This page lists resources from Florida Memory that support the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards' American History strand. Resource types include exhibits, photo exhibits, collections, and individual documents. Benchmarks are arranged by grade level.
Papers Concerning the Will of Zephaniah Kingsley, 1844, 1846 Kingsley was a wealthy planter and slave owner in northeast Florida. His heirs included his wife, an African-American named Anna M. J. Kingsley, and their children. While incomplete and inconclusive, these documents reveal the precarious and dynamic status of free blacks in antebellum Florida.
Collection
SS.8.A.4.17
Examine key events and peoples in Florida history as each impacts this era of American history.
Remarks/Examples:
Examples are Andrew Jackson's military expeditions to end Indian uprisings, developing relationships between the Seminole and runaway slaves, Adams-Onis Treaty, Florida becoming a United States territory, combining former East and West Floridas, establishing first state capital, Florida's constitution, Florida's admittance to the Union as 27th state.
Florida Memory Benchmark Ties:
Act Establishing Florida Statehood, 1845 The Act establishing statehood for Iowa and Florida was approved on March 3, 1845 by the second session of the 28th Congress. At the end of this document is indicated "March 5th, 1845. A true copy from the roll in this department."
Document
Florida Memory Benchmark Ties:
Florida's Early Constitutions One of the requirements for a territory to become a State of the Union is that its constitution be approved by Congress. The 1838 constitution was used to fulfill the requirement.
Collection
Standard: Examine the causes, course, and consequence of the Civil War and Reconstruction including its effects on American peoples.
SS.8.A.5.3
Explain major domestic and international economic, military, political, and socio-cultural events of Abraham Lincoln's presidency.
Remarks/Examples
Examples are sectionalism, states' rights, slavery, Civil War, attempts at foreign alliances, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, Second Inaugural Address.
Florida Memory Benchmark Ties:
“Lincoln Letters” at the State Archives of Florida Although there is no evidence that Abraham Lincoln ever visited Florida, his election to the presidency in 1860 and his leadership of the Union during the Civil War had a tremendous influence on Florida just as it did on the rest of the South. This exhibit consist of letters, diaries, government records, and business correspondence dating from 1860 to 1865 that refer to Lincoln as a presidential candidate and the leader of the Union during the Civil War. Among the wide range of subjects found in the documents are politics, banking, battles, prisoner of war camps, family concerns, wartime shortages, religion, and Lincoln’s assassination. In addition to Lincoln, the documents also contain references to many other significant Civil War leaders including Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, and Braxton Bragg on the Confederate side and Ulysses S. Grant, William S. Rosecrans, and George McClellan for the Union.
Exhibit
SS.8.A.5.7
Examine key events and peoples in Florida history as each impacts this era of American history.
Remarks/Examples:
Examples are slavery, influential planters, Florida's secession and Confederate membership, women, children, pioneer environment, Union occupation, Battle of Olustee and role of 54th Massachusetts regiment, Battle at Natural Bridge.
Florida Memory Benchmark Ties:
Ordinance of Secession, 1861 This is a one-page handwritten copy of the Ordinance of Secession passed on January 10, 1861 by the members of the Florida Convention of the People (commonly referred to as the Secession Convention). Pursuant to an Act of the Legislature approved November 30, 1860, Governor Madison S. Perry issued a proclamation calling an election on Saturday, December 22, 1860, for delegates to a Convention to address the issue of whether Florida had a right to withdraw from the Union. The Secession Convention met on January 3, 1861 in Tallahassee, and passed the Ordinance of Secession on January 10, declaring Florida to be "a sovereign and independent nation."
Document
Florida Memory Benchmark Ties:
Florida's Early Constitutions 1861 – The onrush of the Civil War brought in Florida the election in 1860 of a convention "for the purpose of taking into consideration the position of this State in the Federal Union." This convention met in Tallahassee on January 3, 1861, and had produced for adoption on January 10 an Ordinance of Secession and a Constitution which largely altered the existing Constitution by substituting "Confederate States" for "United States." 1865 – To re-enter the union under Presidential Reconstruction, a constitution was created by a convention called by the appointed governor. This constitution was never in effect. The U.S. Congress rejected it and put Florida under Radical Reconstruction (military rule) until 1868. 1868 – The Reconstruction constitution returned civilian control of the state. It enfranchised black males and required each voter to take an oath of loyalty to the State of Florida and the United States Government.
