The United States Before 1865

Three credits · Undergraduate

Survey of the US from colonial times to the Civil War, with emphasis on aboriginal beginnings and civilizations; colonization; the rise of slavery and racism in British North America; the place of the colonies in the British Empire; the War of Independence; territorial expansion; the beginning of industrialization and its effects on the Jeffersonian notions of republicanism; the “problem” of slavery and growing sectionalism; and the road to Civil War and disunion. Three credits. Offered 2026-2027.