Website Spotlight: Religion and the Founding of the American Republic

Website URL: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/overview.html

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

++++++++++

I ask the students to work through the following links--at the point in the semester when appropriate:

+++++

America as a Religious Refuge: The 17th-Century

Part 1:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html

Read the entire screen:

European Persecution
Crossing the Ocean to Keep the Faith: the Puritans
The Bible Commonwealths

Part 2:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01-2.html

Read the entire screen:

Persecution in America
Jews Find a Refuge in America
The Quakers
The Pennsylvania Germans
Roman Catholics in Maryland
Virginia

+++++

Religion in 18th-Century America
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel02.html

1. Read the Introduction.

2. You can skip the section entitled "The Appearance of Eighteenth-Century Churches."

3. Deal with "Deism" briefly.

4. Then spend most of your time on the remainder of the page:

"The Emergence of American Evangelicalism: The [First] Great Awakening"

George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards
The Revival of Northampton
Sinners Warned
Transatlantic Evangelicalism
Criticism of other ministers
The Baptists
Francis Asbury
Beginning of the Methodists
Organization of the Methodists

See also:

Article by professor Christine Heyrman on The First Great Awakening
http://www.nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/grawaken.htm

+++++

Religion and the American Revolution
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel03.html

Read the entire screen:

Religion as Cause of the Revolution
Jonathan Mayhew
Resistance to Tyranny as a Christian Duty
Revolution Understood in Scriptural Terms
The Plot to Land a Bishop
Revolution Justified by God
A Minister in Arms
A Fighting Parson
A Revolutionary Chaplain
Revolutionary Battle Flag
John Witherspoon
A Quaker Schism
Free Quaker Meeting House
The Problems of the American Anglicans

+++++

Religion and the New Republic
2nd Great Awakening
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel07.html

Read the entire screen:

I. Introductory paragraphs:

The Atheist's Bible
Paine Rebuked
The Tree of Life

II. The Camp Meeting:

Outdoor Communion
Camp Meeting Plan
Religious Revival in America

III. The Emergence of the African American Church:

Woman Preacher of the A.M.E. Church
Christian Charity
Absalom Jones
Religious Exuberance
Jerking Exercise
The Shakers

IV. The Mormons:

The Book of Mormon
The Murder of Joseph and Hiram Smith
Migration to Utah

V. Benevolent Societies:

Missions to Sailors
Missionaries' Reports
Circuit Preaching
A Thousand Years of Happiness

See also:

Evangelicalism in Antebellum America
http://investigatinghistory.ashp.cuny.edu/m4.html

Evangelicalism, Revivalism, and the Second Great Awakening
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nevanrev.htm

+++

~~For a review of this overall website:

TeachingHistory.org (National History Education Clearinghouse)
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews/14649

++++++++++

Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within several U.S. History survey course modules on my wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Colonial+Era
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Road+to+Revolution
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Reform

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT 

Website Spotlight: Immigration (Library of Congress)

 

Website URL: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/introduction.html

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

++++++++++

I ask the students to work through the following links:

Guide to Navigation of the website:

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/introduction3.html

I. African

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/african.html

Click through the subtopic links at the bottom of the page:

Introduction | Beginnings | A Journey in Chains | Africans in America | Resistance and Abolition | Emancipation and Reconstruction | Moving North, Heading West | An Artistic Rebirth | A Social Revolution | New Beginnings |

II. German
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/german.html

Click through the subtopic links at the bottom of the page:

Introduction | The Call of Tolerance | Building a New Nation | A New Surge of Growth | Filling the Nation's Breadbasket | Urban Germans | Building Institutions, Shaping Tastes | Shadows of War

III. Irish
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/irish.html

Click through the subtopic links at the bottom of the page:

Colonial Immigration | Irish-Catholic Immigration to America | Adaptation and Assimilation | Joining the Workforce | Religious Conflict and Discrimination | Racial Tensions | Irish Identity, Influence and Opportunity

IV. Scandinavian
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/scandinavian.html

Click through the subtopic links at the bottom of the page:

Introduction | The Swedes | The Norwegians | The Danes | The Finns | The Icelanders | Scandinavian America

V. Italian
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/italian.html

Click through the subtopic links at the bottom of the page:

Introduction | Early Arrivals | The Great Arrival | L’Isola dell Lagrime | A City of Villages | Tenements and Toil | Working Across the Country | Under Attack | A Century in the Spotlight

VI. Polish/Russian
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/polish.html

Click through the subtopic links at the bottom of the page:

Introduction | Russian Beginnings | Soviet Exiles | The Nation of Polonia | A People at Risk | The Lower East Side

++++++++++

Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Immigration

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT 

Website Spotlight: Lewis & Clark (LOC)

Website URL: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewisandclark.html

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

++++++++++

I ask the students to work through the following portions of this Library of Congress online exhibition:

I. Before Lewis and Clark
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-before.html

Scroll down 90% of the web page to "Louisiana Purchase"

Read the two paragraphs of prose describing the Louisiana Purchase.

Then read the following three inserts and pictures as follows:

Boundary between British and Spanish Territories
The Purchase of Louisiana
Treaty with France to acquire Louisiana

II. Lewis and Clark
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-landc.html

a. Read the introductory paragraph

b. Read the following segments:

Discovering Diplomacy
Pipe Tomahawk
Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress
Jefferson's Instructions for Meriwether Lewis
Jefferson Peace Medal
Making Chiefs
Making Kinship
Jefferson's Cipher
Gifts with a Message
Displays of Power
The Plains Warrior
Images of Heroism
Curing the Corps
Rules of Health
Summoning the Spirits

~~For a review of this website:

TeachingHistory.org (National History Education Clearinghouse)
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews/14789

++++++++++

Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Expansion

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT