Focus Area Description:  Use the power of primary sources and historical reenactment combined with the insight of scholars and historians to study slavery and the Civil War.

Our current library of 45 videos in this Focus Area are available in the subareas listed to the right; to view them click a thumbnail and become a member of Educate.Today. 

To see sample videos in this area of the collection, click any of the titles below:

New November 2022! Rethinking the Legacy of Robert E. Lee and the Lost Cause
Other Samples:
New October 2022! John Brown, Abraham Lincoln and Two Approaches to the Slavery Question
New August 2022! Elizabeth Keckley–From Slavery to Dress Designer for Mary Todd Lincoln

• Use the videos as a conversation starter for a class discussion on a topic, event, or person linked to your study of 19^th century US History, slavery, and/or the Civil War.
• Use the videos with journal prompts for students to write about as they respond to/reflect on content included in the video.
• For videos related to the “freedom suit” online database of primary sources, use the videos as part of a lesson plan/unit plan where students research the database to learn more about freedom suits, a particular suit, a particular person, the time period, etc.
• Use the videos with lesson plans you create that have students research a particular topic, person, or event related to your study of slavery and/or the Civil War and use information from the videos in a first person re-creation/re-enactment they create to demonstrate their learning.
• Have students include insights gained through the videos as part of their projects, papers, and presentations on a slavery or Civil War-related subject by:
  • interpreting and/or summarizing what they saw and learned in the video.
  • citing quotations from the expert in the video.