This unit picks up after the Civil War with ideas and themes introduced in the previous unit on westward expansion. Americans caught up in the Gold Rush, transcontinental railroad workers, cowboys, and homesteaders all tried to stake out their piece of the American west. On the mining frontier, men and women hoping to discover riches rushed from across the nation and other parts of the world to pan for gold and mine for other precious metals. While few actually struck it rich, the mining frontier led to the establishment of boomtowns in the West. The building of the transcontinental railroad greatly increased the speed at which Americans could travel from coast to coast, which further accelerated the rate of western settlement. As before, we see the role of politics in this continued expansion with the passing of the Homestead Act of 1862 and the purchasing of present-day Alaska from Russia. We discuss the cowboy and outlaw culture of the “Wild West,” based partly in fact but romanticized in fictional accounts. By 1890, the frontier closed, although there remained much land for exploration and settlement.

We see the theme of continuity manifested throughout this unit as we learn how pioneering Americans overcame hardships to establish homesteads in the American west and carry on national ideals of freedom and opportunity to the frontier. We learn how developments in national infrastructure such as transcontinental railroads helped further the expansion of those ideals.

The Civil War was the defining conflict of 19^th century America. In this unit, we examine the causes of war, the conflict itself, and the complex consequences which follow. First, we must spend time on the origins of slavery in the United States and discuss the reasons for the growth of slavery in Southern states. Next, we investigate the rising tensions and futile compromises between the North and South in the tumultuous years between 1803—when the United States doubled in size from the Louisiana Purchase—and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

We study the war itself, from the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861 to Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865. Throughout this study, we are immersed in the cadence of the war through a brief overview of strategies, battles, generals, and presidential involvement. The study of battle strategy is vital to understanding the tides of the war and is a recurring lens through which we engage with the narrative. The unit closes with a study of the events immediately following the war—the period known as Reconstruction. This was a time of political, economic, and personal difficulty for Southerners and Northerners alike.