GED Social Studies
United States History
Week 1 - Historical Thinking & Evaluating Sources
- Primary sources are the original records created by firsthand witnesses of an event. They can include diaries, letters, interviews, newspaper articles, pictures or recordings.
- Secondary sources are about an event created by someone who wasn't there, typically referencing primary sources for their information. They can include textbooks, biographies or documentaries.
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Primary sources are often considered more valuable than secondary sources, but they are not inherently trustworthy. Different people often offer very different accounts of what happened in the past, and it's very important to know when and why a person is telling a story.
Secondary sources are helpful because they often involve a historian's analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of primary sources, but you also need to be conscious of the historian's potential bias as well. |
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The activity on the right will have you look at six historical questions and evaluate which source would be more helpful in answering the question. Consider when, where and by whom each source was created. Which can you trust more? Look at the historical thinking chart below for help in asking critical questions. For more practice, download the pdf below to consider the strengths and weaknesses of more primary and secondary sources. 
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Week 2 - Early Settlers & Conflict with Native Americans
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In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the Spanish were the first Europeans to explore and settle in what is now called the United States, but by the 1600s, Britain began establishing a dominant presence along the Atlantic coast.
The first British colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, and it was established to strengthen the political and economic power of Britain, which you can read more about here. In 1620, the Pilgrims and Puritans (Christian separatists and reformers from the Church of England that you can read more about here) began settling in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These groups intended to found their own religious groups away from the influence of other religions. During this time period, the indigenous populations suffered greatly from European contact. It is estimated that by the 17th century, 55 million people (roughly 90% of the population) died because of disease or violence by Europeans. You can learn more about the complicated relationship between Native Americans and European settlers here, or by watching the videos on the right. By 1770, Britain had 13 colonies in North America with a total population of over 2 million people, including a growing population of enslaved Africans. Learn more about early British settlers and their contact with Native Americans with the attached primary source documents and comprehension questions. |
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Week 3 - The Revolutionary War
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The French and Indian War, or Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), diminished French influence in North America and increased the land and power of Great Britain, but the expensive conflict lead to new and unpopular taxes for American colonists. Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies (notably the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Acts of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773) met with heated protest among many colonists, who resented their lack of representation in Parliament and demanded the same rights as other British subjects. |
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The Revolutionary War (1775-1783), also known as the American Revolution, arose from these growing tensions between the American colonies and the British government. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 kicked off the armed conflict, and by the following summer, the rebels were waging a full-scale war for their independence. France entered the American Revolution on the side of the colonists in 1778, turning what had essentially been a civil war into an international conflict. After French assistance helped the Continental Army force the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, Americans had effectively won their independence, though fighting would not formally end until 1783. Watch the video to learn more about key events in the American Revolution, or read about them in this timeline here.
For more practice, read the following primary sources and answer the historical questions below:
For more practice, read the following primary sources and answer the historical questions below:
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Week 4 - The US Constitution
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The United States' first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was ratified in 1781, a time when the nation was a loose confederation of states, each operating like independent countries. The national government was comprised of a single legislature, the Congress of the Confederation; there was no president or judicial branch.
The Articles of Confederation gave Congress the power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war and regulate currency; however, in reality these powers were sharply limited because Congress had no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops. After the the United States won their independence from England, it became increasingly evident that the new nation needed a stronger central government in order to remain stable. In 1786, Alexander Hamilton, a lawyer and politician from New York, called for a constitutional convention to discuss the matter. At the 1787 convention, delegates from 12 states (all except Rhode Island) devised a plan for a stronger federal government with three branches—executive, legislative and judicial—along with a system of checks and balances to ensure no single branch would have too much power. You can read more about the process of creating and ratifying the constitution here. |
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One of the most controversial issues at the 1787 convention was the issue of slavery. Some northern states had already started to outlaw the practice, and advocated for abolishing slavery in the new constitution, but southern states were insistent that they be allowed to keep the practice of slavery. In the end, the delegates agreed to keep slavery. For the purposes of taxation and determining how many representatives a state could send to Congress, it was decided that enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person. Additionally, it was agreed that Congress wouldn’t be allowed to prohibit the slave trade before 1808, and states were required to return fugitive enslaved people to their owners.
