Disunion Feed · For the classroom

Primary source sets for the classroom

A source set is a group of primary sources on one event, on one printable page: what people wrote and said at the time, in their own words, each passage dated, cited and linked to the archive copy it was checked against. Pro-slavery voices never appear without abolitionist and Black voices beside them. Free to print and copy for a class.

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 — 13 sources from Southern newspapers, Northern newspapers, abolitionists and Black voices.
• The caning of Charles Sumner, 1856 — 17 sources from Southern newspapers, Northern newspapers, abolitionists, politicians and Black voices.
• The Dred Scott decision, 1857 — 29 sources from Southern newspapers, Northern newspapers, abolitionists, politicians and Black voices.
• John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, 1859 — 17 sources from Southern newspapers, Northern newspapers, abolitionists, Black voices and private letters.
• The secession winter, 1860–61 — 44 sources from Southern newspapers, Northern newspapers, abolitionists, politicians, Black voices and diarists.