The History Matters web site provided information on both Harriet Tubman/Underground Railroad and the Trail of Tears (ôHistory Mattersö). In comparing the information for both topics, I found that there was more and better information on the Tubman topic than on the Trail of Tears.
The web site is distinctive in that it does not contain all of the information for the topics within itself; instead, it points to other web sites that have information about the topic. On the Harriet Tubman/Underground Railroad topic, for example, when I performed a search on ôTubman,ö I was taken to a screen with seven links to other web sites that had information on the topic. The best links for my purposes both led to the National Geographic web siteÆs Underground Railroad, which walked the viewer through a kind of simulation that approximated the sights, sounds, and facts surrounding the escape of a slave by the Underground Railroad. This site did not contain any primary information but provided an interesting summary of the Underground Railroad and Harriet TubmanÆs part in it. The Internet African American History Challenge provided a brief, capsulated biography of Harriet Tubman and her efforts to free slaves, but aside from that, the information on the site was high level, not substantial. Since the site description says ôDesigned for high school and college teachers and students,ö it is apparent that the site is truly intended for children orùat mostùbeginning college students, and their teachers (ôHistory Matters,ö search results). For those purposes, the site was ideal. It boasted excellent graphics, sound files, and an interactive format that allows the student to choose at each stage whether to go on with the next step of the simulation.
For the Trail of Tears research, my search only brought up four links, of which the second was only remotely related to my topic. None of the four links provided a con
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