Skip to Main Content

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
BRI’s Comprehensive US History digital textbook
Documents of Freedom
BRI’s primary-source civics and government resource
Heroes & Villains
BRI’s character education narrative-based resource
BRI Curricula
Being an American
Plainest Demands of Justice
Presidents and the Constitution
Supreme Court DBQs
Votes for Women
Full Library...
Curriculum Components
Current Events
Essays
Lessons
Primary Sources
Videos
Educator Opportunities
Educator eLearning
Programs & Events
Teacher Council
Student Opportunities
My Impact Challenge
Student Fellowship
Think the Vote
BRI News
Official BRI Blog
Invest In Our Future
The most effective way to secure a freer America with more opportunity for all is through engaging, educating, and empowering our youth. And the most effective way to achieve that is through investing in The Bill of Rights Institute. We contribute to teachers and students by providing valuable resources, tools, and experiences that promote civic engagement through a historical framework. You can be a part of this exciting work by making a donation to The Bill of Rights Institute today!
Support now
Make your investment into the leaders of tomorrow through the Bill of Rights Institute today!
Make a Donation
Ways to partner with BRI
Learn more about the different ways you can partner with the Bill of Rights Institute.
Learn More

Lessons – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

4375 minutes

82 Items

Question Formulation Technique (QFT): Map of 1491 vs. 1754

Lesson

55 Min

Ship Technology

Lesson

55 Min

Richard Hakluyt and the Case for Undertaking Sea Voyages

Lesson

75 Min

Paideia Seminar: Christopher Columbus

Lesson

95 Min

Colonial Comparison: The Rights of Englishmen

Lesson

90 Min

Benjamin Franklin Mini DBQ

Lesson

55 Min

Lesson

45 Min

Unit 1 Civics Connection: The Colonial Origins of American Republicanism

Lesson

80 Min

Unit 1 Essay Activity

Lesson

Acts of Parliament

Lesson

85 Min

Abigail Adams: “Remember the Ladies” Mini DBQ

Lesson

85 Min

An engraving titled The Federalist Pillars. Six pillars are shown representing states, with the sixth pillar falling over. Below the pillars reads United they stand - divided fall.

The Path to Independence

Lesson

90 Min

Constitutional Convention

Lesson

90 Min

Argumentation: The Process of Compromise

Lesson

90 Min

Federalist/Anti-Federalist Debate on Congress’s Powers of Taxation DBQ

Lesson

65 Min

State Constitution Comparison

Lesson

70 Min

Argumentation: Self-Interest or Republicanism?

Lesson

80 Min

The Global Impact of the American Revolution DBQ

Lesson

90 Min

Actions of the First Congress

Lesson

95 Min

The National Bank Debate

Lesson

65 Min

Methods of Slave Resistance DBQ

Lesson

80 Min

George Washington in American Art

Lesson

65 Min

George Washington’s Views on Slavery

Lesson

The Founders’ Failure to End Slavery

Lesson

Using Political Cartoons to Understand History

Lesson

Be Washington: Whiskey Rebellion

Lesson

Unit 2 Civics Connection: An Apple of Gold in a Frame of Silver

Lesson

80 Min

Unit 2 Essay Activity

Lesson

John Marshall’s Landmark Cases DBQ

Lesson

70 Min

Changing Views of Slavery Mini-DBQ

Lesson

Responses to the Cherokee Removal Mini DBQ

Lesson

95 Min

American Indians in American Art

Lesson

The Women’s Movement and the Seneca Falls Convention

Lesson

55 Min

Panel (a) is a portrait of John Calhoun. Panel (b) is an image of the first page of the South Carolina Exposition and Protest.

Unit 3 Civics Connection: Liberty and Union

Lesson

115 Min

Unit 3 Essay Activity

Lesson

Irish and German Immigration DBQ

Lesson

50 Min

Dred Scott v. Sandford DBQ

Lesson

90 Min

John Brown: Hero or Villain? DBQ

Lesson

The Election of Lincoln and the Secession of Southern States DBQ

Lesson

90 Min

The Emergence of Black Codes DBQ

Lesson

90 Min

The Rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln DBQ

Lesson

85 Min

Comparing Impeachments across U.S. History

Lesson

75 Min

Unit 4 Civics Connection: Equality, the Civil War, and Reconstruction

Lesson

80 Min

Unit 4 Essay Activity

Lesson

The photograph shows marines lined up in a clearing surrounded by palm trees.

The Annexation of Hawaii DBQ

Lesson

100 Min

Industry and Immigration in the Gilded Age

Lesson

85 Min

Debating Industrial Progress: Andrew Carnegie vs. Henry George

Lesson

65 Min

Populists and Socialists in the Gilded Age

Lesson

75 Min

Debating Strategies for Change: Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois

Lesson

65 Min

Unit 5 Civics Connection: Civil Rights and Economic Freedom

Lesson

80 Min

Unit 5 Essay Activity

Lesson

Women’s Suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment

Lesson

75 Min

The Progressive Movement DBQ

Lesson

80 Min

Schenck v. United States DBQ

Lesson

80 Min

Ernest Hemingway and the Lost Generation

Lesson

90 Min

The KKK during Reconstruction vs. the KKK in the 1920s

Lesson

85 Min

The Blues and the Great Migration

Lesson

Was the Use of the Atomic Bomb Justified? DBQ

Lesson

65 Min

Korematsu v. United States and Japanese Internment DBQ

Lesson

80 Min

Unit 6 Civics Connection: The Role of Government According to the Founders and the Progressives

Lesson

60 Min

Unit 6 Civics Connection: The Constitution and Foreign Policy, 1898-1945

Lesson

70 Min

Unit 6 Essay Activity

Lesson

McCarthyism DBQ

Lesson

70 Min

Kennedy vs. Nixon: TV and Politics

Lesson

The Sound of the Suburbs

Lesson

Civil Disobedience across Time

Lesson

90 Min

The Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Lesson

Civil Rights DBQ

Lesson

A Civil Rights Investigation: Mississippi Burning

Lesson

We Shall Overcome: The Fight for Voting Rights

Lesson

Comparing Presidential Campaign Advertising 1964-1980

Lesson

95 Min

The New York Blackout of 1977

Lesson

80 Min

Vietnam War DBQ

Lesson

Unit 7 Civics Connection: Modern Liberalism, Limited Government, and Rights

Lesson

65 Min

Women walk down a city street and hold signs that say Women Demand Equality and GWU Women's Liberation.

Unit 7 Essay Activity

Lesson

Continuity and Change: Immigration in the United States

Lesson

90 Min

Security, Liberty, and the USA PATRIOT Act LLPH

Lesson

90 Min

George Washington’ Foreign Policy: Comparisons across U.S. History

Lesson

Executive Power in Times of Crisis

Lesson

Cold War DBQ (1947-1989)

Lesson

Unit 8 Civics Connection: Civil Discourse and Contentious Issues

Lesson

65 Min

Unit 8 Essay Activity

Lesson