This course explores the nation’s regional development in the Northeast, South, and West. Each region encompassed a distinct geography, economic focus, and demographic composition. Students will compare the regions in terms of commercial development, sources of wealth, natural resources, political agendas, religious and ethnic diversity, infrastructure, population density, and eventually slavery, including the debate over the Free Soil movement. However, the growth of the market economy and the faster movement of people, commerce, and information increasingly connected each region of the nation to the others. Thus, although the regions appeared to be developing separate characteristics, in fact, the nation was becoming increasingly interdependent and connected in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Recommended series for grade 8: completes 8th grade CA Social Science Standards
- Birth of a Nation
- The New Republic
- Reforming America
- The Nation Divides and Reunites