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19th Century America

The 19th was the United States' first full century as a nation. It was full of birth pangs, moments of triumph, and things that made everyone shake their head and wonder what was going on. One of the most interesting of the latter bits was when British ex-pat Joshua Norton crowned himself Emperor of the United States, "reigning" from San Francisco.

Most people remember the 19th century for the Civil War. While it certainly was a significant event, one of the most important events in American history even, there were a number of surrounding factors that were just as important, and without which the War Between the States would never have developed.

Arguably the most significant of these was Western Expansion. The idea that Americans were fulfilling some kind of national destiny by claiming the Western part of the continent was called Manifest Destiny, and its origins can be found in the writings of some of the most prominent Founding Fathers, like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Their dedication to the Enlightenment ideal of human progress (that mankind controlled its own destiny, and that that destiny was to move ever forward) translated into a need to expand their country as far as possible.

As with anything else, God used that humanist doctrine to advance His own truth. While politicians and opportunists went West to obtain land, gold, and freedom, Christian missionaries went to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. People like Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and Jason Lee braved the Oregon Trail simply to share their faith with the Native Americans in the Western Territories; the Whitmans even gave their lives, becoming the Pacific Northwest's most famous martyrs.

Meanwhile, back in the East the bigwigs were conspiring to breach the 3,000 mile gap between the East and West coasts with a recently improved invention: the steam engine train. The First Transcontinental Railroad wasn't completed till 1869 (four years after the Civil War had ended), but it's origins reach back to the 1840s when it was first envisioned by Asa Whitney.

In fact, the transcontinental railroad was a significant element of Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign and administration. This was the problem: the North wanted the Trans to go through their territory because they had so much industrial product to move, while the South wanted it to run through the bottom half of the States so they could transport cotton, sorghum, and other agricultural goods.

The reality was a bit of a compromise, but the violent debates that stirred Congress had no small part in fomenting the division that would ultimately erupt in full-blown war. Slavery was the main issue, but it affected so many other factors that to reduce the origins of the Civil War to slavery alone is a bit revisionist and narrow-sighted.

For a lot of the 19th century, it seemed that the United States led a charmed existence, that Progress was a sure thing and there was nothing really to fear, certainly no problem that couldn't be overcome. The last two decades were exceedingly prosperous, leading to a sense of smug optimism that only the terror of World War I, the moral chaos of the Jazz Age, and the sudden insecurity of the Great Depression could effectively end.

Not everyone was man-centered and materialistic, however. The 19th century saw a surge in evangelism unlike anything the fledgling nation had seen, so pervasive and productive that it was called the Second Great Awakening. Unfortunately, a lot of doctrinal dilution came with the new preaching, but there were plenty of genuine conversions, and much good came of them.

It's difficult to reduce a one hundred year span to a few paragraphs, and there are certainly things we could have mentioned. Comprehensive treatments aren't always the best way to study history, though; each era has its own spirit and attitudes (its own zeitgeist, if you want to get all technical and German) that best represent it. We hope you'll bear that in mind in your study of the 19th century in America, and indeed throughout your study of history here and around the globe.

Topics of Interest from the 19th Century:

