Teaching U.S History
John Green has launched several Crash Course series. This one is all about U.S. History.
The first video in the Crash Course U.S. History series is now up on YouTube. I’ve embedded it below.
The series starts before Europeans arrived in North America. World history is found here.
Source: Free technology for teachers.
The video I chose to show here is Slavery. Text to explain video:
In which John Green teaches you about America’s “peculiar institution,” slavery. I wouldn’t really call it peculiar. I’d lean more toward horrifying and depressing institution, but nobody asked me. John will talk about what life was like for a slave in the 19th century United States, and how slaves resisted oppression, to the degree that was possible. We’ll hear about cotton plantations, violent punishment of slaves, day to day slave life, and slave rebellions. Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and Whipped Peter all make an appearance. Slavery as an institution is arguably the darkest part of America’s history, and we’re still dealing with its aftermath 150 years after it ended.
Free technology for teachers; The fast pace of the Crash Course videos makes them better suited to being reviews or introductions to topics rather than a replacement for lectures and documentary videos. Green definitely puts a bit of his own bias into some of the videos. You may want to discuss that with your students.
