History is more than memorizing names and dates. It is also more than a story well told. Instead, it involves the analysis, comparison, and synthesis of multiple (and often conflicting) sources. With the use of H5P digital technology, these Interactive Units provide users with several options and supports to help them cite evidence from primary sources to construct their own understandings about the past. Educators can assign these units as essays their students complete with each topic’s essential questions, and the general public can use these units as interactive exhibits that reveal fascinating topics from the past.
When Illinois became a state in 1818, its founding came with a clear goal: remove all Native peoples from within its borders. Treaties, pressure, and forced relocations soon followed. Yet, the Kickapoo Nation was allowed to remain, at least for a time. Why? And why were they eventually forced to leave by the 1830s?
In 1838, five Native American Nations were forced to leave their homes and resettle in Indian Territory or present-day Oklahoma. This module highlights the debates leading up to the decision to remove one of these nations, the Cherokee.
Through historians’ debates, newspaper articles, GIS maps, and 3D-scanned artifacts, these modules focus on Miller Grove, an abandoned African American community in southern Illinois with suspected ties to the Underground Railroad.
This module explores the journey of the Bostick family members who escaped enslavement and joined the Union Navy during the Civil War before settling in southern Illinois. Through primary and secondary sources, examine the Bostick's choices to join the army through the broader context of African Americans’ military service during the Civil War.
These modules, based on books in SIU Press’ Concise Lincoln Library, explore several competing issues, ideals, and policies President Lincoln faced, many of which the United States and the world still face today.
Based on the book, A Knight of Another Sort: Charlie Birger and Prohibition Days in Southern Illinois, this unit explores an episode of bloody gang warfare in southern Illinois in the 1920s.
After the Civil War, there were many factors that contributed to African Americans’ decisions to flee the south. This module explores what prompted them to leave and—equally important—what helped so many of these formerly enslaved people settle in southern Illinois.
This module examines sources from a Digital Inquiry Group (DIG) unit through the lens of rhetorical strategies used to dehumanize Irish Americans and Immigrants during the last half of the 19th Century.
In the years leading up to the Ku Klux Klan’s revival in the United States during the early 1900s, the public had been exposed to a steady stream of half-truths and distorted narratives about the original Klan, including the national tour of the play, The Clansman. This module includes several newspaper reports in protest and defense of this production’s opening across the country.
This module examines sources from a Digital Inquiry Group (DIG) unit through the lens of rhetorical strategies used to argue against women gaining the right to vote in the early 20th Century.
This module reveals the Ku Klux Klan’s power and weakness in southern Illinois during the first half of the 1900s. More specifically, it focuses on the crimes and scandals that even its members could not ignore and eventually led to its demise. Was it one event or a combination of several crimes that helped weaken the Klan’s power?
This module examines sources from a Digital Inquiry Group (DIG) unit through the lens of rhetorical strategies the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) used to combat racism during the middle of the 20th Century.
This module examines sources from a Digital Inquiry Group (DIG) unit through the lens of rhetorical strategies a Civil Rights leader and a war veteran used to protest U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
This module explores one of the most devastating climate events in Chicago’s history, highlighting the perilous intersection of extreme temperatures and urban vulnerability to explore why over 700 people died during that tragic summer.
Four species of fish, known as Asian Carp or Copi, have become a major concern for states along the Mississippi River. This module uses sources to explore how the Copi became an invasive species and what are potential solutions to this environmental challenge.
