Embedded Files
Grade 5 teachers! The primary source documents on this site can support and enhance your teaching of Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks Topic 5: Slavery, the legacy of the Civil War, and the struggle for civil rights for all [5.T5]. See our recommendations below.
Grade 5 Content Standards
When you teach:
We recommend these documents:
General overview
Watch the introductory video.
When you teach: The Major reasons for the Civil War
We recommend these documents:
Document 1: Slavery Clauses, United States Constitution, 1789
Document 10: Letter from Nathan Appleton to the Hon. Wm. C. Rives of Virginia on Slavery and the Union, 1860
When you teach: The expansion of slavery into western states
We recommend these documents:
Document 2: “Article VIII. Slaves,” Constitution of the State of Texas, 1845.
Document 3: “An Act [The Fugitive Slave Act],” 1850
Document 4: “An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas” and Map, 1854
Document 13: Growth of Cotton and Slavery Graph, 1800-1860
Document 17: Map of Enslaved Population, United States, 1860
Document 44: “Statistics of Lowell Manufactures, January, 1857”
When you teach: The actions of people in the pre-Civil War era who led the struggle against slavery
We recommend these documents:
Document 20a: Letter from Horatio Foster, Lowell (MA), to Maria Weston Chapman, April 18, 1843
Document 20b: “Constitution of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society,” 1834
Document 21a: Letter from John N.H. Fountain Thanking Lowellians for their Contributions to his Wife’s Liberation. The Middlesex Standard, September 20, 1844
Document 21b: “A Wife Redeemed,” Letter from John N.H. Fountain, The Middlesex Standard, January 2, 1845
Document 22a: “Manstealers in Lowell!”, Lowell Tri-Weekly American, October 2, 1850
Document 22b: “Manstealers,” Lowell Daily Journal and Courier, October 4, 1850
Document 22c: “Purchase of a Slave’s Freedom,” Lowell Daily Journal and Courier, April 7, 1851
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