Historical thinking skills allow historians to better practice and interpret history. This series teaches students how to develop these skills to become better historians themselves.

This Learning Lab will guide students through the process of defining cause and effect and practicing employing strategies from an example dealing with the 1850s and the Abolitionist Movement.

Historians ask how an individual, group, event or idea was caused or influenced by events that came before it, as well as what short-term and long-term effects that an individual, group, event, or idea had on what came after.

Keywords: nmaahc, African, American, historical, thinking, skills, cause, effect, 1850s, abolition, slavery, interpret, analyze