Seventh Grade
Purdue Online Writing Lab — recommended for research, writing, grammar, bibliography help
SLAVERY
Poetry Websites
- Poetry 180 — A poem a day for high school students from Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
- American Verse Project — An electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920
- The Academy of American Poets has a lovely site, and as primary sponsors, devotes a bit of bandwidth to National Poetry Month.
- The Poetry Society of America has a good collection of links to sites for poets, both dead and alive, and organizations supporting and promoting poetry.
- About.com on poetry provides just about everything and is a great place to start a poetry project.
- Against National Poetry Month As Such by Charles Bernstein. A humorously serious perspective on National Poetry Month.
- Celebrate Children’s Poetry … All Year Long! Children’s writer Kristine George presents useful activities for teachers and librarians to engage children in poetry.
AMERICAN HISTORY
Books
Don’t overlook valuable print resources in the library.
- Reference materials can be found in REF 973 (American history), 973.2 (Colonial era), 973.3 (Revolutionary era), and 305.4 (women).
- Cobblestone, Faces, and Footsteps magazines are catalogued in Alexandria; don’t ignore them. Also, good websites can be found in the library catalog.
- To search the library catalog, click here.
Online Databases
Gale Databases – [password = schools]
U.S. History in Context and Biography in Context — [password = schools] Two of the databases in Gale, but they need to be searched separately. Try them.
Worldbook Online [id = foote1, password = library] [Note: the id is "foote" followed by the numeral one.]
American History Online and Issues and Controversies in American History — [id = foote, password = reference]
Modern World History Online – [id = foote, password = reference]
Oxford Reference Online – [id = footesch, password = footesch]
Websites
Primary Source materials
American Memory – Original source material from the Library of Congress. Browse by topic and then use a keyword to search within the topic.
American Women Through Time – Choose a century and search within a page using Apple-F
Avalon Project at Yale University Law School – Primary source material, searchable by keyword
Digital History – Find sources from 1492 to 1865, from a collaborative partnership of the University of Houston and Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Documents for the Study of American History – Search this page by using Apple-F
Historical Society of Pennsylvania – Mary Jemison and possibly others. Search page by using Apple-F.
History Now: American History Online – Journal articles on slavery, abolition, and immigration. Issued quarterly, check for other topics as well.
Making of America – Texts of books and journals, scanned from the libraries of Cornell University and the University of Michigan, documenting American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction
Milestone Historic Events – Original historic documents, including Whiskey Rebellion, Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Washington’s Farewell Address, among others.
Smithsonian American Art Museum – paintings and photographs
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration 100 Milestone Documents of American History – A subset of NARA
Colonial Period
American Heritage Magazine – Search for articles on your topic.
Best of History Web Sites – A link to American History websites; see specific topics
Colonial America , 1600-1775 – An extensive list of websites for K-12 posted by James Madison University
History Matters – An excellent source for research, including primary source material. Try this first.
Homework Center–American History – Multnomah Homework Center — list of history websites
Librarians’ Index to the Internet – A list of websites selected through the search “United States History, Colonial Period”.
Margaret Brent – A Woman of property — An article from Early America Review
Mary Jemison– Mary Jemison Describes her Adoption into an Indian Family [primary source]; A Glimpse of Mary Jemison (Letchworth Park History); Mary Jemison (Ohio History); Mary Jemison (PA Center of the Book)
Mayflower Web Pages – This site is written by Caleb Johnson, who has done significant research on the Mayflower and the lives of the passengers, as well as a history of Plimouth. There is information here on girls and women on the Mayflower as well as writings by William Bradford. Also included is the Thanksgiving Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln and information about the first Thanksgiving. Includes primary source material.
Monticello – Learn about Thomas Jefferson.
National Women’s History Museum – Biographies of Colonial era women, including Lydia Darragh, Margaret Brent, Pocahontas, Deborah Sampson, and others
Plimouth Plantation – This is the official site of the Plimouth Plantation. This is a searchable site with information about Plimoth, the Mayflower, clothing of the period, and information about the Plantation itself.
Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral – A digital version of the poetry of Phillis Wheatley as written in 1773. [primary source]
Salem Witchcraft Trials – Verbatim transcripts of the legal documents of the Salem witchcraft outbreak of 1692. [primary source]
Salem Witchraft Trials – Including biographies of Tituba, Increase and Cotton Mather, and an account of events in Salem.
Scalping during the French and Indian War – An article from Early America Review
Thomas Hooker – Puritan Sermons [primary source]
Virtual Jamestown includes maps of John Smith’s two voyages and Jamestown settlement patterns, texts of Virginia Company records, firsthand accounts, and letters, and more.
