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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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A Weed Is a Flower
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ABC Book of Early Americana
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Abraham Lincoln - Coloring Book
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America in the Time of Abraham Lincoln
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American History for Young Students II
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American History for Young Students III
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Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks
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$29.95
Amistad - Coloring Book
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Historic Communities
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Civil War Artist
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Civil War Fashions - Coloring Book
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Civil War Paper Soldiers in Full Color
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Civil War Uniforms - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
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Clara Barton: Amazing Civil War Nurse
Amazing Americans
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Coloring Book of the Civil War
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Dover Coloring Books
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Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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Early Settler Storybook
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Enemies of Slavery
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Step into Reading Level 4
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F is for Freedom
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Famous Figures of the Civil War
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Famous Trains - Coloring Book
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Fashions of the Old South - Coloring Book
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Fire at the Triangle Factory
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First Step
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Food and Recipes of Westward Expansion
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From Antietam to Gettysburg - Coloring Book
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From Slave Ship to Freedom Road
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Going to School During the Civil War: The Union
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Going West
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Historical fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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Going West
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Historical fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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Going West!
Kalideoscope Kids Book
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Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter
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Her Story, Her Words
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Horses of the Old West - Coloring Book
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from Dover Publications
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How Sweet the Sound
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from Atheneum
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How We Crossed the West
by Rosalyn Schanzer
Reprint from National Geographic
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How We Crossed the West
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I am Sacagawea
Ordinary People Change the World
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If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln
If You Were There
by Ann McGovern
from Scholastic Inc.
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If You Traveled On the Underground Railroad
If You Were There
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Historical Non-fiction for 2nd-5th grade
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If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon
If You Were There
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Historical Non-fiction for 2nd-5th grade
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Industrial Revolution
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John Brown: One Man Against Slavery
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John Lincoln Clem: Civil War Drummer Boy
Based on a True Story
by E. F. Abbott
from Square Fish Publishing
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$9.99
Johnny Appleseed
by Steven Kellogg
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$9.99
Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend
by Will Moses
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$4.00 (2 in stock)
Josefina Story Quilt
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Eleanor Coerr
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln
An All Aboard Reading Reader Level 4
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from Grosset & Dunlap
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$5.99
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
by Peter & Connie Roop
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Historical Fiction for 1st-3rd grade
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$8.99
Last Princess
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Picture Book Biographies for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Legendary Outlaws and Lawmen of the Old West - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by E. Lisle Reedstrom
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$6.99
Lewis & Clark
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Historical Non-Fiction for 1st-4th grade
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$7.99
Life in Early America
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Life on a Plantation
Historic Communities
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in Everyday Life in History (Location: HISV-EVERY)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Life on a Southern Plantation
by Sally Senzell Isaacs
from Heinemann Educational Books
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in American Civil War Era (1850-1865) (Location: HISA-19CW)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Life on the Homefront During the Civil War
by Melissa Doak
2012nd edition from Crabtree Publishing
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Long Way Westward
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Joan Sandin
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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$4.99 $2.50 (3 in stock)
Louisa May Alcott: Her Girlhood Diary
by Louisa May Alcott
from Troll Medallion
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Mama Went to Jail for the Vote
by Kathleen Karr, illustrated by Malene Laugesen
from Hyperion Books for Children
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi
by Cheryl Harness
from Simon and Schuster
Biography for 2nd-5th grade
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Meet Abraham Lincoln
Second Series Landmark / Step Up reprints
by Barbara Cary
from Random House
Biography for 1st-4th grade
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Meet Samantha
American Girl
by Susan S. Adler
from American Girl
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Monitor
All Aboard Reading
by Gare Thompson
from Grosset & Dunlap
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$2.00 (1 in stock)
Moses
by Carole Boston Weatherford
1st edition from Hyperion/Madison Press
for Preschool-3rd grade
2007 Caldecott Honor Book
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$18.99 $9.50 (1 in stock)
Moving the Millers’ Minnie Moore Mine Mansion
by Dave Eggers, illustrated by Julia Sarda
from Candlewick Press
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$19.99
Mr. Emerson's Cook
by Judy Schachner
from Purple House Press
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$14.99
My Book of Little House Paper Dolls
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperFestival
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in Little House Materials (Location: LIR-LHM)
$14.99
My Name is York
by Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth
from Rising Moon Books
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in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Ol' Paul the Mighty Logger
by Glen Rounds
from Holiday House
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in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Old-Fashioned Farm Life - Coloring Book
Dover Coloring Books
by A. G. Smith
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in History of America Coloring Books (Location: COL-HISA)
$5.99
Paul Bunyan
by Steven Kellogg
from William Morrow & Company
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for
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$8.99
Picture Book of Davy Crockett
by David Adler
from Holiday House
Picture Book Biography for 2nd-4th grade
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$7.99 $4.50 (1 in stock)
Picture Book of Sacagawea
by David A. Adler, illustrated by Dan Brown
from Holiday House
for 1st-3rd grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
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