Untitled Document

This page provides an index to content I developed while working for LEARN NC, 1997–2011. Links to web versions point directly to LEARN NC's website. PDFs were generated via PrinceXML from the pages’ HTML and the LearnPress content management system; they are stored here locally as a convenience and backup. All of my content linked from this page is licensed under a Creative Commons license; see individual pages for details.

History

Articles & exhibits

The 1868 constitution

In accordance with the Reconstruction Acts, North Carolina wrote a new constitution in 1868. In addition to abolishing slavery, the new constitution gave more power to the people and to the governor, and called for free public schools, state prisons, and charitable institutions.

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The 1971 constitution

North Carolina’s constitution was rewritten in 1971 to incorporate the many amendments made since Reconstruction.

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Advertising new products

Advertisements from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries show new technologies, new tastes, and new ways of marketing goods to consumers.

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Athletics

As the urban middle and working classes grew in the late nineteenth century, so did their desire for leisure activities. The result was a growth in sports and athletics. Includes early motion pictures of school athletics.

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Civil War casualties

Historians estimate that about 620,000 Americans died in the Civil War — almost as many as have died in all other U.S. wars combined. This article explains why.

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Criminal law and reform

In the early nineteenth century, North Carolina had more than two dozen crimes punishable by death, and the state kept a variety of physical and humiliating punishments on the books as well. Reformers tried to make the criminal code clearer and more humane, but they made little progress before the Civil War.

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Culpeper’s Rebellion

In the 1670s, the British government insisted that exports from Carolina be taxed, but a group of settlers in the Albemarle region rebelled against what they saw as an unreasonable burden. The Lords Proprietors eventually regained control of the colony, but in the meantime, colonists set a precedent for governing themselves.

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The Depression for farmers

Farmer’s troubles began in the early 1920s, and helped cause the Great Depression — which only worsened them.

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Disease and catastrophe

Of all the kinds of life exchanged when the Old and New Worlds met, lowly germs had the greatest impact. Europeans and later Africans brought smallpox and a host of other diseases with them to America, where those diseases killed as much as 90 percent of the native population of two continents. Europeans came away lucky — with only a few tropical diseases from Africa and, probably, syphilis from the New World. In America, disease destoyed civilizations.

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The Dismal Swamp Canal

Transportation in northeastern North Carolina was extremely difficult in the eighteenth century. The Dismal Swamp Canal, which opened in 1805, enabled passage between the Pasquotank River in North Carolina wih the Elizabeth River in Virginia. Over time the canal was rebuilt and expanded, and today it is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

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The election of 1972

The 1972 elections marked a turning point in North Carolina politics, as voters supported Republicans for president, governor, and U.S. Senate.

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Ensign Worth Bagley

Worth Bagley of Raleigh, North Carolina, was the only U.S. naval officer killed in the Spanish-American War.

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The fate of North Carolina’s native peoples

After the Tuscarora War (1711–1713) and Yamasee War (1715–1716), only the Cherokee among North Carolina’s native peoples remained intact. The Coastal Plain and Piedmont were effectively cleared for European settlement.

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Food for fighters

To feed the 3.5 million men in active service by the end of World War II, the military needed massive quantities of food in small, lightweight, durable packages. The government spent millions of dollars developing various types of rations for soldiers and sailors. This article includes a U.S. Government film about the science and technology behind military rations.

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From proslavery to secession

Between 1830 and 1860, as abolitionism grew in the North, southerners largely stopped questioning the wisdom of slavery and argued strongly for extending it.

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Governing the Piedmont

As settlers spread across the North Carolina Piedmont in the eighteenth century, the provincial government didn’t keep up with them. Westerners weren’t fairly represented in the provincial Assembly, and the so-called “Granville District,” owned by the one remaining Lord Proprietor, was badly mismanaged.

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Graveyard of the Atlantic

The waters off North Carolina’s coast have been called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” because of the great number of ships that have wrecked there — thousands since the sixteenth century. Geography, climate, and human activity have all played roles in making this region unusually treacherous to shipping.

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The growth of cities

Cities grew rapidly after the Civil War, in North Carolina as across the United States. But the great majority of North Carolina’s population remained rural. This article includes maps and tables of census data.

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Industrialization in North Carolina

Industrialization needed five things — capital, labor, raw materials, markets, and transportation — and in the 1870s, North Carolina had all of them. This article explains the process of industrialization in North Carolina, with maps of factory and railroad growth.