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.
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Abe Lincoln
Landmark Series
by Sterling North
from Random House
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Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance
by Frances Cavanah
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by James Daugherty
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Abraham Lincoln
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
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in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Abraham Lincoln
by Clara Ingram Judson
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Biography for 3rd-7th grade
1951 Newbery Honor Book
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Abraham Lincoln
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
75th Anniversary Edition from Beautiful Feet Books
Picture Book Biography for 3rd-6th grade
1940 Caldecott Medal winner
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$17.95
Abraham Lincoln
Initial Biography
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 3rd-6th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by A. G. Smith
from Dover Publications
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$5.99
Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
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from American Heritage Publishing Co.
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Alexander Graham Bell
by Elizabeth MacLeod
from Kids Can Press
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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All That Glitters
Perspectives on History Series
by Phyllis Raybin Emert
from History Compass
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America's Robert E. Lee
by Henry Steele Commager, illustrated by Lynd Ward
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Amistad - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by Peter F. Copeland
from Dover Publications
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$3.95
Andrew Jackson: Soldier and Statesman
by Ralph K. Andrist
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Annie Oakley: Young Marksman
Childhood of Famous Americans
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$7.99
Bad News for Outlaws
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from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
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$19.99
Benjamin Bonneville, Soldier-Explorer
from Julian Messner
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Biography of James A. Garfield
Sons of Liberty Series
by William Thayer
from A Beka Books
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$9.50 (1 in stock)
Black Courage
by A. E. Schraff
from Macrae-Smith Company
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Booker T. Washington
by Shirley Graham
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BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Michele Wood
from Candlewick Press
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2021 Newbery Honor Book
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$17.99
Buffalo Bill
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Beautiful Feet Books
Picture Book Biography for 3rd-6th grade
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Buffalo Bill
by Helen Cody Wetmore
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 6th-9th grade
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Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show
Landmark #73
by Walter Havighurst, illustrated by John C. Wonsetler
from Random House
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in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Buffalo Bill's Life Story
by William F. Cody, Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Buffalo Bill: Frontier Daredevil
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Meryl Stevenson
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$7.99 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt!
by Jean Fritz
from PaperStar Books
Biography for 5th-8th grade
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$7.99
Cabin Boy to Advent Crusader
by Virgil Robinson, illustrated by Harry Baerg
from Southern Publishing Association
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Camels West
by James Ralph Johnson
from David McKay Company
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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1956 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
by Esther Averill, illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky
from Harper & Brothers
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in Age of Exploration (1450-1700) (Location: HISA-16EXP)
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces
by Shannon Garst, illustrated by Douglas Gorsline
from Julian Messner
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Clara Barton
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
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$11.99
Clara Barton
Landmark #58
by Helen Dore Boylston
from Random House
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Clara Barton: Civil War Nurse
Historical American Biographies
by Nancy Whitelaw
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Courage to Run
Daughters of the Faith
by Wendy G. Lawton
from Moody Press
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$8.99
Crazy Horse: The Story of an American Indian
by John R. Milton
Second Printing 1975 from Dillon Press
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Danger in the Desert
by Roger Cohen
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Daniel Boone
by Daniel Boone
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Biography for 4th-8th grade
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$14.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Daniel Boone
Adventures in Frontier America
by Catherine E. Chambers
from Troll Publishing
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Stewart Edward White, illustrated by Henry C. Pitz
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
by Stewart Edward White, illustrated by James Daugherty
from Garden City Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Daniel Boone: The Opening of the Wilderness
Landmark #21
by John Mason Brown
from Random House
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David Farragut
The History of the Civil War
by Russell Shorto
from Stan Clark Military Books
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Davy Crockett
by David Crockett
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Davy Crockett
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Constance Rourke, illustrated by Walter Seaton
from Grosset & Dunlap
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1935 Newbery Honor Book
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Davy Crockett
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Davy Crockett
Landmark #57
by Stewart H. Holbrook
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Davy Crockett
by George Edward Stanley
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 4rd-6th grade
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Davy Crockett: Young Rifleman
