U.S. History I to 1877

U.S. History I to 1877: A Milestone Documents E-text is a peer-reviewed textbook originally created for the Milestone Documents course service. The book contains 16 chapters arranged in roughly chronological order. Together, the chapters offer a comprehensive textbook covering the period from early America through Reconstruction. It is suitable for instructors and students from high school through lower undergraduate levels.

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Reader’s Guide
• Contributors
• Unit 1: Old Worlds in Transition: America, Africa, and Europe before 1600
• Native Cultures of Africa
• Rise of Complex Civilizations in Mesoamerica and the Andes and the Native Peoples of North America
• Politics, Trade, Exploration, and Religious Upheaval in Europe
• Unit 1 Review
• Unit 2: Exploration, Conquest, and Settlement in the New World (1450–1600)
• Naming America: From Columbus to Vespucci
• The Conflicting Imperial Visions of Spain, France, and Holland
• England and the New World
• Unit 2 Review
• Unit 3: English Beginnings on the Chesapeake (1607–1676)
• Native American Exclusion
• The Expansion of Indentured Servitude among the Western European Poor and Dispossessed
• The First Representative Government in America and the Rise of a Slave Society
• Unit 3 Review
• Unit 4: Empires in Flux (1620–1681)
• The English Civil War and the Rise of Oliver Cromwell
• Pilgrims, Puritans, and Natives in the New World
• Family Life and the Role of Women in the Colonies
• Unit 4 Review
• Unit 5: Wars for Empire (1685–1763)
• The Great War for Empire: The French and Indian Conflict
• England’s Glorious Revolution
• From a “Society with Slaves” to a “Slave Society”
• Unit 5 Review
• Unit 6: Tax Acts, Declaring Independence, and the American Revolution (1763–1783)
• Waging a Revolutionary War
• Writing a “Declaration of Independence”
• The Proclamations of King George III
• Unit 6 Review
• Unit 7: Debating, Defining, and Ratifying a Constitution (1783–1791)
• The Bill of Rights
• The Constitutional Convention and the Federalist Debates
• Debt, Disillusionment, and Shays’s Rebellion
• Unit 7 Review
• Unit 8: Making the New Republic (1789–1800)
• First U.S. Congress
• John Adams and the Alien and Sedition Acts
• George Washington’s Farewell Address
• Unit 8 Review
• Unit 9: The Jeffersonian Revolution (1800–1816)
• James Madison and the Second War for Independence
• The Embargo Act
• The Election of 1800
• Unit 9 Review
• Unit 10: The Roots of American Exceptionalism (1815–1850)
• Freedom’s Limits
• A New Republicanism
• The American System
• Unit 10 Review
• Unit 11: Democracy in America (1820–1850)
• The Missouri Controversy
• Life, Liberty, and Property
• Jacksonian America
• Unit 11 Review
• Unit 12: The Old South: Slavery and the Politics of the Plantation (1808–1860)
• Slave Rebellions and the Quest for Freedom
• Minstrel Shows and the Construction of Black Identity
• Planters, Yeomen, and Tenants
• Unit 12 Review
• Unit 13: Manifest Destiny
• Southern Demands for the Expansion of Slavery
• Deepening Economic and Social Discord between North and South
• The Compromise of 1850
• Unit 13 Review
• Unit 14: The Gathering Storm (1850–1860)
• Abraham Lincoln’s Election
• The Dred Scott Decision
• The Rise of the Republican Party
• Unit 14 Review
• Unit 15: America at War (1861–1865)
• The Road to Appomattox and Peace
• The Process of Southern Secession
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• Unit 15 Review
• Unit 16: Reconstruction (1863–1877)
• The Election of 1868 and Republican Dominance
• Presidential Reconstruction
• Reconstruction Efforts during the War
• Unit 16 Review