1 Geography of the United States
What can geography teach us about the United States?
Discover how to read a globe to find places on Earth. Learn about different landmasses and bodies of water found on Earth. Explore the political and physical geography, climate, and vegetation of the United States.
Read & Do: Where Geography Meets History
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2 American Indians and Their Land
How did American Indians adapt to different environments in North America?
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Find out about the first people to live in North America. Learn where American Indians came from, where they chose to live, and why they established different ways of life.
Read & Do: Recording Lakota History
3 American Indian Cultural Regions
How and why did American Indian cultural regions differ?
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Discover how several American Indian groups adapted to different geographic areas. Learn how groups in different areas used their environments to make homes, clothes, and other objects. See why, in each region, they created a unique way of life.
Read & Do: Four Young American Indians
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4 How and Why Europeans Came to the New World
What did explorers take to and from the New World during the Age of Exploration?
Dive into the past by examining remains on a sunken ship. Learn what different artifacts reveal about why European explorers set sail for the New World. Find out what tools helped them make this journey.
Read & Do: Changes in Europe Spur Exploration
5 Routes of Exploration to the New World
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How did exploration of the Americas lead to settlement? Read about eight European explorers. Discover why they came to the New World and how their arrival affected the people who were already living there.
Read & Do: Who Wins Florida?
6 Early English Settlements
What challenges faced the first English colonies?
Learn about three groups that came to North America from England. Discover the challenges and hardships they faced as they struggled to survive and build new communities in North America.
Read & Do: King Philip Decides on War
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7 Comparing the Colonies
How were the three colonial regions alike and different?
Compare six British colonies in North America. Learn how life in three colonial regions—New England, Middle, and Southern— was similar and different. Ponder what life would have been like in each region.
Read & Do: Choosing a Career in the Colonies
8 Slavery in the Americas....................................
What was the impact of slavery on Africans?
Explore how capturing and trading enslaved people changed the lives of West Africans. Learn about why enslaved Africans were traded and how they traveled across the Atlantic and into a life of bondage in the Americas.
Read & Do: How Enslaved Africans Kept Hope Alive ...... 116
9 Life in Colonial Williamsburg
What were key parts of life for Southern colonists in the 1700s?
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Take a walking tour of the colonial town of Williamsburg, capital of the colony of Virginia. Surround yourself with colonial sights, from the grand home of the royal governor to the dismal quarters of enslaved Africans.
Read & Do: A Religious Revival in the Colonies 136
10 Tensions Grow Between the Colonies and Great Britain
What British actions angered the colonists in the 1700s?
Read about the relationship American colonists had with Great Britain during the 1700s. Discover what actions Great Britain took that angered American colonists.
Read & Do: King George III and His Colonies
11 To Declare Independence or Not
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What were the arguments for and against colonial independence from Great Britain?
Discover how Loyalists and Patriots viewed the movement to separate from Great Britain. Feel the passions of the day by learning about arguments for and against independence.
Read & Do: Patrick Henry, Radical
Revolutionary 164
12 The Declaration of Independence
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What are the main ideas in the Declaration of Independence?
Learn about American independence from the point of view of Patriot leaders, such as Thomas Jefferson. Discover the events and ideas that inspired Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, one of the most important documents in American history.
Read & Do: Jefferson’s Conflict: Ideas vs. Reality
13 The American Revolution
How did the colonists win the American Revolution?
Read about the battles during the American Revolution.
Discover what struggles the small, inexperienced Continental army had to overcome in order to win against the large, professional British army.
Read & Do: The Revolution’s Home Front
14 The Constitution
What are the key features of the U.S. Constitution?
Learn why the first central government of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, failed. Discover how the Founding Fathers came to write the Constitution—one of the greatest plans of government ever created.
Read & Do: Inside the Constitutional Convention
15 The Bill of Rights
What are the basic rights and freedoms of people in the United States?
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Discover how the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to protect citizens’ rights. Reflect on these rights and how they affect U.S. citizens today.
Read & Do: Individual Rights vs. Society’s Needs
16 Our Role in Government
What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States?
Find out about the need for laws and how laws affect the people of the United States. Read about what responsibilities and values the Founding Fathers believe are important for U.S. citizens to have.
Read & Do: How Students Make a Difference
17 Shaping America’s Economy
How did the Founding Fathers create the economy we use today?
Learn about the free market and why the Founding Fathers chose to use it. Discover how the Constitution affected the economy of the United States.
Read & Do: The Rise of Cotton in the South
18 Manifest Destiny and Settling the West
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How did the expansion of the United States affect people inside and outside the country?
Read about how the United States acquired lands across North America. Find out why many Americans believed that they should spread their way of life all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Read & Do: The Cherokee Trail of Tears
19 The Diverse Peoples of the West
What drew new settlers to the western part of the United States in the 1800s?
Discover the diversity of the West in the 1800s. Journey to these territories with four groups of people who moved westward. Learn about two groups of people who were already living in the West during this time.
Read & Do: Laura Ingalls Wilder on the Prairie
20 The Causes of the Civil War
What factors helped drive apart the North and the South in the mid-1800s?
Read about the tensions in the United States that led to the bloodiest conflict in our history. Examine the dispute between the North and South over slavery that increased these tensions.
