Curriculum: American Studies 2 (1828-1898)

Social Studies Department: Chicopee Public Schools

Overview: In American Studies 1 and 2, students examine the historical and intellectual origins of the United States during the Revolutionary and Constitutional eras. Students study the basic framework of American democracy and the basic concepts of America government, as well as America's westward expansion, the establishment of political parties, economic and social change, sectional conflict, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.  Students will also analyze the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution and America's growing role in international relations.

Curriculum goals: Grade 9-12 key skills and concepts

The students should be able to:

History and geography

1.            Apply the skills of pre-kindergarten through grade seven.

2.            Identify multiple ways to express time relationships and dates (for example, 1066 AD is the same as 1066 CE, and both refer to a date in the eleventh or 11^th  century, which is the same as the 1000s). Identify countries that use a different calendar from the one used in the U.S. and explain the basis for the difference. (H)

3.            Interpret and construct timelines that show how events and eras in various parts of the world are related to one another. (H)

4.            Interpret and construct charts and graphs that show quantitative information. (H, C, G, E)

5.            Explain how a cause and effect relationship is different from a sequence or correlation of events. (H, C, E)

6.            Distinguish between long-term and short-term cause and effect relationships. (H, G, C, E)

7.            Show connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and ideas and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. (H, G, C, E)

8.            Interpret the past within its own historical context rather than in terms of present-day norms and values. (H, E, C)

9.     Distinguish intended from unintended consequences. (H, E, C)
10. Distinguish historical fact from opinion. (H, E, C)

10. Using historical maps, locate the boundaries of the major empires of world history at the height of their powers. (H, G)

Civics and government

11. Define and use correctly the following words and terms: Magna Carta, parliament, habeas corpus, monarchy, and absolutism. (C)

General economics skills

12. Define and use correctly mercantilism, feudalism, economic growth, and entrepreneur. (E)
13. Explain how people or communities examine and weigh the benefits of each alternative when making a choice and that opportunity costs are those benefits that are given up once an alternative is chosen. (E)
14. Explain how financial markets, such as the stock market, channel funds from savers to investors. (E)
15. Define and use correctly gross domestic product, economic growth, recession, depression, unemployment, inflation, and deflation. (E)
16. Explain how opportunity costs and tradeoffs can be evaluated through an analysis of marginal costs and benefits. (E)
17. Explain how competition among sellers lowers costs and prices, and encourages producers to produce more. (E)
18. Describe the role of buyers and sellers in determining the equilibrium price, and use supply and demand to explain and predict changes in quantity and price. (E)
19. Describe how the earnings of workers are affected by the market value of the product produced and worker skills. (E)

20.    Identify the causes of inflation and explain who benefits from inflation and who suffers from inflation. (E)

21.    Define and distinguish between absolute and comparative advantage, and explain how most trade occurs because of comparative advantage in the production of a particular good or service. (E)

22.    Explain how changes in exchange rates affect balance of trade and the purchasing power of people in the United States and other countries. (E)

23. Differentiate between fiscal and monetary policy. (E)

24. Explain the basic economic functions of the government in the economy of the United States. (E)
25. Examine the development of the banking system in the United States, and describe the organization and functions of the Federal Reserve System. (E)
26. Identify and describe laws and regulations adopted in the United States to promote economic competition. (E, H)
27. Analyze how federal tax and spending policies affect the national budget and the national debt. (E)

WEEK ONE

Strands:  USI.20, USI.21, USI. 24

1. The Age of Jackson
2. The Jacksonian policies on the National Bank
3. Nicholas Biddle
4. The Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears
5. The Revolution o 1828 and the “New Democracy”
6. Manifest Destiny and America’s westward expansion
7. The growth of sectionalism and specialization. Was the Civil War inevitable?
8. The Peggy Eaton Affair and Martin Van Buren
9. Calhoun’s resignation as VP as he becomes a champion for states’ rights
10. The spoil’s system and political corruption

Suggested Primary Source Document:

1. John Calhoun’s “Exposition”

Suggested Thematic Essays

1.   In 1816, John C. Calhoun had supported protective tariff legislation.  In 1828, he denounced protective tariffs?  Why did he switch?