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Introduction to North Carolina Digital History, Part 1

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Land and work in Carolina

This article explains the key elements of feudalism, including its hierarchy of personal relationships and system of landholding, and how those elements evolved into the systems of labor and land ownership seen in colonial North Carolina.

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A little kingdom in Carolina

The original vision for Carolina was a feudal province in which eight “Lords Proprietors” would have nearly royal power, but with an elected assembly and guarantees of religious freedom.

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The Lords Proprietors

Brief biographies of the eight men named Lords Proprietors of the province of Carolina by Charles II in 1663.

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Mapping the Great Wagon Road

The Great Wagon Road took eighteenth-century colonists from Philadelphia west into the Appalachian mountains and south into the North Carolina Piedmont. This article describes the route and its history and offers two detailed maps, one from 1751 and one from the present, for comparison.

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The mystery of the first Americans

In the second half of the twentieth century, archaeologists agreed that those “first Americans” migrated from Asia across Beringia and into North America between fourteen and twenty thousand years ago. Recently, though, new evidence has come to light that has led some archaeologists to doubt that theory and to suggest new possibilities.

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Nat Turner’s Rebellion

In 1831, Nat Turner, an enslaved man in Southampton, Virginia, led an insurrection in which a small band of slaves and free African Americans killed fifty-five whites. After the revolt, white militias and mobs hunted down blacks suspected of taking part in this or other insurrections, and southern states passed harsh new laws restricting the freedoms of both slaves and free blacks.

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Natural diversity

North Carolina has within its borders the highest mountains east of the Mississippi River, a broad, low-lying coastal area, and all the land in between. That variety of landforms, elevations, and climates has produced as diverse a range of ecosystems as any state in the United States. It has also influenced the way people have lived in North Carolina for thousands of years.

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The natural history of North Carolina

If the five billion years of the earth’s history were condensed into a single day, humans would have arrived in North Carolina just two tenths of a second before midnight! This article summarizes the major biological and geological events in North Carolina’s history and explains how the land and environment of today came to be.

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Naval stores and the longleaf pine

North Carolina’s extensive longleaf pine forests provided the natural resources needed to produce materials needed to build and maintain ships — not only timber but tar, pitch, and rosin. These “naval stores” became North Carolina’s most important industry in the eighteenth century, but today, the longleaf pine forests are nearly gone.

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Rationing

Feeding and supplying 3.5 million soldiers and sailors on active duty strained the nation’s farms and factories to the limit — at a time when fewer workers were available. In 1942, the government began rationing food and consumer goods for the duration of the war.

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A royal colony

In 1729, the colony of North Carolina was taken over by the king, the turmoil of its early years quieted down, and for the next few decades, colonists enjoyed relative peace and stability. But one of the Lords Proprietors refused to sell back his share, and the administration of that “Granville District,” encompassing the northern half of North Carolina, would cause problems for settlers later on.

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The search for the Lost Colony

No one knows what happened to the “Lost Colonists” of Roanoke Island — but that has only made their story more interesting. Over the past 400 years, historians, archaeologists, storytellers, and outright liars have developed a number of theories about the vanished settlers.

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Spain and America: From Reconquest to Conquest

In 1491, no European knew that North and South America existed. By 1550, Spain — a small kingdom that had not even existed a century earlier — controlled the better part of two continents and had become the most powerful nation in Europe. In half a century of brave exploration and brutal conquest, both Europe and America were changed forever.

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Steamboats

Article about the early development of steamboats and their introduction on North Carolina’s inland waterways. Includes an explanation of how steamboats work.

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The Third North Carolina Regiment

In the Spanish-American War, North Carolina raised an all-black regiment under black command. The soldiers faced racism and violence from whites both in and out of the military, and white Democrats campaigned against the regiment in 1898.

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The value of money in colonial America

This article explains the many kinds of money that circulated in colonial America and why it is nearly impossible to say what they were worth “in today’s money.”

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Victory Gardens

During World War II, with fresh and canned food in short supply, Americans planted “victory gardens” and canned fruits and vegetables at home. This page includes a government film, an excerpt from an instructional booklet, promotional posters, and links to contemporary magazine articles about victory gardens.

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The Vietnam War: A timeline

A timeline of major events, including French colonization, the First Indochina War (1946–54), the buildup of U.S. military forces, the U.S. war in Vietnam, the war’s aftermath, and the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam.

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War bonds

The United States Government spent some $300 billion during World War II — more than $4 trillion in today’s money. Most of that money had to be borrowed. To finance the war, the government issued savings bonds.