Revolutionary War Period
American Heritage Magazine – Search for articles on your topic.
America’s Story from America’s Library: Revolutionary Period (1764-1789) – Stories and images from the Library of Congress. Be sure to click on “More Stories” to find other stories about the Revolutionary Period.
British Battles – The American Revolution from the British viewpoint
Culper Spy Ring and Benedict Arnold
David Bushnell — The Connecticut Water Machine Versus The Royal Navy article from American Heritage Magazine
Letter from Benedict Arnold to George Washingon about Peggy Shippen Arnold [primary source]
Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 — E-texts from the University of Virginia. Includes letters and diary entries from John Hancock, John Adams, Silas Deane, John Jay, George Washington, Sam Adams, Caesar Rodney, Benjamin Franklin, and others. Search the table of contents with Command-F. [primary source]
Historic Valley Forge – Includes information about the people associated with Valley Forge: Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Nathanael Greene, Alexander Hamilton, Marquis de Lafayette, John Marshall, James Monroe, Baron von Steuben, George and Martha Washington, among others
Intelligence in the War of Independence – From the CIA
John Paul Jones — Sources from the U.S. Naval Academy
John Paul Jones — leads to several articles, starting with about.com
Liberty! A list of links to other websites from PBS
Liberty!:Chronicle of the Revolution – From PBS: Boston, Trenton, Saratoga, Yorktown, and Philadelphia
Marquis de Lafayette Collection at Cleveland State University [primary source]
Molly Pitcher – ExplorePAHistory.com
Spy Letters of the American Revolution – Letters and stories about John André, Benedict Arnold, John Burgoyne, Marquis de Lafayette, Paul Revere, Comte de Rochambeau, Benjamin Tallmadge, George Washington, and others. [primary source]
Trial of John Peter Zenger — Website from Gail Jarrow, the author of The Printer’s Trial. Also see The Trial of John Peter Zenger, a site sponsored by the U. of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law which includes primary source material about the trial.
ushistory.com – Created and hosted by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia
Also see websites above in Primary Source materials and Colonial Period.
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
The major call numbers for books on African-American history and slavery are 305.896, 306.362, 326, 973.71 – 973.7115, and 975.
African-American Mosaic — A Library of Congress resource guide for the study of Black history and culture
African-American Odyssey — From the Library of Congress American Memory Collection, this site includes a special presentation of African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship.
African American Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century – Electronic editions of more than 50 works published before 1920. Search by keyword or browse by author, title, and genre. Also brief biographies of the 37 women whose work is represented.
American Heritage Magazine — highly recommended by Ms. Lavey
Colonial Williamsburg – Search this site by keyword for articles on African-American history and slavery.
Follow the Drinking Gourd — This site presents a slide show using sketches of constellations and illustrations by Jeanette Winter to tell the story of the Underground Railroad and the song whose lyrics led the slaves to freedom.
Images of African Americans from the Nineteenth Century — A variety of images made by artists, engravers, and photographers. Search by keyword or subject area, such as Civil War, slavery, or family.
Museum of Afro-American History Boston – This site of Afro-American history includes a virtual walking tour of the Black Heritage Trail in Boston as well as further links to Afro-American history sites.
Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral — A digital version of the poetry of Phillis Wheatley as written in 1773.
The Underground Railroad – Follow the journey through an interactive website from National Geographic. Includes ideas for teachers.
SLAVERY
African American Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century– Autobiographies such as “Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl” and “Memories of Childhood’s Slavery Days”
Africans in America – A searchable history of slavery in the United States, featuring images, historical documents, biographies, and contemporary and modern commentaries. Includes a teacher’s guide and a Youth Activity Guide. From the PBS series series of the same name.
American Heritage Magazine – highly recommended by Ms. Lavey
Amistad America – The story behind the Freedom Schooner Amistad
Born in Slavery — Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 — Contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves
Digital Library on American Slavery
African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusettes – Massachusetts Historical Society
Multnomah Library Homework Center — A wealth of sites on slavery and abolition
Narrative of Sojourner Truth — As dictated by Sojourner Truth
Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown – Written by himself [primary source]
Sojourner Truth – “Ain’t I a Woman” speech
Bibliography Help
If your online source is originally from a book, use the bibliography form for a reference book.
If your online source is originally from a periodical (newspaper or magazine), use the bibliography form for a periodical.
For an example of a bibliography, see the Bibliographic Citation Guide.