2. If you had lived in the 1820s would you have voted for Andrew Jackson?  Why or why not?
3. Evaluate the wisdom of Jackson’s veto of the re-charter bill for the Bank of the United States.  Who gained and who lost from his veto?
4. Why has Andrew Jackson been called the first modern president?

WEEK TWO

Strands: USI 20, USI 21, USI 24

1. The Wild West
2. Discuss entry in Texas
3. Mexican policies and the end of slavery
4. The tensions among Americans and Mexicans
5. The Alamo and Goliad
6. The Creation of the Whig Party Anti-Masonic Party
7. Van Buren’s Presidency and the economic depression he faced

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. What traits fostered by America’s early nineteenth century frontier experience are less than admirable?  Why did they become American traits?
2. It has been claimed that the frontier acted as a “safety valve” for the East allowing the discontented to begin an alternative life on the Frontier.  To what extent does this seem to have been true?

WEEK THREE

Strands: US I.20, USI.21, USI.24

1. American Heritage and Immigration
2. German Immigration into the United States in the 1830s
3. The Potato Famine
4. Urbanization into major cities
5. Politics of the Irish in America
6. Introduction of German Immigrants and their roles in education
7. Development of Nativist attitudes and the Know Nothing Party
8. The Freemasons

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. If America is indeed a “nation of immigrants,” why does it have a history of native prejudice toward new immigrant groups?
2. Compare and contrast the Irish and German immigrants of early-nineteenth-century America in terms of their motives for leaving Europe, pattern of settlement in the IS, impact on American life, and reception by native-born Americans

WEEK FOUR

Strands: US1.27, US II.1

1. Advances in Technology and the Industrial Revolution
2. Samuel Slater and introduction of factory system
3. Steam power and the steamboat
4. Creation of canals and railways
5. Samuel Morse, Elias Howe and Isaac Singer and interchangeable parts
6. Importance of Mill towns (Lowell, Chicopee, etc)
7. Building of canals

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Why were mill towns a prevalent force of industry in the North, and do you feel that our nation’s success was dependent on them?
2. Explain the origins of the Industrial Revolution in America.  When did it begin and why was did begin in England so much earlier?

WEEK FIVE

Strands:  USI. 26. USI. 27.

1. The North and South
2. Importance of Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin
3. Increased need for slavery
4. Immigration and the Factory system
5. Social Mobility and the rise of the middle class
6. Merchants and Manufacturers
7. Industrial North vs. Agrarian South
8. Family structure in North and South

Suggested Thematic Essay:

1. It has been argued that both Britain and the North were tied to the South with “cotton threads”. Explain.

WEEK SIX

Strands: USI. 28. USI. 29. USI. 30

1. Antebellum Culture and Reform
2. Romantic Literature, Art and Music
3. James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville
4. Educational reform of Horace Mann
5. Rise of Abolitionists
6. Slaves in cities
7. The Liberator, American Antislavery Society, Liberty Party
8. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and William Lloyd Garrison

Suggested Primary Source Documents:

1. “The Narratives of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass
2. The Liberator by: William Lloyd Garrison
3. Frederick Douglass’s Independence Day speech at Rochester, New York (1852)

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Assume the role of a southern slave.  Describe what life is like for you.  What experiences have you had, what have you seen happen, what emotions have you felt, and what do you believe and value.
2. It was argued by some that the slaves were better off than both wage earners in the northern industry and free blacks back in Africa.  Do you agree?  Why or why not?

WEEK SEVEN

Strands: USI. 31. USI. 32.

1. The Expanding Role of Women, Religion and Education
2. Growing Protestant population
3. The Second Great Awakening
4. Religious tension in America
5. Woman’s rights movement
6. Seneca Falls Convention
7. Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott

8. The Temperance Movement
9. Manifest Destiny

Suggested Primary Source Document:

1. Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Suggested Thematic Essays

1. Why were women prominent in the social reform crusades of the early nineteenth century?  What contribution did they make to social reform?
2. What do you find the single most worthwhile reform movement of the early nineteenth century?  Why?

