• What functions does our presidential residence serve?
• How has the White House been touched by the great events of our nation's history?

• List activities that take place at the White House.
• Create a chronology of important events that have occurred at or directly affected the White House.

• Review the lesson plans. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Download the Master PDF. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
• Download and make one copy each of the archival images for the activities. Many images have been selected to facilitate flexibility. Use as many or as few as appropriate. Assign them to groups as best suits your class. Keep some aside, for example, for groups that finish more quickly, or use all of them to make groups as small as possible.
• Prepare a place in the classroom for a History of the White House Timeline, on which you will post the images. You or your students with technical expertise may wish to create an html document with links to relevant images.
• Extensive background information on every aspect of the White House is available from the White House Historical Association, a link from the EDSITEment resource Explore DC.

After the debacle of the one-party presidential campaign of 1824, a new two-party system began to emerge. Strong public reaction to perceived corruption in the vote in the House of Representatives, as well as the popularity of Andrew Jackson, allowed Martin Van Buren to organize a Democratic Party that resurrected a Jeffersonian philosophy of minimalism in the federal government. This new party opposed the tendencies of National Republicans such as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay to invest more power in the federal government. Van Buren built a political machine to support Jackson in the 1828 election. Van Buren's skills helped give the Democrats a head start on modern-style campaigning and a clear advantage in organization. The Democrats and Jackson defeated the National Republicans in 1828 and 1832 and maintained their hold on the presidency when they bested the Whigs—a union of former National Republicans, Antimasons, and some states' rights advocates—in 1836. But a major economic depression in 1837 finally gave the Whigs their best chance to occupy the White House. They faced Andrew Jackson's political organizer, vice president, and handpicked successor, President Martin Van Buren, vying for a second term in the midst of hard times.

As they prepared for the election of 1840, both Democrats and Whigs were organized for campaigning on a national scale. In an election that would turn out an astounding 80 percent of a greatly expanded electorate, campaigners sought to appeal to a wide range of voters in a variety of voting blocks. The contest between Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison marked the first truly modern presidential campaign, with methods today's students are sure to recognize.

Lessons in this unit allow students to become familiar with the issues and personalities and to review an assortment of primary documents. As students analyze them, they reflect on the presidential campaign of 1840. How was it conducted? What was the role of campaign advertising? How crucial were issues to the election of William Henry Harrison? How crucial was image?

• What issues were important to the presidential campaign of 1840?
• In what ways was the campaign about issues? In what way was it about image?
• What in William Henry Harrison's background made him the choice of the Whig Party in 1840?
• How did the Whigs promote Harrison's image in 1840?
• In what ways did Harrison's background correspond with or contradict his image?
• What made Martin Van Buren the choice of the Democratic Party in 1836?
• How did the Democrats promote Martin Van Buren's image?
• In what ways did Van Buren's background correspond with or contradict that image?
• Why is the campaign of 1840 often cited as the first modern campaign?

• List some issues important during the campaign of 1840.
• Compare and contrast the careers of Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison before they became president.
• Explain why the Whigs wanted to find a candidate in the mold of former president Andrew Jackson.
• Discuss the ways in which Harrison did and did not fit the mold.
• Identify some basic differences between the Democrats and Whigs.
• Discuss the use of visual images in the 1840 campaign.
• Take a stand as to whether the campaign of 1840 was based more on substance or image.

• Review the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Download the Master PDF. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
• Links to graphics on the EDSITEment resource American Memory, which are used throughout this lesson, lead to a page with a low-resolution image and links to bibliographic material and higher-resolution images.
• Andrew Jackson's enormous popularity greatly contributed to the ability of the newly constituted Democratic Party to win three consecutive terms in the White House (1828, 1832, 1836). There are many similarities between Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison, a fact that did not escape the notice of those who backed Harrison's candidacy. Both Jackson and Harrison acquired national reputations as war heroes. Both, at one time or another, embraced the contradictory goals of fair treatment of American Indians and the acquisition by the U.S. of land from the American Indians. Both men led troops in important victories in the War of 1812. Though Jackson was the first presidential candidate to use a variety of campaign novelties such as buttons, posters, flasks, matchboxes, and mugs, Harrison's campaign took such promotion to new heights. Harrison won election by a wide margin in a year when about 80 percent of eligible voters went to the polls.
  
