Home PublicationsL&LIssuesVolume 25 (1997-1998) May (No. 8)

The Civil War Online

Using the Internet to Teach U.S. History

By Joanne Parnes Shawhan

Joanne describes various Web resources to help you teach middle and high school students about the U.S Civil War. In the article, these sites were divided by topic. Here they are divided by category: (1) topic-related sites, (2) lesson plans and activities, (3) the author’s sites, and (4) evaluation sites.

Topic-Related Web Sites

• Abraham Lincoln Online: www.netins.net/showcase/creative/lincoln.html
• The American Civil War Home Page: http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war
• American Civil War Resources: http://homepages.dsu.edu/jankej/civilwar/civilwar.htm
• Causes of the Civil War: http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/causes.html
• Civil War Letters of Galutia York: www.snymor.edu/pages/library/local_history/civil_war
• Civil War Women—Primary Sources on the Internet: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/collections/civil-war-women.html
• Family and Gender in the Valley of the Shadow: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/outlines/gender.html
• Featured Document—The Emancipation Proclamation: www.nara.gov/exhall/featured-document/eman/emanproc.html
• Freedmen and Southern Society Project: www.inform.umd.edu/ARHU/Depts/History/Freedman/home.html
• The Gettysburg Address: http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/
• Historical, Social, Economic, and Demographic Data: http://icg.harvard.edu/census
• John Brown and the Valley of the Shadows: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/jbrown/master.html
• Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War: www.ucsc.edu/civil-war-letters/home.html
• Lincoln’s Election: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/outlines/election.html
• Military Life in the Valley of the Shadow: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/outlines/military.html
• Modern History Sourcebook—Sojourner Truth: www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.html
• Multicultural Paths—African-American Historic Texts On-line: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/multicultural/sites/aframdocs.html
• National Newspapers from the Pre-Civil War and Civil War Periods: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/othernews.html
• Party Nominating Conventions of 1860: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/outlines/parties.html
• Poetry and Music of the War Between the States: http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war
• Pre-Civil War Personal Papers and Wills: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/letters.html
• Presidential Sites Page: http://sunsite.unc.edu:80/lia/president/pressites
• Public Records: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/public.html
• Selected Civil War Photographs: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/cwphome.html
• Selected Historic Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm
• Slavery, Emancipation, and Race Relations: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/outlines/race.html
• Taking the Train to Freedom: www.nps.gov/undergroundrr/
• The Valley of the Shadows: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2
• The Valley of the Shadow—Augusta and Franklin Newspaper Transcriptions Index by Title: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/Browser1/headings.html
• The Valley of the Shadow—Two Communities in the American Civil War: http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/contents.html
• Third Person, First Person—Slave Voices from the Special Collections Library: http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/slavery

Lesson Plans and Activities

• Lesson Plans on the Civil War: www.smplanet.com/civilwar/civilwar.html
• Selected Civil War Photographs: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/cwphome.html

Joanne Parnes Shawhan’s Civil War Web Sites

• American History, 1850—1890: www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/amerhistory.html
• Joanne Shawhan’s Course Outline: www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/courseoutline.html

Evaluating Web Sites

• Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators—Critical Evaluation Surveys: www.capecod.net/schrockguide/eval.htm
• Widener University/Wolfgram Memorial Library Evaluation Pages: www.science.widener.edu/~withers/perspg.htm
  www.science.widener.edu/ ~withers/inform.htm
  www.science.widener.edu/ ~withers/news.htm

Copyright © 1998, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.