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Where am I? Mapping a New World

Early European travelers to the Americas reported bits and pieces of information back to Europe. Over the centuries, mapmakers assembled these reports into maps. As time went by, explorers and mapmakers compiled an increasingly accurate understanding of the Americas and of the world. To do so, they had to invent new tools for mapmaking, embrace radical new ideas about the shape of the world, and discard cherished beliefs.

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Whigs and Democrats

After the War of 1812, the two-party system of Federalists and Democratic-Republicans collapsed, and an era of one-party rule was known as the Era of Good Feelings. But new conflicts arose over the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the Second Bank of the United States, and tariffs, and two new parties, the Whigs and the Democrats, emerged. In North Carolina, the Whigs gained power in the 1830s and began a period of reform.

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Who owns the land?

Europeans and American Indians had very different ideas about what it meant to “own” land, and these differences led to many of the conflicts between the two cultures in America.

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Primary sources with historical commentary

The 1950 Senate campaign

Campaign poster from the 1950 U.S. Senate election in North Carolina, in which Willis Smith played to white voters’ racism in defeating Frank Porter Graham. Includes historical background.

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4-H club contributions to the war effort

This page includes three reports sent by county agents of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service after the war ended. Each county agent outlined the contributions of 4-H club members in his or her county to the war effort. Includes historical commentary.

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4-H mobilization for victory (1943)

In this letter to local extension agents, the North Carolina Director of Extension, J. O. Shaub, explained what 4-H clubs needed to do to mobilize youth to aid the war effort during World War II. Includes historical commentary.

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Address to the Colored People of North Carolina

1870 broadside urging African Americans to support Governor William Woods Holden, then facing impeachment for his use of the militia to stop Ku Klux Klan violence. Includes historical commentary.

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Amadas and Barlowe explore the Outer Banks

On April 27, 1584, Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe left the west coast of England in two ships to explore the North American coast for Sir Walter Raleigh. The party of explorers landed on July 13, 1584, on the North Carolina coast just north of Roanoke Island, and claimed the land in the name of Queen Elizabeth. Captain Barlowe's report describes the land and the people he encountered.

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Antislavery feeling in the mountains

In this excerpt from his book (1860), Frederick Law Olmsted describes his interactions with residents of the Appalachian region and their opinions on slavery. Includes historical commentary. Note: This source contains explicit language or content that requires mature discussion.

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Archibald Murphey calls for better inland navigation

Excerpt from Archibald Murphey’s Report to the Committee on Inland Navigation in which he calls for the government to invest in the state’s internal transportation system as a way to break their dependency on neighboring states and to increase land values, population and state revenue.

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The Battle of Gettysburg

The diary of Confederate soldier Louis Leon in the first days of July 1863, describing his experiences at the Battle of Gettysburg. Includes historical commentary.

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Benjamin Hedrick

Letter from UNC professor Benjamin Hedrick to the Raleigh North Carolina Standard in 1856 justifying his support of the Republican candidate for President. Hedrick was attacked for his views and would be fired by the university.

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Black codes

Excerpts from the North Carolina Revised Code of 1855 with respect to free and enslaved African Americans, known as the “black codes.” Includes historical commentary.

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Black codes, 1866

Excerpts of legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly after the Civil War to limit the freedoms of former slaves. Includes historical commentary.

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A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina

A pamphlet produced in 1660s London at the request of the Lords Proprietors described the economic opportunity and religious freedom available to settlers in Carolina. Includes historical commentary.

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The burning of Washington

Report in the Raleigh Star, September 2, 1814, on the burning of Washington by the British during the War of 1812. Includes historical commentary.

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Calling for sacrifice

In this “fireside chat” radio address, delivered in April 1942, President Roosevelt asked Americans to make sacrifices for the war effort. Includes historical commentary.

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Cargo manifests of Confederate blockade runners

Cargo manifests of various ships that ran the Union blockade to bring goods from Nassau, in the Bahamas, to Wilmington, North Carolina, during the Civil War. Includes historical commentary.

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The Charter of Carolina (1663)

In the Charter of Carolina, King Charles II of England granted the eight men known as the Lords Proprietors rights to the land that became North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Primary source includes historical commentary.

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Cherokee Nation v. the State of Georgia, 1831

When Georgia tried to subject the Cherokee to state law, they sued the state in federal court. The Supreme Court ruled against them in 1831, in this decision written by Chief Justice John Marshall. Includes historical commentary.

