7th Grade Social Studies

🧠 7th Grade Social Studies 

United States History 

📍 1. Early Civilizations & Exploration

• Native American tribes and cultures before 1492
  
  

• European explorers (Columbus, Cortés, Hudson)
  
  

• Reasons for exploration: Gold, God, Glory
  
  

• Impact on Native Americans (disease, land loss, conflict)
  
  

📍 2. Colonial America (1607–1754)

• 13 Colonies: New England, Middle, Southern
  
  

• Colonial life: farming, trade, religion, town meetings
  
  

• Slavery begins in the South
  
  

• Early government: Mayflower Compact, House of Burgesses
  
  

📍 3. Road to Independence

• French & Indian War – Britain taxes colonists
  
  

• Key Acts: Stamp Act, Tea Act, Intolerable Acts
  
  

• Boston Massacre & Boston Tea Party
  
  

• Declaration of Independence (1776)
  
  

📍 4. American Revolution (1775–1783)

• Battles: Lexington & Concord, Saratoga, Yorktown
  
  

• Patriots vs. Loyalists
  
  

• French support for U.S.
  
  

• Treaty of Paris (1783) – U.S. becomes independent
  
  

📍 5. Founding a New Nation

• Articles of Confederation – weak national gov’t
  
  

• Constitutional Convention (1787)
  
  

  • 3 Branches of Government
    
    

  • Checks and Balances
    
    

• Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments)
  
  

📍 6. The Early Republic

• First Presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson
  
  

• Political parties: Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans
  
  

• Louisiana Purchase (1803)
  
  

• War of 1812 – U.S. vs. Britain
  
  

📍 7. Westward Expansion & Reform

• Manifest Destiny – U.S. expansion west
  
  

• Texas joins the U.S., Gold Rush
  
  

• Indian Removal Act → Trail of Tears
  
  

• Reform movements:
  
  

  • Abolition (anti-slavery)
    
    

  • Women’s rights
    
    

  • Education reform
    
    

📍 8. Slavery & Sectionalism

• North = free states, South = slave states
  
  

• Missouri Compromise (1820)
  
  

• Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Act
  
  

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
  
  

• Kansas-Nebraska Act → Bleeding Kansas
  
  

• Dred Scott case: enslaved people are property
  
  

📍 9. Lead-Up to the Civil War

• John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry
  
  

• Abraham Lincoln elected (1860)
  
  

• Southern states secede from the Union
  
  

• Civil War begins (1861) → Fort Sumter
  
  

✨ Key Concepts to Remember:

• Freedom vs. slavery
  
  

• Growth of democracy
  
  

• Role of geography in history
  
  

• Compromise and conflict
  
  

• Causes of the Civil War