webster: "If we let go, we are ruined, and if we hold on--Oh! crackee!" Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, straddling a barrel labeled "Abolition" in the river, shouts at Clay, "Avaunt! unholy man! I will not keep company with a blackleg!" referring to the candidate's reputation as a gambler.|Entered . . . 1844 by James Baillie.|Lithograph and print coloring on reasonable terms by James Baillie No. 33 Spruce St. New York.|Signed: H. Bucholzer.|The Library's impression was deposited for copyright on June 28, 1844.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 83.|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 1844-28.

This educational curriculum package is the product of a five-year labor of love. Beginning in 2011, several educators, history enthusiasts and social activists coalesced around the charismatic Horace Seldon. Horace was finishing a long local career in social work, years with the National Parks Service, Boston, and as one of the founders of the social service organization Community Change. He was intent upon pursuing a historical research project which he had been contemplating for some time. The resultant group, led by Horace Seldon, then embarked on a research and reading circle exploring the hidden history of the Boston antebellum African American community situated on the North Slope of Beacon Hill and in the area immediately adjacent to the current Boston City Hall Plaza. The work began by investigating legendary author, activist and Beacon Hill resident David Walker. It has since grown organically into a full-fledged historical reclamation project, the results of which we now share with you.Being educators, we have naturally gravitated to exploring avenues which facilitate promoting civic engagement and self-actualization, both in the classroom and for lifelong learning. This enterprise reflects that perspective and energizing prospect. We are currently in discussion with the Mayor's Office of Diversity about bringing this project to City Hall Plaza as an integral part of the upcoming 400'h anniversary celebration of the founding of Boston. Roxbury Community College is honored to have been given the opportunity to create a digital curriculum platform to dispense information and inspire enthusiasm for history across the commonwealth, a history which surrounds us but remains invisible to many residents and tourists. It is our intention to combine an interdisciplinary approach using the latest in technological innovations, artistry and networking to share this compelling narrative, illuminating not only the lessons of the past, but the durability of a community preparing for a future of multiple challenges and inconvenient truths.

This first module includes:David Coleman: Words of ResistancePeter Snoad: Raising David WalkerVideo: Walking TourVideo: Innerview, Ms. L'Merchie Frazier 10Video: Innerview, Mr. Horace Seldon

Full course on American History with an emphasis on abolitionist leaders in the Boston area.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This video playlist is a guided tour of the African American Heritage Trail, in Florence, Massachusetts, which shares the contributions and legacy of Sojourner Truth, as well as the many abolitionists, Underground Railroad agents, and former enslaved people who called Florence home in the 19th century. Each video is dedicated to a different site on the trail and includes biographical information about key figures in Florence's history.

A satire on the Whig party's anti-annexation platform. The question of whether or not to annex Texas was a large issue separating candidates in the 1844 campaign. Annexation's serious implications for the future of slavery in the United States polarized voters between Polk, who supported it, and Clay, who opposed it. Texas, personified as an elegant and beautiful young woman holding a cornucopia filled with flowers, stands between presidential candidates Clay and Polk. Polk (left) doffs his hat and takes her hand saying, "Welcome, sister, Your Valor has won you liberty and independence, and you have fairly won the right to be identified with 'the land of the brave, and the home of the free.'" She replies, "Shall the slanders that have been urged against your sister, sever those whose blood flows from the same fountain?" George M. Dallas, standing to the left of Polk, comments, "Slandered as she is, let him that is without sin, cast the first stone at her!" Clay (at right, arms folded) piously says, "Stand back, Madam Texas! for we are more holy than thou! Do you think we will have anything to do with gamblers, horse-racers, and licentious profligates?" A Quaker (and possibly an abolitionist) taps Clay on the shoulder and reminds him, "Softly, Softly, friend Harry. Thou hast mentioned the very reason that we cannot Vote for thee!" |Entered . . . 1844 by James Baillie.|Lith & pub. by James Baillie 33 Spruce St. N.Y.|Signed: H. Bucholzer.|The Library's impression was deposited for copyright on June 26, 1844.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 78.|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 1844-27.

Horace Greeley's famous and widely ridiculed 1871 pamphlet "What I Know of Farming" provided the pretext for the title here. With the tail and cloven hoof of a devil Greeley (center) leads a small band of Liberal Republicans in pursuit of incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant and his supporters. Greeley heralds "General Amnesty," echoing his campaign pledge of amnesty for former Confederates. He is followed by his running mate Benjamin Gratz Brown (with a long beard) who calls for "Reduction of Taxes." Next follows bespectacled Missouri Republican leader Carl Schurz, who carries a flag "Reconciliation," and Massachusetts senator and civil rights advocate Charles Sumner who demands "Equal Rights to All." Grant, holding a liquor bottle, and his three companions flee to the left. One of them is Benjamin F. Butler, who grasps three silver spoons. (For the significance of Butler's spoons, see "The Radical Party on a Heavy Grade," no. 1868-14.) The man at far left is probably former New York senator Roscoe Conkling, a zealous supporter of Grant's administration and programs. Grant cries, "Let us have Peace," an 1868 campaign slogan.|Entered . . . 1872 by Morton Toulmin.|Signed: "M.T." and "Fizzle Gig."|Title appears as it is written on the item.|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 1872-9.

