Two teacher educators collaborated with teachers, media designers, and evaluators to utilize a video, an interactive website, and accompanying curriculum to engage middle school students in historical thinking and learning of history content. The resulting multiplatform project, based on a young Frederick Douglass' life, was piloted in three schools of varying demographics. Results indicated that treatment groups had greater gains in historical knowledge and thinking and exhibited greater student engagement than comparison groups. While students empathized with the young Douglass portrayed in the video and in autobiographical texts, their abilities to interpret primary sources required significant scaffolding. Though none of the pilot teachers perceived themselves as technology users, they responded positively to the experience and used more student-centered lessons with treatment groups than with comparison groups.