Jan. 1, 1863: Emancipation Proclamation

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 16 pages.
In this lesson, students explore many of the real challenges faced by abolitionists with a focus on the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 7 pages.
Students explore some of the myths of the Civil War through examining excerpts from Lincoln’s first inaugural address, the rarely mentioned original Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution that Lincoln promised to support, and the Emancipation Proclamation.

Article. By Bill Bigelow. If We Knew Our History Series.
Students need to rethink the Great Emancipator myth by examining Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, the Emancipation Proclamation, his timid approach to ending slavery, and, by contrast, the heroism of the abolitionists and the enslaved people themselves.

Teaching Guide. By American Social History Project with foreword by Eric Foner. 1996.
Primary documents, essays, and questions to teach the untold story of Reconstruction.

Profiles. Zinn Education Project. 2014.
Brief biographies of 25 Black abolitionists.

Podcast. Written and hosted by Kidada E. Williams. 2021.
A Black history podcast tells stories “drawn from archives of voices from American history that have been muted time and time again.”