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Lesson Plans using Founders Online

From America in Class, a website of the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. All plans copyright the National Humanities Center.

America, the Creeks, and Other Southeastern Tribes

What challenges faced the United States in 1789 as it sought to negotiate with the Creeks and other Native American nations of the Southeast?

Grade 11. Advisor: Alan Taylor, Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia, National Humanities Center Fellow

America and the Six Nations: Native Americans after the Revolution

Through his 1790 speech, how does Seneca Chief Cornplanter reflect the shifting political landscape Native Americans faced following the American Revolution?

Grade 11. Advisor: Alan Taylor, Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia, National Humanities Center Fellow

After Shays’ Rebellion

How did the aftermath of Shays’ Rebellion reflect the republican nature of the American government, especially the right to vote?

Grade 11. Advisor: Timothy H. Breen, William Smith Mason Professor of American History, Northwestern University, National Humanities Center Fellow

Abigail Adams and “Remember the Ladies”

How does Abigail Adams’s famous appeal to “Remember the Ladies” reflect the status of women in eighteenth-century America?

Grade 11. Advisor: Marjorie Spruill, Professor of History, University of South Carolina

James Madison Debates a Bill of Rights

What doubts, concerns, and misgivings arose during the development of the Bill of Rights?

Grade 11. Prepared by NHC staff

Citizen Leadership in the Young Republic

What qualities of citizen leadership did John Adams consider essential to sustain and nurture the young republic? How do his letters to his growing son John Quincy reveal his point of view about the new nation?

Grade 9–10. Advisor: Scott E. Casper, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Benjamin Franklin’s Satire of Witch Hunting

How does Benjamin Franklin’s satire of a witch trial argue that human affairs should be guided, above all, by reason?

Grade 11. Advisor: Robert A. Ferguson, George Edward Woodberry Professor of Law, Literature and Criticism, Columbia University Law School, National Humanities Center Fellow

The Revolution of 1800

How did Thomas Jefferson use his first inaugural address to bridge the political divide generated by his election and redirect presidential policy?

Grade 11. Advisor: Scott E. Casper, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County National Humanities Center Fellow

Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase

Why did President Thomas Jefferson negotiate the Louisiana Purchase?

Grade 11. Advisor: Scott E. Casper, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, National Humanities Center Fellow