African American Identity in the Gilded Age: Two Unreconciled Strivings
Overview
Students explore their personal identities, then analyze primary sources to examine the tension experienced by African Americans as they struggled to establish a vibrant and meaningful identity based on the promises of liberty and equality in the midst of a society that was ambivalent towards them and sought to impose an inferior definition upon them. After, students choose a subject from one primary source and bring this speaker into the present to talk with the class about his or her observation of today’s world compared with his or her own.
Related Resources
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African American Resources
curated set of links to resources -
You are here: Home / Primary Source Collections / History Resources / U.S. History by Time Period U.S. History by Time Period Note: resources may cover more than one time period, so be sure to check surrounding time periods Transatlantic Encounters & Colonial Beginnings Maps of Discovery & Exploration Related PSN primary source sets Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier: Exploration and Early Settlement 1492: An Ongoing Voyage Images of Christopher Columbus and His Voyages Encounters in America American Treasures of the Library of Congress The Americas: Cultures & History Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake Bank note explorer vignettes Colonial North America Settlement primary source set Related PSN primary source sets Stories About Colonial America from America’s Library American Treasures of the Library of Congress Words & Deeds in American History Religion and the Founding of the American Republic American Revolution Primary Source Learning: American Revolution Primary Source Spotlight: American Revolution The Early Republic Young Nation Primary Source Set Related PSN primary source sets Words & Deeds in American History Information and Resources about the New Nation American Treasures of the Library of Congress Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation Thomas Jefferson The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress Cartoon Prints, American 1776-1876 Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875 Stories About the New Nation from America’s Library Territorial Expansion & Manifest Destiny Primary Source Spotlight: Western Expansion & Manifest Destiny Stories of Western Expansion from America’s Library Related resources from the time period 1800-1860 Transformation in Antebellum America PSN slavery primary source sets Related PSN primary source sets American Treasures of the Library of Congress: Abolition Words & Deeds in American History The African-American Mosaic The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music Daguerreotype Portraits and Views, 1839-1864 Civil War & Reconstruction Civil War themed link set Stories about Reconstruction from America’s Library Related PSN primary source sets Origins of the New South Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 The African-American Mosaic African American Photographs Assembled For 1900 Paris Exposition After Reconstruction: Problems of African Americans in the South Jim Crow in America Related PSN primary source sets Reclaiming the Everglades: South Florida’s Natural History, 1884-1934 Western Expansion Related PSN primary source sets American Treasures of the Library of Congress Frontier Life in South Dakota & Wyoming Western Nevada & Northern California settlement First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years Nebraska Photographs & Family Letters The U.S. & the World Around the Turn of the 20th Century
curated set of links to resources
Grade
High School, Middle School
Subjects
Civics, Social Studies
Length
135-150 minutes
Topics
african americans, culture, equality, Gilded Age, identity, liberty
Author
Teaching with the Library of Congress
