N.B. Each chapter ends with a selected Bibliography and Reviewing the Chapter sections.1. Ancient America: Before 1492
OPENING VIGNETTE: Archaeological discovery proves that humans have inhabited America for more than 10,000 years
Archaeology and History
The First Americans
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: Natures Immigrants
HISTORICAL QUESTION: Who Were the First Americans?
Archaic Hunters and Gatherers
Agricultural Settlements and Chiefdoms
Native Americans in the 1490s
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: Ancient American Weaving
The Mexica: A Meso-American Culture
Conclusion: The World of Ancient Americans
2. Europeans Encounter the New World, 14921600
OPENING VIGNETTE: Queen Isabella of Spain supports Christopher Columbus risky plan to sail west across the Atlantic
Europe in the Age of Exploration
A Surprising New World in the Western Atlantic
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
HISTORICAL QUESTION: Why Did Cortes Win?
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Justifying Conquest
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Spreading Christianity in New Spain
The New World and Sixteenth-Century Europe
Conclusion: The Promise of the New World for Europeans
3. The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 16011700
OPENING VIGNETTE: Pocahontas "rescues" John Smith
An English Colony on the Chesapeake
A Tobacco Society
Tobacco Agriculture
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: American Tobacco and European Consumers
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Virginia Laws Governing Servants and Slaves
The Evolution of Chesapeake Society
HISTORICAL QUESTION: Why Did English Colonists Consider Themselves Superior to Indians and Africans?
Religion and Revolt in the Spanish Borderland
Toward a Slave Labor System
GLOBAL COMPARISON: Migration to the New World from Europe and Africa, 14921700
Conclusion: The Growth of English Colonies Based on Export Crops and Slave Labor
4. The Northern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 16011700
OPENING VIGNETTE: Roger Williams is banished from Puritan Massachusetts
Puritan Origins: The English Reformation
Puritans and the Settlement of New England
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: King Philip Considers Christianity
The Evolution of New England Society
HISTORICAL QUESTION: Why Were Some New Englanders Accused of Being Witches?
The Founding of the Middle Colonies
The Colonies and the English Empire
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: New France and the Indians: The British Colonies Northern Borderlands
Conclusion: An English Model of Colonization in North America
5. Colonial America in the Eighteenth Century, 17011770
OPENING VIGNETTE: The Robin Johns experience horrific turns of fortune in the Atlantic slave trade
A Growing Population and Expanding Economy in British North America
New England: From Puritan Settlers to Yankee Traders
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: A Sailors Life in the EighteenthCentury Atlantic World
The Middle Colonies: Immigrants, Wheat, and Work
The Southern Colonies: Land of Slavery
Unifying Experiences
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: Newspapers: "The Spring of Knowledge"
GLOBAL COMPARISON: Large Warships in European Navies, 16601760
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Missionaries Report on California Missions
Conclusion: The Dual Identity of British North American Colonists
6. The British Empire and the Colonial Crisis, 17541775
OPENING VIGNETTE: Loyalist governor Thomas Hutchinson stands his ground in radical Massachusetts
The Seven Years War, 17541763
HISTORICAL QUESTION: How Long Did the Seven Years War Last in Indian Country?
The Sugar and Stamp Acts, 17631765
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Pursuing Liberty, Protesting Tyranny
The Townshend Acts and Economic Retaliation, 17671770
The Tea Party and the Coercive Acts, 17701774
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: How News of the Powder Alarm Traveled
Domestic Insurrections, 17741775
Conclusion: How Far Does Liberty Go?
7. The War for America, 17751783
OPENING VIGNETTE: Deborah Sampson masquerades as a man to join the Continental army
The Second Continental Congress
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: Arming the Soldiers: Muskets and Rifles
The First Year of War, 17751776
GLOBAL COMPARISON: How Tall Were EighteenthCentury Men on Average?
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: Prisoners of War in the Eighteenth Century
The Home Front
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Families Divide over the Revolution
The Campaigns of 17771779: The North and West
The Southern Strategy and the End of the War
Conclusion: Why the British Lost
8. Building a Republic, 17751789
OPENING VIGNETTE: James Madison comes of age in the midst of revolution
The Articles of Confederation
The Sovereign States
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: A Slave Sues for Her Freedom
The Confederations Problems
The United States Constitution
Ratification of the Constitution
HISTORICAL QUESTION: Was the New United States a Christian Country?
