Lesson Plans

The American Journey: A History of the United States ©2000

by David Goldfield, Carl Abbott, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, Jo Ann E. Argersinger, Peter H. Argersinger, William L. Barney, Robert M. Weir

Focus Lesson 9

Chapter 11: "Industrial Change and Urbanization, 1820–1850"
Chapter 12: "The Way West"

AP* Course Description

• Nationalism and Economic Expansion
  • Economic revolution
    • Early railroads and canals
    • Expansion of business
      – Beginnings of factory system
      – Early labor movement; women
      – Social mobility; extremes of wealth
• Sectionalism
  • The North
    • Northeast industry
      – Labor
      – Immigration
      – Urban slums
    • Northwest agriculture
  • Westward expansion
    • Advance of agricultural frontier
    • Life on the frontier; squatters
    • Removal of American Indians
• Territorial Expansion and Sectional Crisis
  • Texas annexation, the Oregon boundary, and California
  • James K. Polk and the Mexican War; slavery and the Wilmot Proviso
  • Later expansionist efforts
• Creating an American Culture
  • Utopian experiments: Mormons, Oneida Community

Key Components

• Instructor's Manual:
  Chapter 11, pp. 75–80
  Chapter 12, pp. 81–86
• Study Guide, Vol. I to 1877:
  Chapter 11, pp. 81–87
  Chapter 12, pp. 88–95
• Test Item File:
  Chapter 11, pp. 128–139
  Chapter 12, pp. 140–150

Key Web Sites

• Cotton Incorporated
• National Park Service: The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
• Lowell National Historical Park
• Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library: Alamo History

Key Words and Terms

Suggested Pacing

Test Strategy

Key Concepts

• Market revolution
  In the early nineteenth century, the United States saw the market revolution even before it felt the full impact of the Industrial Revolution. Defined as the rapid improvement in transportation, commercialization, and industrialization, the market revolution changed the way the nation did business. Large quantities of raw materials could be shipped to factories where machines turned them into goods that were shipped across the nation for sale. No longer did craftworkers make goods in their small shops for sale to the immediate area. Shopkeepers on the frontier now sold cloth made by former farm girls in factories with automated looms. As demand increased, native workers were displaced by immigrants who worked for lower wages. The market revolution brought not only economic changes but also social changes. A few people became wealthy, a new middle class arose, and others fell into poverty—the former craftworker and the newly arrived immigrant.
  
  
• Manifest Destiny and sectionalism
  Manifest Destiny was a political phenomenon. It not only served as the justification for the nation's expansion westward, but it also exacerbated sectional tensions. Considering the sections' views on slavery, it should not be surprising that the North tended to oppose westward expansion and the South tended to support it. Students should be aware of the positions of the Whigs (against) and the Democrats (for) on Manifest Destiny and how these played out in the elections of the 1840s and the decision to go to war with Mexico.

Summing Up Student Understanding

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• American Issues: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Unger and Tomes—Chapter 13
• The Power of Words: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Breen—Chapter 13
• Constructing the American Past, Vol. I, edited by Gorn, Roberts, and Bilhartz—Chapter 9
• American Experiences: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Roberts and Olson (secondary source readings)—Part Six