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Christoph von Graffenried’s account of the Tuscarora War

Account of the beginnings of the Tuscarora War in North Carolina between settlers and Indians. Primary source includes historical commentary.

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A civil war at home: Treatment of Unionists

Excerpt from the memoir of W. B. Younce, an Ashe County man who was drafted into the Confederate army and deserted. He describes the conditions on the home front, particularly the treatment of Unionists. Includes historical commentary.

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“A date which will live in infamy”

Speech by President Franklin Roosevelt asking Congress for a declaration of war on Japan, December 8, 1941. Includes audio, transcript, and historical commentary.

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A Declaration and Proposals of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina (1663)

Initial plans by the Lords Proprietors for settling and governing the province of Carolina. Primary source includes historical commentary.

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Diary of a planter

Excerpt from the diary of Henry W. Harrington, Jr., a plantation owner in Richmond County, North Carolina. Includes historical commentary.

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“Eastern North Carolina for the farmer”

Pamphlet published by the Atlantic Coast Line railroad in 1916, advertising eastern North Carolina as a place for people from other parts of the country to settle. Includes historical background and commentary.

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The “education governor”

Excerpt from the inaugural address of North Carolina Governor Charles Brantley Aycock in which he talks about the importance of education. Historical commentary addresses the tensions between Aycock’s views on education and his views on race.

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Elisha Mitchell explores the mountains

Letter from Elisha Mitchell to his wife while doing a geologic survey in northwestern North Carolina, 1828. Mitchell discusses his work, the places he stayed, and the people he met. Includes historical commentary as well as a contemporary map and a Google map with relevant locations marked.

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Enlistment for Victory (1943)

This “Enlistment for Victory” letter was given to boys and girls as part of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service’s “Mobilization for Victory” campaign during World War II. The first part introduces the program; the second is a list of projects that kids could take on. Includes historical commentary.

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Feed a Fighter in Forty-Four

This pamphlet was sent by the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service to 4-H members and other interested youth in the spring of 1944 as part of the ongoing “Feed a Fighter” campaign to mobilize youth to aid the war effort during World War II. Includes historical commentary.

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Freed people at New Bern

Excerpt from the report of Vincent Colyer, Superintendent of the Poor for Union-occupied North Carolina during the Civil War, about his work with freedmen and escaped slaves. Includes historical commentary.

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The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669)

The lengthy and complicated plan devised by the Lords Proprietors for the government of Carolina would have established a feudal system of elaborate courts, manors, and serfs. Includes historical commentary.

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Henry Grady and the “New South”

Excerpt from a speech by Atlanta journalist and editor Henry Grady, praising the South’s recovery from the Civil War, advocating industrial development, and inviting cooperation between North and South. Includes historical commentary.

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The impact of busing in Charlotte

Interviews with former white and black students in Charlotte schools about their experiences before and after desegregation. Includes historical background.

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The impending crisis of the South

Excerpt from Hinton Helper’s 1857 book arguing against slavery on the grounds that it kept the South subservient to the North and hurt poor whites. Includes historical commentary.

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The Indian Removal Act of 1830

Act of Congress, passed in 1830, authorizing President Andrew Jackson to transfer Eastern Indian tribes to the territories west of the Mississippi River. Includes historical commentary.

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Janet Schaw on American agriculture

Excerpt from the diary of a Scottish lady traveling in North Carolina on the eve of the American Revolution. She describes, and harshly criticizes, the farming practices she finds in the colonies. Includes historical commentary.

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John Lawson’s assessment of the Tuscarora

Excerpt from John Lawson’s 1709 A New Voyage to Carolina discussing the sources of conflict between the Tuscarora and English settlers in North Carolina and Lawson’s hopes for integrating the Tuscarora into colonial society. Includes historical commentary.

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Johnson’s Amnesty Proclamation

In May 1865, President Andrew Johnson offered amnesty to most former Confederate soldiers, excepting high-ranking officers, some politicians, and the wealthiest Confederates. Original source includes historical commentary.

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The Knights of Labor

Excerpt from the 1878 Platform of the Knights of Labor, an early labor union. Includes historical commentary.

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Leonidas Polk and the Farmers’ Alliance

Speech given by Leonidas L. Polk before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 1890. Polk provided data showing the decline in farmers’ wealth since the Civil War, argued that this decline was not the farmers’ fault, and asked the Senate to enact laws that would help farmers. Includes historical commentary and explanations of some of the economic principles discussed (including supply and demand).