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Aileen Wells Parks
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
$7.99
Did You Invent The Phone All Alone, Alexander Graham Bell?
by Gilda Berger, Melvin Berger
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.99
Dolly Madison
Landmark #47
by Jane Mayer
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage & Collectible (Location: VIN-COL)
Eagle and the Fort
by Dorothy Morrison
from Oregon Historical Society Press
Biography for 5th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Electrical Wizard
by Elizabeth Rusch, illustrated by Oliver Dominguez
from Candlewick Press
for 3rd-6th grade
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Eli Whitney: Great Inventor
by Jean Lee Latham
from Garrard Publishing Company
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Emancipation Proclomation
by Tonya Bolden
from Abrams Books for Young Readers
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Forever Free
by Dorothy Sterling, illustrated by Ernest Crichlow
from Doubleday & Company
for 5th-8th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
Forty-Acre Swindle
TrailBlazer Books
by Dave & Neta Jackson
from Bethany House
for 3rd-7th grade
in Trailblazer Books (Location: SER-TRAIL)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Forty-Acre Swindle
TrailBlazer Books
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from Castle Rock Creative
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$8.99
Forward March to Freedom
by Barbara Kay Greenleaf
from Grosset & Dunlap
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Francis Scott Key
Sowers Series
by David Collins
from Mott Media
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Frederick Douglass: The Right to Dignity
from Emerald Books
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$11.99
Freedom Train
by Dorothy Sterling
from Scholastic Inc.
Biography for 4th-8th grade
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$6.99
Freedom's Pen
Daughters of the Faith
by Wendy G. Lawton
New Edition from Moody Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Daughters of the Faith (Location: SER-DAU)
$7.99
Frontiersman
by Marian T. Place
First Ediition from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Gentle Annie
by Mary Francis Shura
from Scholastic Inc.
Fictionalized Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
George Rogers Clark: War in the West
Events of the Revolution
by Susan and John Lee, illustrated by Richard Wahl
from Children's Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
George Washington Carver
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
George Washington Carver - Unit Study Curriculum Guide
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Geronimo: Apache Freedom Fighter
Native American Biographies
by Spring Hermann
from Enslow
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Geronimo: Wolf of the Warpath
Landmark #81
by Ralph Moody, illustrated by Nicholas Eggenhofer
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Gettysburg Address in Translation
by Kay M., Olson
from Capstone Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$7.95
Go Free or Die
by Jeri Ferris
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.99
Great Little Madison
by Jean Fritz
from PaperStar Books
Biography for 5th-8th grade
1990 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$7.99 $4.50 (2 in stock)
Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers
by Jean Fritz
from PaperStar Books
Biography for 5th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.99
Harriet Tubman
Heroes of History
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from Emerald Books
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Heroes of History (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Harriet Tubman
by Ann Petry
from HarperCollins
Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Harriet Tubman
Triangle Histories: The Civil War
by Lisa Halvorsen
from Blackbirch Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Clearance: Biographies (Location: ZCLE-BIO)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Harriet Tubman
by Frances T. Humphreville
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-7th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Harriet Tubman
by Ann Petry
from HarperCollins
Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.99
Helen Keller
by Polly Anne Graff, Stewart Graff
from Yearling
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Heroines of the Early West
Landmark #91
by Nancy Wilson Ross
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage & Collectible (Location: VIN-COL)
History of US Book 7
History of US Book 7
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
in History of US (Location: HISA-HAKIM)
$15.95 $11.00 (2 in stock)
House of Dies Drear
by Virginia Hamilton
Reissue from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 4th-6th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$7.99 $4.00 (4 in stock)
Hunters Blaze the Trails
by Edith S. McCall
New 1980 Edition from Children's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Hunters Blaze the Trails
by Edith S. McCall
from Children's Press
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in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
In Their Own Words: Lewis and Clark
by George Sullivan
from Scholastic Inc.
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in Lewis & Clark (Location: HISA-19L&C)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Inventing the Future
by David Edward Sloane, Marfe Ferguson Delano
from National Geographic
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
J. Pierpont Morgan
by Michael Burgan
1st edition from Compass Point Books
for 4th-7th grade
in Clearance: Biographies (Location: ZCLE-BIO)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
James Fenimore Cooper
by Isabel Proudfit
from Julian Messner
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
James Fenimore Cooper
by Donald A. Ringe
from Twayne Publishers
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
James Longstreet
Triangle Histories: The Civil War
by Melanie LeTourneau
from Blackbirch Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Clearance: Biographies (Location: ZCLE-BIO)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Jeb Stuart
Historical American Biographies
by Lynda Pflueger
from Enslow
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Jed Smith
by Frank Latham
from Christian Liberty Press
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$10.50 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Jed Smith, Young Western Explorer
by Olive W. Burt
from Bobbs-Merril Co
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Jedediah Smith
by Sharlene and Ted Nelson
from Franklin Watts
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Jefferson Davis
by George Ulrich, John Lee, Susan Lee
from Children's Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in American Civil War (1860-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
Jefferson Davis
Triangle Histories: The Civil War
by W. Scott Ingram
from Blackbirch Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
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