US History: Colonial Era through Reconstruction

Explore American history from Indigenous civilizations through the broken promises of Reconstruction. Primary sources, multiple perspectives, and the uncomfortable questions textbooks skip. TEKS §113.20 aligned.

14 Units

Early Units (Foundation)

Building Skills

Advanced Concepts

Capstone/Synthesis

The Americas Before Contact

Explore the sophisticated civilizations of pre-contact North America — from Cahokia's skyline to the Haudenosaunee's democratic confederacy — and challenge the myth of an empty continent.

3-4 days

Exploration and Colonization

Examine the European motivations for exploration, the catastrophic consequences of first contact, and the transformation of two hemispheres through the Columbian Exchange.

3-4 days

Colonial Society: Work, Religion, Identity

Examine how colonial economies, religious movements, and social hierarchies shaped life for settlers, enslaved people, and Indigenous peoples in 17th and early 18th-century America.

3-4 days

The Road to Revolution

Trace the escalating conflict between Britain and the colonies — from the Stamp Act to Lexington and Concord — and examine how Enlightenment ideas transformed colonial grievances into revolutionary ideology.

3-4 days

The American Revolution

Examine the revolutionary ideas in the Declaration of Independence, the military campaigns that decided the war, and the diverse people who fought — and were excluded — from the Revolution's promises.

3-4 days

The Constitution: Compromise and Design

Examine the failures of the Articles of Confederation, the debates at the Constitutional Convention, and the compromises — including over slavery — that produced the United States Constitution.

3-4 days

The Early Republic: 1789–1815

Examine how the new nation's leaders built federal institutions, navigated foreign entanglements, and fought over the meaning of the Constitution — from Washington's presidency through the War of 1812.

3-4 days

Jacksonian Democracy and Expansion

Examine how Andrew Jackson reshaped American democracy, expanded white male suffrage, destroyed the national bank, and forced the removal of eastern Indigenous nations — all while claiming to represent 'the people.'

3-4 days

Reform Movements and American Culture

Explore the intertwined reform movements of antebellum America — abolition, women's rights, temperance, and Transcendentalism — that challenged the nation to live up to its founding ideals.

3-4 days

Westward Expansion and Its Consequences

Examine the Mexican-American War, the California Gold Rush, and the human consequences of continental expansion — for Mexican citizens, Indigenous nations, Chinese immigrants, and free and enslaved Black Americans.

3-4 days

Slavery, Sectionalism, and the Road to War

Trace the collapse of compromise as slavery's expansion tore the nation apart — from the Kansas-Nebraska Act and 'Bleeding Kansas' through the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's raid, and the 1860 election.

3-4 days

The Civil War

Examine the causes, military strategies, turning points, and human costs of the Civil War — including what the war became when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

3-4 days

Reconstruction: Promise and Betrayal

Examine the decade of Reconstruction — its constitutional achievements, the political and economic ambitions of freed people, and the violent counterrevolution that dismantled it.

3-4 days

The Unfinished Revolution

Trace how the unresolved questions of Reconstruction — citizenship, equality, and the meaning of the Constitution — echoed through the 20th and 21st centuries, and examine what the story of 1607–1877 demands of us now.

3-4 days

Learning Progression

This course is designed to be taken sequentially. Earlier units establish foundational concepts that later units build upon. While you can explore units in any order, following the numbered sequence provides the most coherent learning experience.