  Additional information may be found in the document "Background for the Teacher" (see  Pages 1-4 of the Master PDF), and in the introduction to each lesson below.
• Students will learn about the careers of Jackson, Harrison, and Martin Van Buren, when they read the following essays on the EDSITEment reviewed website The American President:
  • Andrew Jackson: Life Before the Presidency
  • William Henry Harrison: Life Before the Presidency
  • Martin Van Buren: A Life in Brief
  NOTE: The section of The American President about William Henry Harrison is accompanied by an essay entitled A Manufactured Hero (From Philip Kunhardt, Jr., et. al., The American President [New York: Riverhead Books, 1999], pp. 18-23). It raises many questions that were the impetus for this lesson. What would it mean to manufacture a hero? Were Jackson and Harrison truly heroes in their time? Would their deeds be considered heroic today? Were either Jackson or Harrison manufactured heroes? How were the similarities and differences between Jackson and Harrison reflected in the content and conduct of the campaign of 1840? How were issues and image used to promote Harrison (and, to a lesser extent, Van Buren)? Was the campaign of 1840 focused more on image or substance? In what ways? Why?
• For background on prior presidential election history, consult two complementary EDSITEment curriculum units. The Election Is in the House: The Presidential Election of 1824 reviews the several serious contenders for president, all claiming allegiance to the Democratic-Republican Party. It also covers the vote in the House of Representatives after no contender received a majority of electoral votes. Students are given the opportunity to reflect on the corruption claims of Andrew Jackson's supporters and how historians gather evidence and draw conclusions. The expansion of the electorate and the contest of 1828 are covered in The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson and the Growth of Party Politics. In this unit, students study the personalities and issues in the election of 1828, and analyze statistics reflecting voting participation rates from 1824 to 1836 and voting results in 1828 to gauge the impact of both the new trends in the electorate and the candidacy of Andrew Jackson.

• Why was the election of 1824 decided in the House of Representatives?
• Who were the candidates in 1824?
• What were the important issues in the campaign of 1824?
• How did John Quincy Adams win election in 1824?

• Summarize relevant portions of the Constitution on presidential election procedures.
• Explain why the election of 1824 was decided in the House of Representatives.
• Cite examples from presidential campaign materials from 1824.
• Explain how John Quincy Adams won election in 1824.
• Take a stand, supported by evidence, on whether or not there was a "corrupt bargain" between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams.

