Chapter 1. Two Worlds Collide: Europe and the Americas
Students learn how the voyages of Christopher Columbus and other European explorers brought two worlds together—the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Then they learn how religious conflicts spurred Western European rulers to make claims to parts of North America and how Spain, France and the Netherlands established their own colonies there.

Chapter 2: Strangers in a Strange Land: How the English Colonies Began
Students learn how England established its first colonies in North America and the impact of colonial settlement on Native Americans.

Chapter 3. Life in the British Colonies
Students compare conditions between the New England, Middle and Southern colonies.  They explore forms of colonial government, the role of English traditions, religious toleration, and the role of key groups like Africans, children and women.

Chapter 4. The Road to Revolution
Students learn about the French and Indian War and how British attempts to tax the colonists in the aftermath of the war led to increasing disagreements.  They are also introduced to John Locke’s views of the social contract and other Enlightenment ideas.

Chapter 5. “The Times That Try Men’s Souls”: The Story of the American Revolution
Students learn how armed conflict between the British and the colonists broke out in Massachusetts in 1775, how the Second Continental Congress formed an army and appointed George Washington as its commander, how the colonists won the Revolutionary War, and how the colonists declared their independence.

Chapter 6. The Critical Period: America under the Articles of Confederation
Students learn how states drafted their own state constitutions and how the Second Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation, creating our first form of national government. Students also learn how difficulties quickly arose because our first national government was too weak.

Chapter 7. “Miracle at Philadelphia”: The Story of the Constitution
Students learn how delegates from the different states met in Philadelphia met to revise the Articles of Confederation but wrote a whole new Constitution instead. They learn about the compromises at the Constitutional Convention, the structure of the new federal government, three of the core principles of our Constitution (separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism), the debate over ratification, and the Bill of Rights.

Chapter 8. Launching the Ship of State: The Presidency of George Washington
Students learn about the administration of our first President, George Washington, and how his actions created precedents for later Presidents. They learn about the first Cabinet, Hamilton’s financial plan, the rise of the first political parties, the impact of the French Revolution on American political parties, and President Washington’s “Farewell Address.”

Chapter 9. The Young Republic: America under Presidents Adams and Jefferson
Students learn about the disagreements between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans during the Presidencies of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—including the “XYZ” Affair, the “Quasi-War,” the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, the “Revolution of 1800,” the Louisiana Purchase, the Supreme Court decision of Marbury v. Madison, and the Embargo of 1807.

Chapter 10. The War of 1812 and the “Era of Good Feelings”
Students learn about the causes, course and consequences of the War of 1812. Then they learn about the collapse of the Federalist Party and the subsequent “Era of Good Feelings,” including the Tariff of 1816, the chartering of the Second Bank of the United States, Henry Clay’s “American System,” the annexation of Florida, the Missouri Compromise and the Monroe Doctrine.

Chapter 11. Andrew Jackson and the Age of Reform
Students learn about the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, including the election of 1828 and the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, the Indian Removal Act, Jackson’s “War” on the Bank, and the Nullification Crisis. They also learn about the Second Great Awakening and “Age of Reform,” including the rise of the abolitionist and temperance movements, the push for prison and educational reform, and the demand for women’s rights.

Chapter 12. An Expanding America: Manifest Destiny and the West
Students learn about the settlement of parts of Texas by Anglo-American settlers, the Texas Revolution, Manifest Destiny and the election of James Polk as President, the settlement of the Oregon controversy, and the Mexican-American War and the Mexican Cession. They also learn about Florida during the territorial period, including the Seminole Wars, the movement of Florida’s capital city to Tallahassee, the drafting of the state constitution, and Florida’s admission to statehood.

Chapter 13. The Industrial Revolution and its Consequences: North and South
Students learn about the Industrial Revolution in Britain and how Samuel Slater and Francis Cabot Lowell established textile mills in New England. They also learn about the “Transportation Revolution,” including turnpikes, canals, steamboats, trains and the telegraph.  Finally they learn how Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin and the demand for raw cotton by British and American factories led to an extension of the system of slavery in the South.

Chapter 14. A House Divided: The Story of the Civil War
Students consider how slavery, sectionalism, states’ rights and the struggle over the balance of power in the U.S. Senate eventually led to the outbreak of the Civil War once Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Then they learn about the advantages held by the North and South at the beginning of the war, military strategies, key battles, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Northern victory and the immediate consequences of the war.

Chapter 15. The Reconstruction Era
Students learn about the struggles over the reconstruction of the South after the Civil War, and how rights extended to African Americans during the Reconstruction Era were quickly taken away when Reconstruction ended in 1877.  They also learn about the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and how different groups of Americans, including women, later won their voting rights by Constitutional amendment.