Topic 1:  Early Colonization and Growth of Colonies

 

• Supporting Question:  To what extent was North America a land of opportunity, and for whom? 
  

 

An Iroquois longhouse

 

 

1.  Explain the early relationships of English settlers to Native Peoples in the 1600s and 1700s, including the differing views on land ownership or use, property rights, and conflicts between the two groups (e.g., the Pequot and King Philip's Wars in New England).

 

• English Settlers and Native Peoples

 

• Native People European Settler Conflicts and Wars

 

• Metacomet and King Philip's War

 

• The Peskeompskut Massacre or Battle of Great Falls

 

• Cahokia and Etzanoa, Pre-Contact Native American Cities

 

• Lord Jeffrey Amherst and the Smallpox Blankets

 

• Mesa Verde National Park

 

• The Mohawk Trail

 

• Old North Trail 

First American Homes: A Classroom Makerspace Learning Activity  

 

 

2.  Compare the different reasons colonies were established and research one of the founders of a colony (e.g., Lord Baltimore in Maryland, William Penn in Pennsylvania, John Smith in Virginia, Roger Williams in Rhode Island, John Winthrop in Massachusetts.

 

• Founding of the Original 13 Colonies

 

• Leaders of the Puritans and Pilgrims 

 

• The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 

 

 Pocahontas and the Jamestown Colony

 

 Anne Hutchinson, Early American Feminist

 

The Pilgrims, the Plymouth Colony, and When Was the First Thanksgiving 

 

3. Analyze the reasons why English colonists had the strongest influence on the language, political institutions, and political principles of the country that became the United States of America, even though other major European nations also explored North America.

 

• British Influences on American Government

 

4. On a map of the United States, locate the first 13 colonies and describe the impact of regional differences in climate on the types of crops that could be grown or harvested profitably in the Northern, mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies; describe varied sources of labor (e.g., self-employed colonists, apprentices, employees, indentured servants, free and enslaved African Americans).

 

• 13 Original Colonies
  

 

5. Describe the origins of slavery, its legal status in all the colonies through the 18th century, and the prevalence of slave ownership, including by many of the country's early leaders. 

 

• Slavery in Colonial North America

 

• Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade 

 

 

6. Describe the Triangular Trade and the harsh conditions of trans-Atlantic voyages for enslaved Africans (called the Middle Passage) for enslaved Africans.

 

• The Middle Passage and the Triangle Trade

 

 

7. Compare and contrast the living and working conditions of enslaved and free African Americans in the 18th century.

 

• Enslaved and Free African Americans in the 18th Century Americas

 

 

Topic 2:  Reasons for Revolution, the Revolutionary War, and the Formation of Government

 

• Supporting Question:  Why did most Native Peoples side with the French against the British in the French and Indian Wars?  Were the colonists justified in rebelling against Great Britain in the American Revolution? 
  

 

1. Explain the reasons for the French and Indian War and how its costs led to an overhaul of British imperial policy' explain key British policies and the colonial response to them.

 

• The French and Indian War and Colonial Responses to British Policies

 

2. On a historic map of the Boston area in the 1770s, locate important sites in the pre-Revolutionary period and explain the role and significance of Massachusetts people such as Samuel Adams, Crispus Attucks, John Hancock, James Otis, Paul Revere, John and Abigail Adams, Mercy Warren and Phillis Wheatley.

 

• Massachusetts in the American Revolution

 

• The Boston Massacre 

 

4. Explain the development of colonial governments and describe how these developments (e.g., legislative bodies, town meetings, and charters on individual freedoms and rights) contributed to the Revolution.

 

• Development of Colonial Governments

 

• Freedom of the Press

 

4. Read the Declaration of Independence (1776), explain its main argument, the reasons given for seeking independence and the meaning of the key ideas on equality and natural and legal rights, and the rule of law; make the connection between the Declaration and the celebration of Independence Day on July 4 as a United States national holiday.

 

• The Declaration of Independence

 

5. Describe the impact of events as the Revolutionary War continued, locate the sites on a map, and explain the factors leading to an American victory and British defeat.

 

• Battles and the Roles of African Americans during the American Revolutionary War

 

• African Americans During the Revolutionary War 

 

  Women during the American Revolution

 

Sybil Ludington, Betsy Dowdy and Susanna Bolling, Revolutionary War Riders

 

 

6. Explain that many Americans remained loyal to the British Crown or remained neutral in the conflict and that Native Peoples and free and enslaved African Americans in fighting on both sides of the Revolution.

 

• Loyalists, African Americans, and Native Americans during the Revolutionary War

 

7. Compare and contrast the impact of the actions of important leaders (e.g., John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, King George III, Edmund Burke, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette) during the Revolution and the early years of the United States republic.

 

• Revolutionary Era Leaders

 

8. Explain the reasons for the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, the weaknesses of the Articles as a plan for government, and the reasons for their failure.

 

• Articles of Confederation

 

• Failure of the Articles of Confederation 

 

9. Describe the causes of Shays' Rebellion of 1786-1787 and explain why it was one of the crucial events leading up to the Constitutional Convention.

 

• Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts

 

 

Topic 3:  Principles of United States Government

 

• Supporting Question:  How did the Constitution attempt to balance competing interests, the question of power, and ideas about slavery? 
  

 

1. Read the Preamble to and sections of the Constitution and explain how these writings reflect and preserve the following political principles:  Individual rights and responsibilities, equality, the rule of law, limited government, representative democracy).