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Lincoln’s plans for reconstruction

In Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, with the Civil War nearly over, Lincoln called for reconciliation between North and South.

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Manumission

Petition from Ned Hyman to the North Carolina General Assembly asking for his manumission. Hyman claimed that his owner had promised him his freedom upon his owner’s death. Includes historical commentary.

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Nathaniel Macon on democracy

Excerpt of a speech by Nathaniel Macon, arguing against the “Midnight Judges Act” of 1801, in which he summarizes the political philosophy of Democratic-Republicans. Primary source includes historical commentary.

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Naval stores in antebellum North Carolina

Excerpt from Frederick Law Olmsted’s A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States in which he describes the production of naval stores (turpentine, tar, rosin, and pitch) in eastern North Carolin and the people who lived and worked in the pine forests. Includes historical commentary.

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Of the inlets and havens of this country

Excerpt from John Lawson’s 1709 A New Voyage to Carolina detailing the geography of North Carolina’s coast. Includes historical commentary and notes about how the coastline has changed since the colonial period.

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On the road with Jane Caroline North

In this excerpt from her diary of 1851, Jane Caroline North describes her experiences traveling from South Carolina to Virginia to the mineral springs of western Virginia. Part of her route ran through North Carolina, and although she was able to travel part of the way by railroad, her experience shows how complicated and inconvenient travel could still be in the 1850s. Includes historical commentary.

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Poor Richard’s Almanack

With Maren Wood

Excerpts from the alamanc published by Benjamin Franklin show what colonial Americans read and what topics interested them, including weather predictions, religion, history, astrology, and schedules of court dates. Includes both images of the original almanacs and transcriptions as well as historical commentary.

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The present state of Carolina [people, climate]

Excerpt from John Lawson’s 1709 A New Voyage to Carolina describing (and mostly praising) the European and native inhabitants, weather, and natural resources of Carolina, as well as what settlers should bring with them from Europe. Includes historical commentary.

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The Raleigh Standard protests conscription

Newspaper editorial protesting the expansion of conscription by the Confederate government in January 1864. Includes historical commentary and background on conscription in the Civil War.

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Rural Free Delivery

Home delivery of mail wasn’t established in most of the United States until the twentieth century, and when it came, it was revolutionary. This magazine article from 1903 tells the story of the new rural free delivery. Includes background and historical commentary.

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Self-Sufficiency on the farm: Gardening, picking, canning, cracklings, and sewing

Oral history interview with Louella Odessa Saunders Amar, born 1930, who spent her first seven years living on a sharecropping farm near Roanoke, Virginia. Includes historical commentary.

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Southern cooking, 1824

Excerpts from The Virginia Housewife, an 1824 cookbook, including advice for kitchen management, instructions for making soap and for curing bacon and ham from a freshly slaughtered hog, and various recipes. Includes historical commentary.

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The State of Franklin

Petition from residents of Tennessee County, North Carolina, in 1784, to the General Assembly, requesting that they be permitted to form a new state. Primary source includes historical commentary.

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Statement by the President announcing the use of the A-Bomb at Hiroshima

Public statement by President Harry Truman announcing the use of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, Japan, and explaining the new weapon to the American people and to the world. Includes historical commentary.

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The story of a B-17 crew

Speech, given as part of a 1944 war bonds drive, by a flight engineer about his experiences on a B-17 bomber in Europe. Includes historical background and commentary.

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Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, April 20, 1971, which ordered the integration of Mecklenburg County’s schools. Includes historical background.

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A Tale of Two Cities

Film produced by the U.S. War Department in 1946 about the atomic bomb and its use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Includes footage of the explosions, a tour of the cities afterward, and discussions of the weapons’ impact. Historical commentary and viewing questions are provided.

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The War and German Americans

German Americans faced persecution during World War I, encouraged by President Wilson’s administration. This brief article includes a recording and transcript of a 1917 speech by former U.S. ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard, vilifying German Americans.

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“We have unexpectedly become civilized”

Letter from citizens of Turkey Town in the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians’ Advocate, 1829, opposing relocation. The authors pointed out the irony that even after becoming “civilized” as white people had claimed to want, they were nevertheless being pushed off their land. Includes historical commentary.

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Wealth and education in North Carolina, 1900

Report on the North Carolina Colored State Normal Schools for 1903, listing data on value of property owned by each race and on school size and attendance. Includes historical commentary.