• Review the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Download the Master PDF. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
• Each of the lessons below can be used as a stand-alone. Taught in order as a unit, the lessons are structured like a mystery in which the author reveals the solution-that is, the results of the 1824 election-at the beginning. The fun is coming to understand what led up to that conclusion. Lesson 3, "Was There a Corrupt Bargain?" offers a culminating activity that is enhanced by an understanding of the issues covered in Lessons 1 and 2.
• If possible, choose student volunteers for the transcript reading for the first activity the day before teaching Lesson One, below, to allow time for them to review their parts.
• In Lesson One, hypothetical examples of what could happen in a close election are offered as a check for understanding the numerical results of the 2000 election. Take care not to get embroiled in the politics of the 2000 election.
• For a comprehensive introduction to the history of the presidential election process, consult Presidential Elections in the United States: A Primer HTML or Presidential Elections in the United States: A Primer PDF on the website of the United States Senate, a link from the EDSITEment resource Congress Link. Students will read material from the introduction to the Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: Tally of the 1824 Electoral College Vote, on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Digital Classroom, for background on the election of 1824, the history of presidential elections prior to 1824, and modern issues surrounding the electoral college.
• In Lesson Three and Extending the Lesson, students will look at a variety of evidence to see if it indicates whether there was a "corrupt bargain" in John Quincy Adams's victory in the presidential election. Considering that there is no agreement among historians about the "corrupt bargain," all student conclusions should be accepted as long as reasonable evidence is offered to support ideas.
• Extending the Lesson requires that students work on computers to use the Interactive Election Results activity, found on Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, available via a link from the EDSITEment resource Explore DC.
• Some new trends in the electorate were apparent in the election of 1824. The franchise, or right to vote, was being extended to more white males as income-related eligibility requirements were being dropped by more states. The major change was the elimination of property requirements. Later, tax-paying requirements were also dropped. Direct election was replacing selection by state legislatures as the method for choosing electors, increasing the importance of the popular vote. Political campaigns felt more strongly than ever the need to appeal to the masses. The nation was expanding as western states joined the Union bringing their own issues and a desire for full participation. The Kentucky legislature in joint session unanimously nominated favorite son Henry Clay, looking to a time "when the people of the West may, with some confidence, appeal to the magnanimity of the whole Union, for a favorable consideration of their equal and just claim to a fair participation in the executive government of these states" (Hopkins, James F., "Election of 1824," History of American Presidential Elections, Volume 1. Ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. editor. 5 vols. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971, 363.). With no more national heroes of the Revolution left to succeed Monroe, regional figures and regional issues were becoming even more important. In the presidential election of 1824, regionalism and regional issues predominated. Choosing the president in the House became a matter of political deal-making. One important result was the eventual development of a new two-party system. By 1828, the expanded electorate, with all its implications, became significant on a national level. Voter participation in almost every state rose dramatically. In the complementary EDSITEment lesson, "The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson and the Growth of Party Politics," students review the election of 1824, study the personalities and issues in the election of 1828, and analyze statistics reflecting voting participation rates from 1824 to 1836 and voting results in 1828 to gauge the impact of Andrew Jackson's election and the new trends in the electorate.
• It may be necessary to clarify for students party names during the period covered in this lesson and the period just beyond. What follows is, in the interest of brevity, a somewhat simplified explanation. In 1824, all of the candidates claimed allegiance to the Democratic-Republican Party (often called Republican) which linked back directly to Jefferson and Madison. When Jackson became President in 1828, he ran as a Democrat. Members of the new second party that rose in opposition called themselves National Republicans at first. Later, the core of that opposition to Jackson took the name Whigs. So someone like Henry Clay, at one time or another, was a member of the Democratic-Republicans, National Republicans, and Whigs. In addition, The Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans are not the same as either our modern Democrats or Republicans, though our Democrats lay claim to the Jefferson legacy through their connection to Jackson's Democrats.
• Many links to the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory, used throughout this unit, lead to an index page that includes a digitized image of an original document. On that page will be found links to higher-quality image files and transcriptions of text.
• Throughout this unit, students read and analyze a variety of primary documents. The following materials from EDSITEment resources may be useful to teachers seeking expert advice on the use of primary documents:
  
  • Using Primary Sources Sources on The Library of Congress, a link from American Memory
  • Document Analysis Worksheets and History in the Raw on Digital Classroom
  • Making Sense of Evidence on History Matters

This succinct but valuable lesson offers three basic steps for analyzing primary sources:

1. Time and Place Rule
2. Bias Rule
3. Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources

The traditional religions of Great Britain's North American colonies—Puritanism in New England and Anglicanism farther south—had difficulty maintaining their holds over the growing population. The main reason for this was that the frontier kept pushing further west, and the building of churches almost never kept up with this westward movement. This did not, however, result in a wholesale decline in religiosity among Americans. In fact, the most significant religious development of 18th century America took place along the frontier, in the form of the Great Awakening (often called the "First Great Awakening" to distinguish it from a similar movement that occurred in the first half of the 19th century).

