Reference and General Information (below)

Native Peoples (below)

The American Revolution and Civil War

Slavery

Westward Expansion

19th, 20th, and 21st Century America

African American Research Links  is a broad collection of links to this part of America's past. Some of the sites are scholarly; some are hobbyist or unauthenticated. Each of the links must be evaluated in its own right, and some are more suitable for adults than young students.

America's Quilting History is remarkably varied in its contents -- Victorians, Native Americans, pioneers, African Americans, quilts that tell stories and quilts that explode with symmetry and design ingenuity. Great fun for browsing as well as serious research.

The History/Social Studies Web Site is targeted principally at K-12 teachers, but it's really useful for students and parents as well. This is an enormous site. I suggest that you start with the section titled "American History Sources" but don't stop there.

Teaching With Historic Places describes itself like this: "One of Teaching with Historic Places' primary offerings is a series of classroom-ready lesson plans. Created by National Park Service interpreters, preservation professionals, and educators, these lessons use historic sites to examine developments throughout American history and across the country. TwHP lesson plans are designed for middle school students learning history, social studies, geography, and other subjects in the humanities. However, the lessons are easily adaptable from upper elementary through high school, and even for college courses. Each lesson includes maps, readings, and photographs, all of which are accompanied by questions; at the end are activities that pull together the ideas students have just covered, and require them to initiate their own research."

USA: 1840 - 1980 is part of a larger British educational site. This is an extremely thorough, organized, and well-researched compendium of American history in the post-Revolutionary period. Look up individual civil rights leaders by name. Find out about European immigration or artists and poets. It's really good.

American Memory is the online access to archives of the Library of Congress. It's a mammoth undertaking still in process, so I suggest that you drop in from time to time and see how they're doing with getting it all out there. There are 50 collections up as of this writing, including some that relate directly to our scope of study.

WayBack: American History for Kids (PBS) is part of a much larger website, The American Experience. Although fairly small, this section includes several topics likely to be of interest to our class.

States and Capitals is a site that will come in handy as we do research projects on states that are strongly connected to the Westward movement and/or the Civil War. Keep this one in mind!

Your About.com Guide to American History is saturated with ads and promotions, but it is a dense resource for good links.

The American Local History Network is a link to many, many independent sites about American history, and it's organized by state and by topic.  Looks like a very rich site for all of us as we do our research through the year!

The History Buff's Home Page is produced by the Newspaper Collectors' Society of America. It centers around newspapers and reporting and contains some streaming audio clips of famous speeches, news broadcasts, and even historic ads. It's fun.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History says that it's "not just for kids" and it isn't, but it certainly is for kids too. This link goes to a subsite within the museum's much larger on-line presence. Follow the links at the bottom of any page and you'll discover a virtual museum that's almost as good as the real thing.

Our Ancestors in American History is a site set up by children (as young as 5!) with some adult help, telling the stories of family members who experienced everything from the First Thanksgiving to World War II.  It's very well done, simple in content but rich in anecdotes and archival materials.

Native Peoples

Native American History and Culture is part of an "encyclopedia" site at the Smithsonian: a rich collection of links, exhibits, primary source material, interactive lessons, booklists, and more. Take a look at the section on the importance of buffalo to the Plains Indians and see how much you can learn from a buffalo hide painting.

On This Date In North American Indian History is just that -- a site dedicated to sharing information about the folks who were here before the Europeans, Africans, and Asians arrived on our shores. It also contains a very cogent explanation of why we should hold off on celebrating the new millennium until January 1, 2001.

The Trail of Tears is part of a site presenting the history of northern Georgia. a site focusing on the forced removal of the Cherokee people from Georgia in the 1830s. Did you know that Davy Crockett's political career came to an end because he took the side of the Cherokee in this? As a result, he went off to Texas and ended up at the Alamo.

The Creek Nation is part of the same site, offering a brief but interesting picture of life among the Creek before and during encounters with Europeans.

History of the Cherokee is a site created and maintained by a Cherokee with a strong interest in his people's history. It is well done and appears to be carefully researched