The opposition of Northern abolitionists, churchmen, and political figures to enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is criticized in this rare pro-Southern cartoon. In two panels artist Edward Williams Clay illustrates the abolitionist's invocation of a "higher law" against the claim of a slave owner, and the application of the same principle against the Northerner in a case of stolen textiles. In the left panel a slaveholder "Mr. Palmetto" and a federal marshal confront an abolitionist "Mr. Pumpkindoodle" and a garishly dressed, runaway slave "Pompey" in a warehouse or shop interior. On the counter is a copy of the newspaper the "Emancipator." Palmetto: ". . . I've come here to take that fugitive slave who belongs to me, according to the provisions of the U. S. law! Officer do your duty!" Pumpkindoodle (handing a pistol to the slave): "What! seize my African brother! never! I dont recognize any U.S. law! I have a higher law, a law of my own. here Pompey take this pistol and resist to the death! if he attempts to take you!" Pompey (trembling): "Ye yes sa! I'll try, cause brudders [antislavery senator from New York William H.] Seward and [abolitionist William Lloyd] Garrison says its all right; and so does Parson Squash! But I'm mighty feared." Federal marshal: "Whew! I think I'd better make myself scarce!" In the panel on the right, the same abolitionist approaches the seated slaveholder in the latter's shop. A sturdy slave "Cesar" and a grinning attendant stand by. On the counter are several bolts of fabric, labeled "Bay State Shawls," "Cotton Shirting," "Domestic Prints," "Amoskeag Ticks," "Lowels Negro Cloth" and "Hamilton Long Cloth." A copy of the "Charleston Mercury" lies open on Palmetto's lap. Pumpkindoodle: "Look here Mr. Palmetto them 'ere goods is mine! They've been stole from me, and if you dont give 'em up, I'll take the law of the land on you!" Palmetto: ". . . They are fugitives from you, are they? As to the law of the land, I have a higher law of my own, and possession is nine points in the law. I cant cotton to you. Kick out the abolitionist Cesar." Cesar: "Of course Massa. De dam Bobolitionist is the wus enemy we poor niggers have got." |Entered . . . 1851 by E.W. Clay . . . Southern District of N.Y.|Pub. at 152 Nassau St. corner of Spruce N.Y.|Signed with initials: E.W.C. (Edward Williams Clay).|The Library's impression of the print was deposited for copyright on January 22, 1851.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Century, p. 70.|Weitenkampf, p. 103.|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 1851-5.

A pro-Democrat satire, pitting Democratic candidate Lewis Cass against Whig nominee Zachary Taylor in a bout for the presidency. Cass (center) is the obvious favorite. He wears the stovepipe hat, boots, bold plaid trousers, and soap-locks associated with New York street toughs (or "Bowery B'hoys"). On the front of Cass's shirt is an emblem with the initials "U.S." He grasps Taylor by the hair declaring, "I'm one of the B-Hoys, and I woudn't be anything else!" Taylor, also dressed as a rowdy, cries, "O, enough! I surrender for the first time!" Cass has already dispatched a black man "Abolition," who sits in a basket at the far left, Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren, on the ground at left, and Whig vice presidential candidate, Millard Fillmore, on the ground at right with a black eye. Abolition: "De lor' have mercy on our souls!" Van Buren: "Johnny [i.e., John Van Buren] come and help your Old Dad!" Fillmore: "Curse the Old hoss wot a south paw he has given me!" At far right, seated on a fire hydrant or standpipe, is Cass's running mate William O. Butler who cheers Cass on saying: "I Say Lewy give him a sockdolger!"|Probably drawn by E.F. Durang.|Sold by Turner and Fisher, New York & Philada.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 91.|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 1848-42.

Garrison, William Lloyd. “To The Public”. The Liberator. January 01, 1831. From Teaching AmericanHistory. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/to-the-public/ (accessed January 19, 2022).Description: First page of the inaugural issue of this anti-slavery newspaper.

This collection uses primary sources to explore women in the antebellum reform movement. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

The abolitionist Republican presidential ticket and its supporters in the press are the targets of the cartoon. Candidate Fremont, wearing an emigrant's smock and carrying a cross (an allusion to his rumored Catholicism), is in the driver's seat of a wagon drawn by the "wooly nag" of abolitionism. On the nag's back sit (left to right): New York "Tribune" editor Horace Greeley, James Gordon Bennett of the "Herald," and Henry J. Raymond of the "New York Times." Holding onto the back of the wagon is "Courier & Enquirer" editor James Watson Webb. The wagon also carries Fremont's wife Jessie, who holds a parasol and leans on a sack marked "Bleeding Kansas Fund," a reference to hostilities in Kansas between antislavery and proslavery advocates. The wagon has reached the "Union Tollgate" (left), which is tended by Brother Jonathan and an unidentified man. Jonathan warns, "No Sir-ee! you cant come any such load over us." Greeley: "Come my good People open the Gate its all right! We are the true 'Union' Party because we all ride on the wooly Horse." Bennett: "Ever since I mounted behind the old white Coated Philosopher [i.e., Greeley] I find that everything he says can be re-lied on." Raymond: "Except when he calls me "'little Villain'" and then he can't be re-lied on." Fremont laments: "There seems to be something in the road, but those fellows on the Horse, will swear me through anything; so I'll keep mum." Webb: "Hurry up there Horace! or [Southern Democratic Preston S.?] Brooks will be running his Express Train into us; I've had one ride on his Cowcatcher lately, and I don't want another." A ragged boy shouts to the driver, "Cut behind!"|For sale by Nathaniel Currier at No. 2 Spruce St. N.Y.|Probably drawn by Louis Maurer.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Gale, no. 4643.|Murrell, p. 185.|Weitenkampf, p. 117.|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 1856-21.