The First Great Awakening was largely the work of itinerant preachers such as John Wesley and George Whitefield, who addressed huge audiences both in the major cities and in remote frontier villages. In contrast to the older faiths, these preachers preached a doctrine that deemphasized traditional church structure, ceremony, and even clergy. Relying heavily on emotional appeals, which remain a feature of modern-day "tent revivals," they stressed the importance of a personal relationship with God and of the responsibility to God that came along with it. This movement, thanks in particular to its ministry to those on the frontier, fundamentally changed the religious landscape of English America. Membership in the older, established sects such as Puritan Congregationalism and Anglicanism fell into decline, while the newer evangelical sects—Presbyterians in the North, Baptists and Methodists further south—surged in size and influence. By the time of the American Revolution a majority—perhaps as many as 80 percent of the population—identified with the new faiths.

The movement also had a powerful political dimension, particularly in the southern colonies. The Anglican faith had long nurtured the old ties between the colonies and the Mother Country. Baptists and Methodists, however, felt no such connection. Moreover, as the new sects emphasized personal belief and action over traditional church structures, they were less willing than their older counterparts to accept America's continued submission to Great Britain. As a result, scriptural defenses of the cause of independence could be heard coming from growing numbers of preachers throughout the colonies.

Of course, the new movement did not carry all before it. Traditional Anglicanism still remained powerful, particularly in the coastal cities of the southern colonies, and it was mainly from this sect that the Loyalist cause during the Revolution drew its strength. In addition, the First Great Awakening had little impact on sects such as the Quakers, who, as pacifists, refused to participate in the Revolution at all. Moreover, it should be noted that not all of the revolutionaries were driven by religious motives; such prominent patriots as Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, for example, were deeply skeptical of all organized religion (although they certainly used scripture-based arguments), and had little but disdain for the emotional fervor of the evangelicals. Nevertheless the First Great Awakening had a dramatic effect on early America, not only altering its religious makeup, but helping to pave the way for the nation's independence.

This curriculum unit will, through the use of primary documents, introduce students to the First Great Awakening, as well as to the ways in which religious-based arguments were used both in support of and against the American Revolution.

• What was the First Great Awakening and how did it affect religious belief in Colonial America?
• How did religion affect arguments justifying American independence?
• How did the leaders of the American Revolution employ religion to support the war effort?
• How did different religions react to Revolution?

• Identify when and where the First Great Awakening took place
• Explain the characteristics of religious belief associated with the First Great Awakening
• Identify and discuss the ideas of Jonathan Edwards, one of the leading preachers associated with the First Great Awakening
• Discuss how colonial Americans perceived the First Great Awakening and how it affected the lives of both colonial Americans and Native Americans
• Analyze Jonathan Mayhew's "A Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers" and discuss how this sermon served to support the revolution
• Explain how Thomas Paine's Common Sense argues that the Bible does not support monarchy
• Identify the references to a higher power in the Declaration of Independence and discuss why they might have been included
• Discuss and analyze how the leaders of the American Revolution employed religion in the war effort
• Explain the particular problem the Revolutionary War posed for Anglican clergy.
• Discuss how Anglican "loyalists" reacted to the Revolutionary War
• Discuss and debate how General George Washington dealt with Quaker pacifism during the Revolutionary War.

Review the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and links from EDSITEment-reviewed websites used in this lesson. Download and print out selected documents and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing. Alternatively, excerpted versions of these documents are available as part of the downloadable PDF.

Download the Text Document for this lesson, available here as a PDF. This file contains excerpted versions of the documents used in all three activities, as well as questions for students to answer. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of the handouts you plan to use in class.

Analyzing primary sources:

If your students lack experience in dealing with primary sources, you might use one or more preliminary exercises to help them develop these skills. The Learning Page at the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress includes a set of such activities. Another useful resource is the Digital Classroom of the National Archives, which features a set of Document Analysis Worksheets.

Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a frank look at a woman's life at the turn of the 19th century. Published in 1899, Chopin's novella shocked critics and audiences alike, who showed little sympathy for the author or her central protagonist, Edna Pontellier. A master of craft, Chopin wrote a forceful novel about a woman who questioned not only her role in society, but the standards of society itself.

