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.

• Native Cultures of Africa 
• Rise of Complex Civilizations in Mesoamerica and the Andes and the Native Peoples of North America
• 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