Common-Place is an online Early American history journal. Now don’t call it on ‘zine, this is not 2001 folks. The journal, sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society and the University of Oklahoma, is written predominantly by professional historians and scholars but note that a number of author are secondary social studies teachers. This is one of those sites that you find as a US History teacher and think, wow this is exactly what I am looking for to use with my students. The quality of the writing is on a high level, but very accessible to a high school classroom. What you find are articles and ideas about history that are not found in the text. The design and voice of the site are perfectly suited for the secondary classroom, and I think if you have students who are passionate about history and looking for more information this site is a great place to send them.
I originally found the site while developing lessons for the Franklin Tercentenary Project, for a lesson on Franklin’s autobiography. The lesson I developed (since edited and changed) used an article titled “Walking Moraley’s Streets: Philadelphia” this fascinating piece by Billy Smith, of the University of Montana, examines the real life of Walter Moraley an indentured servant who landed in Philadelphia approximately the same time as Franklin. Unlike, Franlkin’s story of his first hours in the city we have a true written record from Morley of life in the city. I use the article and sections of the autobiography to have students compare and contrast, and start a critical analysis of Franklin and the life story he published to the world. I have since use the Smith article time and again as a reading assignment before lectures on the history of Philadelphia, but most often as a reading before I give a walking tour of 18th century Philadelphia.
