A little history bauble for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, today:
From Presidents and the Constitution, a great resource from the Bill of Rights Institute, a lesson plan on Lincoln and the Constitutional issues around the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s very good, I think — and free (maybe only for a while?).
Presidents and the Constitution, Bill of Rights Institute
This Presidents and the Constitution focuses on Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. Though he had always hated slavery, President Lincoln did not believe the Constitution gave him the authority to bring it to an end—until it became necessary to free the slaves in order to save the Union. With the Emancipation Proclamation, which he viewed as an essential wartime measure to cripple the Confederacy’s ability to fight, Lincoln took the first step toward abolition of slavery in the United States.
If you teach social studies, you probably know about the Bill of Rights Institute already — subscribe for lesson plans, news updates, and news about seminars. They do good work, and the provide great resources.
On the Emancipation Proclamation, Allen Guelzo has a very nice presentation at the Gilder Lehrman site that I particularly enjoy. I’m not sure the link will work since you need to be a member (free), but it’s at http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/podcasts/podcast.php?podcast_id=20 .