Curriculum Background

Introduction to Making Freedom

Primary Source’s Making Freedom Digital Curriculum was designed to recount, like no other available resource, the African American experience in the United States.

This groundbreaking curriculum began in 1995 as a result of the synergy and vision of a group of Boston area teachers, several scholars, and the program staff of Primary Source. Amongst other highlights, the Making Freedom Sourcebooks at its inception contained information and materials that demonstrate two important phenomena: the social agency and intellectual achievement shown throughout African American history, and the inextricable relationship of African Americans to the collective history and cultural development of the United States. 

Making Freedom intentionally illuminates the variety of experiences of African Americans, focusing both on individual ideas and actions and on collective efforts to hold America accountable to the ideas of freedom and equality both in its original print version and its revised digital format. Therefore, we have purposely emphasized individuals and events that are not often included in standard American history textbooks in order to widen and deepen the narrative – not to repeat the few names and events familiar to most teachers and students. The included lesson topics are crafted to deepen students’ historical understanding beginning with the WEALTH OF AFRICA while also paying tribute to the strength, endurance, creativity, and contributions of those on AMERICAN SOIL. The accompanying resources, curated primary sources, including a variety of text-based and visual materials, and accompanying professional development focus on providing an accurate, inclusive understanding of our nation’s history, with an expansive range of voices, perspectives, and experiences that provide context to conventional narratives in U.S history. Thus the curriculum enables teachers to weave the African American story into and throughout the wider narrative of American history. This curriculum was originally published in 2004 by Heineman as a series of five source books, organizing the lessons in chronological order. This This updated digital curriculum (2024) revises all of the original lessons 

Within the revision, you also expect to see the enhancement of our culturally responsive lens in addition to a focus on activities and resources that consider the impact and social emotional needs of all students.