Assignment 7, Westward Migration and Antebellum America

Deadline, TBA, probably 4/30, 240 Points

Essential Questions

Description 

The three decades prior to the Civil War saw America bursting at the seams and torn by civil strife between the North and the South. Sectional differences seemed beyond solving as the issue of slavery came to be a wedge between the states that could not be resolved.

At the same time the western and southwestern borders of the United States moved over a thousand miles in just a few years and settlers eager to leave their crowded lives in the East or from Europe poured into the new U.S. acquisitions at an unprecedented rate.

The settlers overran Native claims. In 1846 disputes over Oregon Territory were settled with Britain. The Spanish claims to lands beyond the Rockies and south of 42 degrees north latitude were the source of a land- acquiring war between the United States and Mexico. Following the war, California was added to the Union The borders of the land encompassing the Lower 48 states began to look very much like they do today. 

Objectives

Students will identify and explain the key events in American westward migration, and antebellum America. Specific focus will center on the growing abolition movement, territorial acquistions by the United States and sectionalism.

Instructions

This packet includes four assignments. You will create the first two-probably as Google docs. You will then print them and turn them in the matching and crossword parts of the assignment.

This is a big packet, but don’t panic. Just use our lesson materials and in-class work time. You will do just fine - probably.

Here are the assignments that are the parts of this packet.

Online Files for this Assignment

Click below to open the pre-printed parts of this packet.

Matching
Crossword Puzzle

 

Short Essays

For this part of the packet you will answer ONE question from each of the five categories below.
Use separate sheets of paper document for each of your answers. I strongly recommend you create a Google doc.
Be sure to use in the in-class materials, discussions, and the online materials as needed. Of course, you are invited to find your own sources as well.
And, yes, of course you can use the materials you have gathered for your essay.
Remember, a contextual essay explains the circumstances that form the setting for an event or idea in ways it can be fully understood.


Category One - Slavery


Category Two - Manifest Destiny


Category Three - Texas

Category Four - Utopia and New Ways of Thinking


Category Five - Migration


In-Depth Essays

For this part of Assignment Eight you will choose ONE of the following questions and create a simple essay of three or four paragraphs or so relating to the questions you chose. 

You should explore the who, what, when, where and why of your topic.