Standards

Five Basic Standards for Social Studies:

1. Choices have consequences.

2. Individuals have rights and responsibilities.

3. Societies are shaped by beliefs, idea, and diversity.

4. Societies experience continuity and change over time.

5. Relationships between people, place, idea, and environments are dynamic.

Units of Study for 8th Grade Social Studies

Establishing America (1787—1830s)

Ideas Federalism, Bill of Rights, Jacksonian democracy, Industrial Revolution, Market Revolution, growth of executive power, growth of judicial power, Monroe Doctrine, individual freedom, Marshall Court

People/Roles Founding Fathers, Tecumseh, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Phyllis Wheatley, Abigail Adams, Sacagawea, Whigs, Democrats

Places/Institutions Louisiana Territory, New Orleans, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Mississippi River, Ohio Valley, Northwest Territories, canals, railroads

Events three-fifths Compromise, Great Compromise, Louisiana Purchase, exploration, Alien and Sedition Act, War of 1812, Second Great Awakening, Missouri Compromise

Regionalism and Expansion (1800s—1850s)

Ideas Manifest Destiny, western expansion, Second Industrial Revolution, sectionalism and racism, slavery, abolitionism, enslaved person resistance, American Indian resistance, women’s rights, immigration, trails, expansion of railroads, Second Great Awakening

People/Roles Nat Turner, Henry Clay, Brer Rabbit, George Fitzhugh, James Polk, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Washington Irving, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Jacobs, Maria Ruiz de Burton

Places/Institutions Texas Republic, Chicago, southern states, northern states, western territories and states, Mexican Cession lands, Liberia

Events Indian Removal Acts, Nullification Crisis, Mexican-American War, California Gold Rush, Oregon Fever, Underground Railroad, Seneca Falls Convention, growth of technology, spread of agriculture, rise of cities

March to War (1850s—1861)

Ideas expansion of slavery, abolitionism, enslaved person resistance, secessionism, economic policies, popular sovereignty

People/Roles Stephen Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan, John Brown, Charles Sumner, Know Nothings, political parties

Places/Institutions Lawrence, Kansas; Lecompton, Kansas; Harper’s Ferry; Washington, DC; South Carolina

Events Wilmot Proviso, election of 1848, Compromise of 1850, Kansas- Nebraska Act, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Lincoln - Douglas Debates, Gadsden Purchase, Fugitive Slave Act, Bleeding Kansas, Civil War, rise of Republican party, establishment of Confederate States of America

Toward a More Perfect Union (1861—1877)

Ideas Unionism, Reconstruction, equality, Jim Crow, total war

People/Roles Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Mary Chestnut, Andrew Johnson, Exodusters, Radical Republicans, African American soldiers, Ku Klux Klan, Matthew Brady

Places/Institutions Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, Antietam, Atlanta, Richmond, Washington DC, Vicksburg, Appomattox, New York City

Events Civil War, Anaconda Plan, Emancipation Proclamation, draft riots, Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, 13th/14th/15th Amendments, black codes, Election of 1876

The Rise of America (1870s—1900)

Ideas imperialism, populism, progressivism, westward expansion, growth of cities, immigration, rise of big business, organized labor, agribusiness, spoils system, Social Darwinism, Federal American Indian policy

People/Roles William Jennings Bryan, Eugene Debs, Susan B. Anthony, robber barons/captains of industry, Thomas Nast, Boss Tweed, Buffalo Bill Cody, Red Cloud, George Custer, Samuel Gompers

Places/Institutions Cuba, Philippines, Wounded Knee, Ellis Island and Angel Island, Chicago, settlement houses

Events Spanish-American War, Indian Wars, Haymarket Tragedy, Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Chinese Exclusion Act, Dawes Act, Ghost Dance, Oklahoma Land Rush, Plessy v. Ferguson