America - still a young country by world standards - began as an experiment in self-government. This collection includes stories of America's people as they follow a path of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
In Illinois, married women have few rights; a husband can commit his wife to a mental institution against her will.
Betty Bersinger finds Elizabeth's disfigured body on a sidewalk near vacant lots. View crime scene photos.
Though the President issues the proclamation, it is not a law and slaveholders in the South, who have left the Union, can (and do) ignore it.
Read a poem about the life of Emily Hilscher, a 19 year-old freshman in Animal and Poultry Sciences.
Two white men torture and murder young Emmett Till.
The fighting stops on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month in 1918. Germany loses the war and territory, which sets up the scenario for H...
English colonists in America are tired of the taxes and jurisdictions that the British impose, and make their intentions known.
The "Underground Railroad", a network of routes, safe houses, and people, helps many slaves escape.
With help from his future wife and friends, Fred escapes to the free state of New York and takes the name Frederick Douglass.
The Pilgrims try to worship freely in England before gathering in Amsterdam.
The United States joins WWI, starts a military draft which many oppose, and passes the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917 and 1918.
This map, from PBS' "American Experience," depicts the areas where whales were captured between 1790 and 1924. Data for the map was retrieved from a s...
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