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Read & Do: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Book........................ 292
21 The Civil War
What factors contributed to the outcome of the Civil War?
Discover what it was like to be involved in a terrible conflict that killed more Americans than any other war. Visit the battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to learn about a Civil War soldier’s daily life.
Read & Do: Life After Slavery in the South
22 The American Industrial Revolution
How did industrialization change the United States?
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Discover how industry changed life in the United States. Read about how the countries of the world began to work together more closely.
Read & Do: Buying Goods: Then and Now
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23 The Modern United States
How has life in the United States changed since industrialization?
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Learn about key historical periods that have dramatically changed the United States since the end of industrialization. Appreciate how these changes have affected your own life.
Then ponder what innovations may impact America’s future.
Read & Do: Challenges and Hope for Immigrants
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Colonial Regions
Maps
World Map: Continents and Oceans
World Map: Latitude and Longitude
Regional Map of the United States
Physical Features of the Continental United States
Average Temperature in the United States
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Overland Route to California, 1850 18 Water Routes to California, 1849 19 Migration Routes to North and South America 25
American Indian Cultural Regions of North America 36 European Routes to the Americas
European Claims in the New World, 1492–1750 79
Southern New England, 1675 89 Colonial Regions
Colonial Industries
The Triangular Trade 111 North America in 1763 143
Key Events of the American Revolution 188 Mexican War, 1846–1848 260 U.S. Land Acquisitions, 1803–1853
Cherokee Relocation in 1838
The Status of Slavery in the United States in 1820 286 U.S. States and Territories, 1860
The Civil War 307 World Political Map
World Physical Map
United States Political Map
United States Physical Map
Primary Sources
Primary sources are created by people who have seen or taken part in the events described. See for yourself what you can learn about history from old photos, maps, song lyrics, and artifacts.
Photo of San Francisco harbor during the California gold rush 21
Photo of Inuit family, Plover Bay, Northern Alaska 28
Lakota pictographs depicting important events 30
Lakota winter count 32
Photo of American Indian keeper painting pictographs 33 American Indian pottery artifacts
Anasazi cliff dwellings 40
Photo of Makah whale hunters, 1910 46
Photo of Makah basket weavers
Taos Pueblos
Iroquois beaded belts 51
Ortelius World Map, 1570 56
Latin Bible, 1455 57
Spanish gold doubloon, 1700s 58
Map of New World, written in Spanish, 1519 64
Map of Florida, 1555 69
Engraving of Savannah, Georgia, 1734 100
Poster showing plan for stowing slaves on the British slave ship Brookes, 1789 112
Map of Colonial Williamsburg, 1781 120
Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation, 1640 125
Lyrics for “Juba,” a call-and-response song 133
Political cartoon about the Intolerable Acts, 1774 152
Printer’s sheet of Stamp Act one-penny stamps, 1765
Thomas Paine’s booklet Common Sense, 1776
Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, 1776
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The Constitution of the United States, 1787 194 Pewter U.S. coin, issued in 1776 205
Resolution of the Continental Convention, 1787 207
Photo of Mary Beth and John Tinker, 1968 218
Photo of Lorena, Paul, and Mary Beth Tinker, 1969 219
Photo of Vietnam War protesters, 1960s 220
Letter written by Lewis Nicola to George Washington, 1787 224
Front page of the Massachusetts Spy, 1774 226
Quotation from George Washington’s annual message, 1796 226 Quotation from letter by Thomas Jefferson, 1792 227
Quotation from The Federalist papers by John Jay, 1787 228
Quotation from The Boston Gazette by Samuel Adams, 1771 230
Patent drawing, February 22, 1870 245
Photo of a Cherokee school in Oklahoma, 1880s 265
Illustration of bison hunt in Harper’s Weekly magazine, 1874 268
Photo, with oil paint coloring, of Laura Ingalls and her sisters, about 1880
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Poster advertising Iowa and Nebraska land for sale, 1872 279
Photo of Abraham Lincoln, 1864 290
Title page of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852 293
Title page of Aunt Phillis’s Cabin, 1852 294
Photo with hand coloring of a Union soldier, 1861–1864 299
Photo with hand coloring of a Confederate soldier, 1861–1864 299
Photo of Union Army artillery guns at Yorktown, Virginia, 1862 302
Photo of a Civil War Union Army ambulance drill, 1864 303
Political cartoon in Harper’s Weekly magazine called “The Food Question Down South,” 1863 304
Photo of Civil War damage in Charleston, South Carolina 308
Photo, with oil paint coloring, of Mississippi cotton pickers, late 1800s 310
Photo of Detroit automobile engine factory workers, about 1903 315
Photo of automobile assembly line, about 1929 316
Cover of program for woman suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., 1913
Photo of World War I soldiers putting on gas masks, 1918
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Photo of U.S. Marines raising flag on Iwo Jima, 1945 331
Cold War cartoon “Handle with care!,” about 1949 332
Photo of civil rights leaders with President Kennedy, 1963 333
Photo of firefighters at World Trade Center, New York City, after terrorist attack, September 11, 2001 334
The Declaration of Independence 352
The Constitution of the United States 356
Original Manuscript of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” 1914 377