For more practice, read the following primary sources and answer the historical questions below:
For more practice, read the following primary sources and answer the historical questions below:
| slavery_in_the_constitution_primary_and_secondary_sources.pdf |
Week 5 - The Civil War
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The American Civil War (1861 – 1865) was fought between states supporting the federal union ("the Union" or "the North") and southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy" or "the South"). The central cause of the war was the status of slavery, especially the expansion of slavery into newly acquired land after the Mexican–American War. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, four million of the 32 million Americans (nearly 13%) were enslaved black people, mostly in the South. |
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Conflict around the issue of slavery had been growing since the 13 original colonies had signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. As the economy of Northern states continued to industrialize and diversify, many Northerners had come to support the idea of abolishing slavery (for various political, moral, and economic reasons). By contrast, the economy of the Southern states continued to be based around large farms, or plantations, that relied on the labor of enslaved black people, and this made Southerners fiercely resistant to the idea of abolishing slavery. War finally broke out in April 1861 when the Confederate army attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, just over a month after the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.
The war ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Lee surrendered to Union General Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the Southern states followed suit, with the last surrender occurring on June 23. At the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially its railroads. The Confederacy collapsed, and the United States Constitution was updated to abolish slavery, grant citizenship to former enslaved black people, and grant voting rights to black men. Four million enslaved black people were freed at the end of the war, but the fight for equal rights and protections for black people would take another hundred years and continues to this day.
The war ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Lee surrendered to Union General Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the Southern states followed suit, with the last surrender occurring on June 23. At the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially its railroads. The Confederacy collapsed, and the United States Constitution was updated to abolish slavery, grant citizenship to former enslaved black people, and grant voting rights to black men. Four million enslaved black people were freed at the end of the war, but the fight for equal rights and protections for black people would take another hundred years and continues to this day.
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Watch the video or read the document below to learn more about what happened during the American Civil War:
For more practice, read the following primary sources and answer the historical questions below:
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Week 6 - Reconstruction and Post-War Politics
At the conclusion of the American Civil War, many Southern states had been destroyed, an estimated 750,000 Northerners and Southerners had died, and 4 million enslaved black men and women were newly freed. The newly reformed union had many important questions to answer, such as How should the South be rebuilt? What should happen to the states that seceded from the Union? and How should formerly enslaved people be incorporated into the country now that they were free?
The period of time during which these questions were answered is called Reconstruction, and it took place in a relatively short amount of time from 1865 to 1877.
The period of time during which these questions were answered is called Reconstruction, and it took place in a relatively short amount of time from 1865 to 1877.
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Read more about the Reconstruction period here, and download the primary sources below to answer the historical question:
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After John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, assassinated Abraham Lincoln five days after the surrender of the Confederate forces, Andrew Johnson became the new president. Johnson was a Southern Democrat who opposed the secession of the Southern States, but he didn't oppose slavery and he was very sympathetic to Southern states.
Many people in Congress opposed Johnson. His biggest opponents were called "radical" Republicans because they wanted to see the most extreme changes in society. They thought that Southern states that seceded should be punished and that newly freed black people should have equal rights. They put forward a plan to reshape Southern society, and for a brief period of time, black people in the United States had unprecedented social, political, and economic opportunities. 
Unfortunately, these changes were strongly opposed by President Johnson and other Southerners. This opposition drove many black people into the employment of former slaveowners to work as sharecroppers, and this time period also saw the rise of terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Reconstruction ended in 1877 after a deal that allowed Republican politician Rutherford Hayes to become president in exchange for Republicans agreeing to leave the South to its own control once again. This started a period of strict racial segregation in the United States that lasted for almost 100 years.
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Week 7 - The Spanish-American War
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Read the song lyrics, and download the primary sources below to answer the historical question:
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The Cuban War for Independence from Spain (1894-1898) captured the interest and sympathies of many people in the United States because of their own economic interests in Cuba, and because of the brutal treatment of Cuban revolutionaries by the Spanish. Tensions between the U.S. and Spain were growing for months as many people in the U.S. called for military intervention in Cuba. Still, President William McKinley remained against a war with Spain until the U.S. battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor under mysterious circumstances on February 15, 1898.
On April 20, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution that acknowledged Cuban independence, demanded that the Spanish government give up control of the island, promised that the U.S. would not take power in Cuba, and authorized McKinley to use whatever military measures he deemed necessary to guarantee Cuba’s independence. After less than four months of fighting, Spain surrendered to the U.S. and signed the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the war, and ended Spain's colonial empire in the Western hemisphere. This treaty also secured the position of the United States as a world power, as the U.S. betrayed its principles of independence and self-government by taking temporary control over Cuba, and making Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines permanently until U.S. control. The U.S. also annexed the independent state of Hawaii during the conflict, thus, enabling the U.S. to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia. Watch this video to learn more about the history of U.S. imperialism, and read more about the details and consequences of the Spanish-American War here.
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