 

• Political Principles in the Constitution

 

• Student Legal Rights at School

 

2. Explain how the framers of the Constitution divided and shared powers among the three branches of the United States government; describe the function of each branch and the systems of checks and balances and identify the features of the Constitution that were unique at the time (e.g., the Presidency and the independent judiciary).

 

• Congress, the President, the Bureaucracy and the Courts

 

• Branches of American Government and the Separation of Powers 

 

• Supreme Court Decisions on the Separation of Powers 

 

 Margaret Chase Smith and the Declaration of Conscience Speech

 

 

3. Describe the responsibilities of government at the federal, state and local levels (e.g., protection of individual rights and the provision of services such as law enforcement and the building and funding of schools).

 

• Responsibilities of Federal, State and Local Government

 

• The FBI in American Politics 

 

4.  Analyze the significance of the major issues debated by members of the Constitutional Convention (e.g., the distribution of political power, the rights of individuals, rights of states, slavery and the question of how slaves were to be counted in the Census.  Explain why the Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut or Three-Fifths Compromise was necessary in keeping the states united.

 

• Major Issues at the Constitutional Convention

 

5. Explain that voting rights and property rights did not extend to women in the new Constitution.

 

• Voting Rights in Early America

 

6. Read the Bill of Rights and explain the freedoms it guarantees; research the historical background of one of the first ten amendments and give a report on the reasons for its inclusion in the Constitution in 1791.

 

• The Bill of Rights

 

• Articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

 

 

Topic 4:  The Growth of the Republic

 

• Supporting Question:  How did events of the early Republic test the newly-founded United States? 
  

 

1. Identify the first three Presidents of the United States (George Washington, 1787-1797), John Adams (1797-1801), and Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809); summarize key developments during their time (e.g., the founding of the Federalist and Democratic-Republican political parties in the 1790s, the first Bank of the U.S., the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, the Louis1ana Purchase of 1803, the Haitian Revolution in 1804) and evaluate their leadership of the new nation.

 

• Presidencies of Washington, Adams and Jefferson

 

• Early American Foreign Policy and the Barbary Pirates 

 

2. Evaluate the importance to the nation of the Louisiana Purchase and trace the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with Sacagawea and the Corps of Discovery, from 1803 to 1806. 

 

• The Louisiana Territory Purchase

 

• Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea

 

• Pioneers and Wagon Trains

 

3. Describe the causes of the war of 1812 and how events during the war contributed to a sense of American nationalism.

 

• The War of 1812 and Tecumseh

 

4. On a map of New England, locate cities and towns that played important roles in the development of the textile, machinery and whaling industries and the China trade in the 18th and 19th centuries and give examples of the short-term and long-term benefits and costs of these industries.

 

• The China Trade and the Whaling Industry in 19th Century New England

 

5.  Explain 19th century conflicts between Native Peoples and national, state and local governments in the United States over land ownership and rights to self-government.

 

• The Trail of Tears

 

• The Mashpee Woodlot Revolt of 1833

 

Topic 5:  Slavery, the Legacy of the Civil War, and the Struggle for Civil Rights for All

 

• Supporting Question:  What ideas and events of the 19th century led to the expansion of civil rights in the 20th and 21st centuries? 
  

 

1.  Trace the abolition of slavery in the Northern states in the 18th and 19th centuries and the expansion of slavery into western states; explain the effects of the 1808 law that banned the importation of slaves into the United States and explain how a robust slave trade nonetheless continued within the United States until the mid-19th century.

 

• Abolition of Slavery in the North after the American Revolution

 

• African American Inventors 

 

2. Identify the major reasons for the Civil War (e.g., slavery, political and economic competition in Western territories, the emergence of the Republican Party) and its most important outcomes (e.g., end of slavery, Reconstruction, expanded role of the federal government, industrial growth in the North.

 

• Policies and Events Leading to the Civil War

 

• Lincoln/Douglas Debates 

 

  Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom's Cabin

 

 

3.  Explain the ideas and roles of some of the people of the pre-Civil War era who led the struggle against slavery (abolitionism) and for voting and property rights for African Americans (e.g., Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe).

 

• The Abolitionist Movement

 

• The Amistad Case  

  Women of the Abolitionist Movement 

 

 

4. Identify the major military leaders and battles of the Civil War (e.g., Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson; Battles of Bull Run, Shiloh, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Appomattox).

 

• Civil War Leaders and Battles

 

   Clara Barton:  Educator, Nurse and Founder of the Red Cross

  Young Adult Novel:  Bull Run by Paul Fleischman

 

5. Describe the role of Abraham Lincoln in the development of the Republican Party and his actions as President during the Civil War.

 

• Abraham Lincoln's Presidency

 

6. Explain the consequences of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments for the rights of African Americans.

 

• The 14th Amendment

 

7. Describe the living conditions for African Americans following the Civil War, during the Jim Crow era, including limited educational and economic opportunities, separate public facilities, the organized perpetuation of white supremacist beliefs and the threat of violence from extra-legal groups such as the Klu Klux Klan. 

 

• The Jim Crow Era

 

8. Research and analyze one of the people, organizations, events or legislative acts from the 20th century that contributed to expanding civil rights for African Americans, women, and others in the United States

 

• The Niagara Movement and the History of the NAACP
  

 

9. Explain how the 20th century African American Civil Rights movement served as a model for other movements for civil rights.

 

• Accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement