- Historical Eras > Antebellum America (1816-1860) (x)
We found 195 items that match your search
Angelina Grimke Argues for Women's Political Rights
In this letter Angelina Grimke, abolitionist and women's rights advocate, argues for the right of propertied women to participate in government through petitions despite their lack of enfranchisement. This letter was a part of a series of essays [...]
Background Essay on Life in Mid-19th Century Five Points
This essay introduces Manhattan's Five Points neighborhood and the people who lived there.
Exploring the Irish in America Through Found Poetry
In this lesson students read poems and letters that describe the work and lives of nineteenth-century Irish immigrants to the United States. As students read the documents, they choose words and phrases to create found poems that reflect their [...]
Map Showing the Relative Sizes of Ireland and New York State
This map shows the relative sizes of Ireland (superimposed in red outline) and New York state (blue outline). New York is far larger in area, with 54,475 square miles as opposed to Ireland's 32,599 square miles.
Military History and the LGBTQ+ Community: Questions for Reflection
These questions, designed for flexible use across the many sources in the Military History and the LGBTQ+ Community collection, can provide the foundation for a deeper examination of the documents and themes featured here. The questions can be [...]
Background Essay on the LGBTQ+ Community and the Military
This essay outlines broad trends in LGBTQ+ American history and traces the evolution of LGBTQ+ people’s involvement in and relationship with the United States military.
Uncovering Five Points: Evidence from a NYC Immigrant Neighborhood
This database allows users to explore Five Points using data compiled from the 1855 New York State Census. Search census records from 1,333 individuals in the database to learn about the residents of New York City's legendary immigrant neighborhood.
Map of Free and Slave States in 1856
This map identifies which states and territories of the United States allowed slavery and which did not in 1856, five years before the start of the Civil War. The slaveholding border states included Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and [...]
Background Essay on Slave Communities and Resistance
This short essay explains how historians came to focus not just on what slavery did to enslaved people, but what enslaved people did for themselves within the limits set by this brutal institution.
Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia, 1861
During the 1850s, hundreds of thousands of enslaved African Americans were sold by owners in the upper South (Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee) to owners in the lower South (Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, [...]