History Course Outline

Following is a rough, unit-by-unit outline of the material which will be covered in 8th grade American History. This outline is meant to give students and parents a general idea of what we will be studying this year. 

1st Trimester

  • Class Introduction / American Geography Review / Review of American History to 1790
  • Unit 1: A Young Nation - the Constitution, Shay's Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion, establishment of the federal government 
  • Unit 2: New Frontiers - the Industrial Revolution, western exploration, fur trappers & traders, the War of 1812, the Trail of Tears 
  • Unit 3: Slavery - the industrial North and the agricultural South, cotton, the growth of slavery, cotton gin
  • Unit 4: Westward Expansion - Oregon Trail, Texas, the Alamo, California, Manifest Destiny, the Mormons, Gold Rush, the Mexican-American War, the Donner Party
  • Unit 5: Antebellum America - the 2nd Great Awakening, social reform movements, the Romantic Movement, Edgar Allen Poe

2nd Trimester

  • Unit 6: A Divided Union - abolition, the Underground Railroad, law & politics, Kansas, Dred Scott, Abraham Lincoln, Harper's Ferry
  • Unit 7: The Civil War - the homefront, the major battles, technology, medical care, soldiers & leaders, surrender
  • Unit 8: Settling the West - gold rush, railroads, mining techniques, early towns, newspapers, Denver, frontier law, the "Old West" 
  • Unit 9: Conquest of the Plains - plains tribes, the bison, treaties, Sand Creek, Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee, the reservation system

3rd Trimester

  • Unit 10: Reconstruction - Lincoln's assassination, black codes, the KKK, freedmen, segregation, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments 
  • Unit 11: Farming & Ranching - cattle, cowboys, homesteading, the Grange, the Open Range, Colorado agriculture, sheep, water law 
  • Unit 12: The Gilded Age - invention and Thomas Edison, big buisness, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, professional sports 
  • Unit 13: The Great Melting Pot - immigration, Ellis Island, urbanization, the 3rd Great Awakening, the rise of labor unions, new scientific discoveries, eve of the 20th century