In this curriculum unit, students will explore how Chopin stages the possible roles for women in Edna's time and culture through the examples of other characters in the novella. By showing what Edna's options are, Chopin also exhibits why those roles failed to satisfy Edna's desires. As students pursue this central theme, they will also learn about Chopin, her life, and the culture and literary traditions in which she wrote. Many late 19th century writers reacted against an earlier wave of sentimental writings, focusing instead on an approach more akin to “realism”—studies of daily affairs and commonplace events. Part of Chopin's realism relies on regionalism or local color writing, a style of writing that emphasizes regional differences in terms of language, dialect, religion, cultural expectations, class societies, and so on. Readers follow Edna—a Protestant from Kentucky—in her encounters with Catholic Creole society in Louisiana. Edna's role as “outsider” allows for a comparison between two different Southern cultures and her awakening in part results from the clash of the two world views.

• How does The Awakening speak to the roles of women and the conventions of literature at the end of the 19th century?
• How does Kate Chopin use other characters in The Awakening in order to cast Edna Pontellier's desires—and social limitations—in sharp relief?

• Learn Kate Chopin's place in literary history
• Define literary realism and discuss it as a style in American literature
• Reflect on how culture and setting plays an important role in a novel, especially in local color and regional literature
• Analyze Edna Pontellier's character development specifically in relation to other characters in the novella and generally in relation to women's roles in 19th-century America

Review the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.

Download, print, and copy for students the PDF, used in Lesson 3.

Electronic Texts

E-texts of The Awakening are freely available at the following locations:

• The Awakening available through the Library of Southern Literature (via Documenting the American South)
• E-Text Center made available by UVA's Electronic Text Center, a resource available through EDSITEment-approved Center for Liberal Arts

Realism

The websites used in Lesson 2 provide a greater amount of detail -- and complication -- of literary realism of the 19th century, but the following two definitions serve as good starting points.

In its literary usage, the term realism is often defined as a method or form in fiction that provides a "slice of life," an "accurate representation of reality."
— from the Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, ed. Joseph Childers and Gary Hentzi

Literary realism is a 19th century conception related to industrial capitalism. In general, it means the use of the imagination to represent things as common sense supposes they are.
—from Bloomsbury Guide to Literature, ed. Marion Wynne-Davies

Literary realism is a variable, complex, and often argued about concept. No one work is a perfect example of 'realism'—Lesson 2 allows students to read through some basic attributes of realist literature in order to use that context to examine The Awakening. Practitioners of a realist style in the American tradition include William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.

Local Color and Regionalism

These two literary terms are often used interchangeably, and certainly they have many similarities. For the purposes of this lesson, students should not need to differentiate between the two, but for the teacher's clarity the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, excerpted in the EDSITEment-reviewed website Documenting the American South, distinguishes them as follows:

Although the terms regionalism and local color are sometimes used interchangeably, regionalism generally has broader connotations. Whereas local color is often applied to a specific literary mode that flourished in the late 19th century, regionalism implies a recognition from the colonial period to the present of differences among specific areas of the country. Additionally, regionalism refers to an intellectual movement encompassing regional consciousness beginning in the 1930s.

In The Awakening, as well as her short stories, Chopin frequently focused on the Creole culture of Louisiana. Unique regional features included a heritage that drew from French and Spanish ancestry, a complex caste system, the settings of urban New Orleans and rural vacation retreats like Grand Isle (located on the Gulf Coast). Chopin's use of a culturally foreign protagonist—Edna was a protestant from Kentucky, rather than a French-speaking Catholic Creole like her husband—casts cultural differences into even sharper relief. Specific textual examples of Edna's encounter with Creole culture can be found in Lesson 2.

Unfamiliar Words and French Phrases

Chopin's The Awakening is set in Louisiana—in the resort town of Grand Isle, as well as New Orleans. Often, the characters slip into French phrases, or Chopin uses words that might be unfamiliar to students—such as Creole or quadroon. Students should be encouraged to use either a print or online dictionary while reading—the Internet Public Library has several available, including Dictionary.com, which provides both English and French dictionaries.