Conclusion: The "Republican Remedy"
9. The New Nation Takes Form, 17891800
OPENING VIGNETTE: Brilliant and brash, Alexander Hamilton becomes a polarizing figure in the 1790s
The Search for Stability
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: France, Britain, and Womans Rights in the 1790s
Hamiltons Economic Policies
GLOBAL COMPARISON: National Census Taking Worldwide
HISTORICAL QUESTION: How Did Washington, D.C., Become the Federal Capital?
Conflicts West, East, and South
Federalists and Republicans
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: The Crisis of 1798: Sedition
Conclusion: Parties Nonetheless
10. Republicans in Power, 18001824
OPENING VIGNETTE: The Shawnee chief Tecumseh attempts to forge a panIndian confederacy
Jeffersons Presidency
HISTORICAL QUESTION: How Could a Vice President Get Away with Murder?
The Madisons in the White House
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: Stoves Transform Cooking
Womens Status in the Early Republic
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: One Womans Quest to Provide Higher Education for Women
Monroe and Adams
Conclusion: Republican Simplicity Becomes Complex
11. The Expanding Republic, 18151840
OPENING VIGNETTE: The rise of Andrew Jackson, symbol of a selfconfident and expanding nation
The Market Revolution
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: Early Steamboats
The Spread of Democracy
Jackson Defines the Democratic Party
Cultural Shifts, Religion, and Reform
GLOBAL COMPARISON: Changing Trends in Age of First Marriage for Women
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS:Transatlantic Abolition
Van Burens OneTerm Presidency
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Going Ahead or Gone to Smash: An Entrepreneur Struggles in the 1830s
Conclusion: The Age of Jackson or the Era of Reform?
12. The New West and Free North, 18401860
OPENING VIGNETTE: With the support of his wife, Abraham Lincoln struggles to survive in antebellum America
Economic and Industrial Evolution
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: The Telegraph: The "Wonder-Working Wire"
Free Labor: Promise and Reality
The Westward Movement
Expansion and the MexicanAmerican War
HISTORICAL QUESTION: Who Rushed for California Gold?
Reforming Self and Society
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: Back to Africa: The United States in Liberia
Conclusion: Free Labor, Free Men
13. The Slave South, 18201860
OPENING VIGNETTE: Slave Nat Turner leads a revolt to end slavery
The Growing Distinctiveness of the South
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: Defending Slavery
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: White Gold: The International Empire of Cotton
Masters, Mistresses, and the Big House
HISTORICAL QUESTION: How Often Were Slaves Whipped?
Slaves and the Quarter
Black and Free: On the Middle Ground
The Plain Folk
The Politics of Slavery
Conclusion: A Slave Society
14. The House Divided, 18461861
OPENING VIGNETTE: Abolitionist John Brown takes his war against slavery to Harpers Ferry, Virginia
The Bitter Fruits of War
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: Daguerrotypes: The "Sunbeam Art"
The Sectional Balance Undone
BEYOND AMERICAS BORDERS: Filibusters: The Underside of Manifest Destiny
Realignment of the Party System
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: "A Purse of Her Own": Petitioning for the Right to Own Property
Freedom Under Siege
The Union Collapses
Conclusion: Slavery, Free Labor, and the Failure of Political Compromise
15. The Crucible of War, 18611865
OPENING VIGNETTE: Runaway slave William Gould enlists in the U.S. navy
"And the War Came"
The Combatants
Battling It Out, 18611862
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: CSS H.L. Hunley: The Worlds First Successful Submarine
GLOBAL COMPARISON: European Cotton Imports, 18601870
Union and Freedom
SEEKING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: The Right to Fight: Black Soldiers in the Civil War
The South at War
The North at War
Grinding out Victory, 18631865
HISTORICAL QUESTION: Why Did So Many Soldiers Die?
Conclusion: The Second American Revolution Selected Bibliography
16. Reconstruction, 18631877
OPENING VIGNETTE: James T. Rapier emerges in the early 1870s as Alabamas most prominent black leader
Wartime Reconstruction
DOCUMENTING THE AMERICAN PROMISE: The Meaning of Freedom
Presidential Reconstruction
THE PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY: Filling the "Empty Sleeve": Artificial Limbs
Congressional Reconstruction
The Struggle in the South
HISTORICAL QUESTION: What Did the Ku Klux Klan Really Want?
Reconstruction Collapses
Conclusion: "A Revolution But Half Accomplished"
Appendices
I. Documents
II. Facts and Figures: Government, Economy, and Demographics
III. Research Resources in U.S. History
Glossary of Historical Vocabulary Spot Artifact Credits
Index
Atlas of the Territorial Growth of the United States