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Winners in North Carolina’s Feed a Fighter Program

This letter from the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service announced the winners in North Carolina’s “Feed a Fighter” program — the 4-H members who grew the most food for the war effort. The winners were Sullivan Fisher and Edna Vann Lewis, both of Nash County. Includes historical commentary.

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Winners in North Carolina’s Feed a Fighter Program

This letter from the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service announced the winners in North Carolina’s “Feed a Fighter” program — the 4-H members who grew the most food for the war effort. The winners were Sullivan Fisher and Edna Vann Lewis, both of Nash County. Includes historical commentary.

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Teaching

Articles

About wills and probate inventories

Explanation of legal documents surrounding a person’s death and how historians use them to understand daily life, family structure, and other aspects of the past.

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Does my vote count? Teaching the electoral college

Students will learn about the electoral process and its history through reading, research, and discussion. They will then convene a constitutional convention to debate altering this process.

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Does my vote count? Understanding the electoral college

This tutorial for students explains how the electoral college works, the origins and development of the electoral college as some controversial elections, and how much any one vote actually “weighs” in an election. Readings and activities are included.

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Higher order thinking with Venn diagrams

Graphic organizers are powerful ways to help students understand complex ideas. By adapting and building on basic Venn diagrams, you can move beyond comparison and diagram classification systems that encourage students to recognize complex relationships.

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Map skills and higher-order thinking

This series of articles looks at map skills as a kind of visual literacy, considering what maps are, how they're made, and the higher-order thinking skills students need to move from simply decoding maps to fully comprehending them.

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Reading photographs

A picture is worth a thousand words — but which words? Questions can help students decode, interpret, and understand photographs thoughtfully and meaningfully.

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Reading slave narratives: The WPA interviews

A reading guide for students working with WPA Federal Writers Project interviews with former slaves.

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Rethinking Reports

With Melissa Thibault

Creative research-based assignments provide alternatives to the President Report, Animal Report, and Famous Person Report that ask students to think about old topics in new ways, work collaboratively, and develop products that support a variety of learning styles.

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Teaching controversial issues

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Think for yourself! Media literacy every day

Information, like air, is everywhere, and we breathe it in whether we mean to or not. If we want our students to be rational, responsible citizens and consumers, we have to help them develop a filter they can use all the time, not just when they’re doing research.

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Lesson plans and activities

Distribution of land and slaves

In this activity, students analyze census data and maps to understand the distribution of land, wealth, and slaves in antebellum North Carolina.

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Estimated cost of the North Carolina Rail Road, 1851

In this activity, students analyze an account of the cost of building the North Carolina Railroad in the 1850s and evaluate how much it cost in “today’s dollars.”

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Mapping a changing North Carolina

In this activity, students analyze a series of maps drawn from U.S. Census data to study how various aspects of the state’s population varies geographically and has changed since 1970.

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Mapping election returns, 1960–2008

A slideshow of maps show results for statewide North Carolina elections in presidential election years from 1960 to 2008. Accompanying questions guide students to explore how voting patterns have changed with time and place.

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Mapping rainfall and flooding

In this activity, students explore maps and data from Hurricanes Floyd, Dennis, and Irene in September-October 1999 to explore their effects on North Carolina’s coastal plain.

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Migration into and out of North Carolina: Exploring census data

Just how many people left North Carolina in the first half of the nineteenth century — and where did they go? To answer questions like this, the best place to turn is census records. The census can’t tell us why people moved, but a look at the numbers can give us a sense of the scale of the migration.

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A railroad timetable

Railroad schedule from the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, 1859. In the accompanying activity, students use maps and railroad schedules to compare train travel in 1859 and today.

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Ratifying the amendments

In 1835, a convention passed amendments to the North Carolina state constitution. In this activity, students map votes for ratification by county and explain the patterns they see.

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Wills and inventories: A process guide

Guiding questions for students investigating daily life in the past through wills, inventories, and probate records.

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Writing, design, & technology

Best practices in school library website design

You’re a librarian, not a web designer, but you can have a school library website that meets the needs of students and teachers if you keep it simple, don’t take on more than you can manage, and focus on what you know.

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Copyright: A Primer

Topics covered include copyright law, limitations and exceptions to copyright law, the public domain, public licensing, factors determining fair use, and copyright law on the web.

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Evaluating multimedia presentations

A PowerPoint presentation is just another form of communication, and the same rules apply to multimedia that apply to writing or verbal communication. This article offers guidelines for using and assigning multimedia presentations in the classroom and includes a rubric based on the Five Features of Effective Writing.

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Articles, lesson plans, and student content at LEARN NC