Skip to main content
Textbooks
Overview
US History Textbook
US Government Textbook
Historic Documents
Overview
The Declaration of Independence
Founding Documents
The Bill of Rights
Historic Personages
Overview
The Electric Ben Franklin
George Washington at Valley Forge
Thomas Paine
Betsy Ross and the US Flag
William Penn
Notable People
Philadelphia
Overview
Birch's Views of Philadelphia
Philadelphia History
Historic Districts
Walking Tours of Historic Philadelphia
Philadelphia Oddities
Republican Philadelphia
Revolutionary War
Overview
The Philadelphia Campaign of 1777
Battle of Brandywine
Historic Places
Overview
The President's House
Historic Germantown
The Liberty Bell
Lazaretto Quarantine Station
About
Overview
The Independence Hall Association
Textbooks
Overview
Complete textbooks, free to every reader: the story of the United States from its first peoples to the new millennium, and the workings of US government.
Read more
US History
The full sweep of the United States, from first peoples to the new millennium, in sixty units.
Read more
US Government
How the republic works: the Constitution, the branches, and the citizen, in thirteen units.
Read more
Historic Documents
Overview
The founding texts of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the speeches and civic writings that shaped a nation, preserved in full and free to read.
Read more
The Declaration of Independence
The full text, its drafting, its signers, and its legacy.
Read more
Founding Documents
The Bill of Rights, landmark speeches, and civic texts, in full.
Read more
Historic Personages
Overview
The lives that shaped the founding of the United States: printers and generals, flagmakers and pamphleteers, preserved in their own words and records.
Read more
The Electric Ben Franklin
Printer, scientist, diplomat: his life and works in full.
George Washington at Valley Forge
The winter encampment of 1777 to 1778.
Thomas Paine
Common Sense, The Crisis, and the major works, complete.
Betsy Ross and the US Flag
The flagmaker of Arch Street and the flag's history.
William Penn
The founder of Pennsylvania and his holy experiment.
Notable People
Signers, patriots, and citizens across the archive.
Philadelphia
Overview
The city where the United States began: its history and its neighborhoods, its politics and its people, and the views its artists left behind.
Read more
Birch's Views of Philadelphia
The city of 1800, engraved plate by plate.
Republican Philadelphia
The seat of national government, 1790 to 1800.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Charters, boundaries, and the frame of government.
Philadelphia History
Four centuries of the city, with timeline and postcards.
Walking Tours of Historic Philadelphia
Guided walks through the historic city.
Historic Districts
The neighborhoods, from Fairmount Park to Market Street.
Philadelphia Oddities
The city's curiosities, from ENIAC to Grip the raven.
Revolutionary War
Overview
The war for independence as the capital lived it: the campaign for Philadelphia, the engagements beyond it, and the soldiers and commanders on both sides.
Read more
The Philadelphia Campaign of 1777
From the landing at Head of Elk to the fall of the capital: the battles, marches, and decisions of 1777.
Read more
Battle of Brandywine
September 11, 1777: the war's largest single-day battle, and after it the road to Philadelphia lay open.
Read more
Historic Places
Overview
The ground where it happened: the house where presidents lived and the enslaved labored, the bell that became a symbol of liberty, and the station that guarded the port.
Read more
Lazaretto Quarantine Station
The oldest quarantine station in the United States.
The Liberty Bell
Its casting, its crack, and how it became a symbol.
The President's House
The first executive mansion and the household it held, free and enslaved.
Historic Germantown
The village of firsts, from Tompkins to the upper burying ground.
About
Overview
An archive kept by the Independence Hall Association: who we are, why this history is free, and how the work continues.
Read more
The Independence Hall Association
The association's own record: its founding in 1942, its campaigns for Independence National Historical Park, and its work since.
Read more
Home
Textbooks
US History
Home
Textbooks
US History
34. The War Behind the Lines
34. The War Behind the Lines
Emancipation, wartime diplomacy, both home fronts, the election of 1864, and the assassination.
34. The War Behind the Lines
Library of CongressInset from a portrait of Abraham Lincoln based on a photograph by Alexander Gardner taken 8/9/1863. Modern wars are not confined to the batt…
Read more
34a. The Emancipation Proclamation
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln painted by Francis Carpenter' class='fancybox'>U.S. SenateFirst Reading of the Emancipat…
Read more
34b. Wartime Diplomacy
A Northern commentary on foreign relations, this political cartoon shows England (John Bull) forsaking its stand against slavery when tempted by Southern cotto…
Read more
34c. The Northern Homefront
At age 12, with $100 in borrowed money, "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt began building a shipping and railroad empire. He died the richest man in America. Aft…
Read more
34d. The Southern Homefront
William Ludwell SheppardIn the Hospital, 1861, is a tribute to Southern nurses. Civil War nurses were sometimes called "angels of the battlefield," working lon…
Read more
34e. The Election of 1864
This torchlight parade for George McClellan, the Democratic nominee for President took place in New York City in 1864. It is hard for modern Americans to belie…
Read more
34f. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Library of CongressJohn Wilkes Booth leaps from the President's box at Ford's Theater after shooting Lincoln and stabbing Major Rathbone. On April 11, 1865, tw…
Read more