WEEK EIGHT

Strands: USI. 34, USI.35 USI.36

1. Crisis and Conflict in Antebellum America

1. 2.James K. Polk and Texas
2. Mexican-American War
3. Westward Migration and the California Gold Rush
4. Missouri Compromise, Nullification Crisis, and Compromise of 1850
5. Discussion of Racism in society then and now
6. Various slave revolts and fear of more (Nat Turner)
7. The Amistad
8. Nat Turner and fear of slave rebellions
9. Kansas-Nebraska Act
10. Dred Scott, John Brown’s Raid
11. Strength of Sectionalism in the United States
12. Wilmot Proviso

Suggested Primary Source Document:

1. Amistad Supreme Court proceedings

Suggested Thematic Essays

1. Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836.  Why wasn’t it annexed to the US until 1845.
2. Explain why the Kansas-Nebraska Act might be characterized as a serious mistake for southern interests.

WEEK NINE:

Strands:  USI.35, USI.36, USI.37

1. The Compromise of 1850
2. The Road to the Civil War
3. Southern views on secession
4. Bleeding Kansas
5. The Dred Scot Decision
6. The election of 1860 and the role of government factions in the election
7. Northern view of “Union”
8. The first inaugural address of Lincoln
9. The attack and assumption of Fort Sumter
10. The Battle of Bull Run
11. The Free states, slave states, and Border States

Suggested Primary Source Documents:

1. “Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address”
2. The majority decision in the “Dred Scot case”

Suggested Thematic Essays

1. In what way did the Compromise of 1850 contribute to the Union victory in the Civil War?
2. Do you think that by the end of 1854 the two sections had reached an impasse and that the Civil War was inevitable sooner or later?  Why or why not?

WEEK TEN

Strands: USI.35, USI.36, USI.39, USI.40

1.     The Civil War Begins

2. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
3. United States Map during the Civil War
4. Lincoln’s goals to save the Union
5. Border states and their importance
6. The attack on Fort Sumter
7. The First Battle of Bull Run
8. The benefits of and detriments of the Confederacy and Union
9. George McClellan’s inadequacy
10. The Anaconda Plan

1. 11.Harriet Beecher Stowe and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

Suggested Document:

1. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” excerpts by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. In what way was the election of 1860 “for all practical purposes two separate contests”?  What were the issues in each contest?
2. When confronted with Southern secession in 1861, why didn’t Lincoln simply allow the South to separate in peace?
3. Identify the significance of the Border States to both the North and the South.  How did they influence the shaping of the Union strategy?

WEEK ELEVEN

Strands: USI.38, USI.39, USI.40

1. The Shift to End Slavery and the End of War
2. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson
3. Various Civil War Battles
4. The Emancipation Proclamation
5. The Massachusetts 54^th Regiment
6. U.S. Grant
7. Total War and it’s reality
8. Lee’s surrender
9. Lincoln’s assassination
10. Foreign nation’s views and involvement in US Civil War

Required Primary Source Documents:

1. “The Gettysburg Address”
2. “The Emancipation Proclamation”

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Which of the following do you think was the most significant battle of the Civil War: Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg? Why?
2. Explain the economic, military, and diplomatic results of the Union victory and Confederate defeat in the Civil War.  What do you think was the main reason that the South lost?  Explain your choice.

WEEK TWELVE:

Strands: USI.40, USI.41

1. Lincoln’s assassination
2. Overview of Reconstruction
3. Lincoln’s Reconstruction ideals
4. Andrew Johnson’s presidency
5. Varying views on Reconstruction
6. The Civil War Amendments
7. Reconstruction Acts
8. The Freedman’s Bureau

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Identify those processes of presidential Reconstruction policy to which Congress objected.  Why did congressional leaders object?
2. How did freed slaves respond to Reconstruction?  How did freedom affect the economic, social, and political life of former slaves?

WEEK THIRTEEN

Strands: USI.41, USII.1

1. The Failures of Reconstruction
2. The impeachment of Andrew Johnson
3. The impeachment process
4. Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
5. Life for freedmen after the Civil War
6. Share cropping, lien systems, and tenant farming
7. African Americans in politics
8. Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
9. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan
10. Grant’s Presidency
11. Compromise of 1877
12. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Suggested Primary Source Documents:

1. “South Carolina Literacy Exam”
2. Court transcripts of “Plessy v. Ferguson

Suggested Thematic Essays

1. With hindsight it is sometimes claimed that Reconstruction was a failure.  Why?
2. Compare and contrast Lincoln’s, Johnson’s and Congress’s plans for Reconstruction.  Cite what was included and what was omitted.  Which program do you think was the best?  Why?

