Teachers can consider starting students in their Reconstruction unit with this article. Why not start with a popular writing piece that asks why a particular era in history is important?

Teachers can consider starting students in their Reconstruction unit with this article. Why not start with a popular writing piece that asks why a particular era in history is important?

This section includes recommended resources for further study on the Civil War as well as links related to the Civil War.

In which John Green teaches you about the Mexican-American War in the late 1840s, and the expansion of the United States into the western end of North America. In this episode of Crash Course, US territory finally reaches from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Ocean. After Oregon was secured from the UK and the southwest was ceded by Mexico, that is. Famous Americans abound in this episode, including James K Polk (Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump), Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, and Winfield Scott. You'll also learn about the California Gold Rush of 1848, and California's admission as a state, which necessitated the Compromise of 1850. Once more slavery is a crucial issue. Something is going to have to be done about slavery, I think. Maybe it will come to a head next week.

Classroom resources relating to Ken Burns' The Civil War. Video clips, lesson plans, and links to Library of Congress resources.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. The United States could no longer remain half-slave and half-free, and the ensuing war over the fate of slavery ripped apart the nation.

US History Fellow Kim Kutz explains how slavery was an issue at the birth of the United States and how the issue became more and more central as the country expanded.

Kim and Sal talk about increased tensions between slave and free states as new territory is added after Mexican-American War and from Compromise of 1850 (especially the Fugitive Slave Act).

Strategy of the Civil War. The advantages and disadvantages of the North and South in the American Civil War.

From Lincoln's election to the formation of the Confederacy and Fort Sumter.

Early phases of Civil War and Antietam

Kim and Sal talk about the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Text Analysis of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Spread of Cotton and of Slavery 1790-1860

Compromises over Slavery

The Presidential Election of 1860

The US Civil War, Part I

The US Civil War, Part II

Reconstruction

Compare North and South states on interactive maps to identify the differences between free and slave populations before the Civil War. Also includes discussion questions.

Slavery and African Americans in Antebellum America  |  Causes of the War  |  Abraham Lincoln and the Course of the War  |  The Art and Literature of the Civil War  |  Reconstruction and After in Art and Culture  |  Related EDSITEment Websites