WEEK FOURTEEN

Strands: USII.3, USII.4

1. America Heads West
2. Native Americans on the Plains
3. US goals of assimilation
4. The transcontinental railroad and effects on economy and culture
5. The Chivington Massacre
6. Custer’s Last Stand
7. Native American culture and the buffalo
8. Battle of Wounded Knee
9. Dawes Severalty Act
10. Boom or Bust towns
11. The Open Range
12. The “Real” West
13. Dry Farming

Suggested Primary Source Document:

1. “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus (1883)

Suggested Thematic Essays

1. If you had lived at the time, what would you have proposed as a solution to the “Indian problem”?  What would have been your view on “concentration,” the Dawes Severalty Act, and the savagery of Indian warfare?
2. If you had lived at the time, which would you have most wanted to join: the mining frontier, the ranching frontier, or the farming frontier?  Why?

WEEK FIFTEEN

Strands: USII.1, USII.2, USII.5

1. Robber Barons and the Government
2. Mass Production
3. The importance of the railways
4. Trusts, corporations, and stocks
5. The Gospel of Wealth
6. Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan, and Rockefeller
7. Government involvement in Big Business
8. Inventions: light bulb, telegraph, etc.
9. Social Darwinism
10. The Sherman Anti-trust Act
11. Unionization:
12. Development of chain stores and department stores

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Compare and contrast the methods used by late-nineteenth-century corporations to control competition-especially the pool, trust interlocking directorate, and vertical integration.
2. Compare and contrast the National Labor Union, Knights of Labor, and American Federation of Labor in regard to their origins, goals, and leadership.  Account for the failure of the fist two and for the success of the AFL.
3. Write your definition of the gospel of wealth.  Do you agree with its assumptions? Why or why not?

WEEK SIXTEEN

Strands: USII.1, USII.2

1. The Gilded Age
2. Gilded Age politics
3. Political Machines
4. Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall
5. Thomas Nast
6. The Homestead Strike
7. New Immigration to the US
8. Problems with Industrialization
9. Issues in urban America

Primary Source Document:

1. Thomas Nast’s “Tweed Cartoons”

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Who do you feel was the best president in the Gilded Age?  Why?
2. Explain the statement that the late-nineteenth-century cities “grew up, out, and apart.”  Had you been alive at the time, what might have attracted you to the city?  What might have caused you to stay there or to go back “down on the farm?”

WEEK SEVENTEEN

Strands: USII.1

1. The Currency Issue and Problems for Farmers
2. The Tariff issue
3. The Gold/ Silver Issue
4. William Jennings Bryan
5. Civil Service Reform
6. Grover Cleveland as President
7. The Age of Realism
8. The Grange and Populist Party

Suggested Thematic Essay:

1. Explain why the Populist Party at first became the most successful third party in American history up to that time; then explain why it failed to survive the decade of the 1890s.

WEEK EIGHTEEN: 

Strands: USII.1, USII.8

1. The Depression of 1893
2. Coxey’s Army
3. The Pullman Strike
4. Back Porch Campaign’s

2. 5.The election of 1896

Primary Source Document:

1. William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold Speech”

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Why did “free silver’ become the key issue of the farmers’ revolt?  What other issues were important to them?  Explain why Populism came down to a single-issue movement in 1896.
2. Political historians often argue that the election of 1896 was a “turning point” and a watershed year” in national politics.  Why?

WEEK NINETEEN

Strands:  USII.6

1. American Expansion
2. Purchase of Alaska
3. American occupation of Hawaii
4. Pan-American Conference
5. Chilean Crisis
6. Venezuela/ British Guiana border dispute
7. The Spanish American War
8. McKinley’s Presidency and views on war
9. Yellow Journalism

Suggested Thematic Essays:

1. Was the Spanish-American War necessary?  List the alternatives to war available to McKinley in 1898 and explain why he rejected them in favor of a war policy.
2. What do you consider the most important domestic and foreign policy consequences of the Spanish-American War?  Why?

WEEK TWENTY

1. Review
2. Final Examination

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