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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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Adventures of Lewis and Clark
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America in the Time of Abraham Lincoln
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By the Dawn's Early Light
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Carolina's Courage
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Seeds of America #1
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Child's Day
Historic Communities
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Children of the Wild West
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Children's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 6
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Civil War
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Civil War
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American Kids in History
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Civil War for Kids
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Civil War Heroines
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Tales of the Wild West Volume 4
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Cowboys of the Wild West
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Biography for 4th-8th grade
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Diary of an Early American Boy
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American History Reference for 4th-8th grade
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Follow the Drinking Gourd
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Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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George Washington Carver
Heroes of History
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Gettysburg Address in Translation
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Go Free or Die
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Gold Rush Fever
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Grandpa's Stories
Tales of the Wild West Volume 10
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Great Fire
by Jim Murphy
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Harriet Tubman
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Heading West
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If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln
If You Were There
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If You Traveled On the Underground Railroad
If You Were There
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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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Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark
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Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark
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Indians
Tales of the Wild West Volume 3
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Industrial Revolution
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J. Pierpont Morgan
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Jericho's Journey
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Klondike Fever
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Last Safe House
by Barbara Greenwood
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Last Safe House
by Barbara Greenwood
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Lewis & Clark Hands On Art & English Activities
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Lewis and Clark for Kids
by Janis Herbert
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Life on the Homefront During the Civil War
by Melissa Doak
2012nd edition from Crabtree Publishing
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Louisiana Purchase (Let Freedom Ring)
by Elizabeth Jaffe
from Capstone Press
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Many Thousand Gone
by Virginia Hamilton
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Martha of California
by James Otis
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$4.00 (34 in stock)
Meet Samantha
American Girl
by Susan S. Adler
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Meeting Natives with Lewis and Clark
by Barbara Fifer
from Farcountry Press
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Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
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2010 Newbery Honor Book
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Mountain Men
Tales of the Wild West Volume 8
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Nation Torn
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Neeluk
by Frances Kittredge
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Oregon Trail
Tales of the Wild West Volume 1
by Rick Steber
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Our Vanishing Landscape
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Picture Book of Davy Crockett
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Picture Book of Lewis and Clark
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Pioneer Crafts
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Pioneer Days
American Kids in History
by David C. King
1st edition from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Pioneers
Tales of the Wild West Volume 11
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$2.50 (1 in stock)
Pledge of Allegiance in Translation
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Prairie Visions
by Pam Conrad
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1992 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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$4.00 (2 in stock)
Railroad
Inventions That Shaped the World
by John Matthews
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Red Moon at Sharpsburg
by Rosemary Wells
First Scholastic printing 2008 from Scholastic Inc.
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
River Between Us
by Richard Peck
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$3.00 (2 in stock)
Sailors, Whalers, Fantastic Sea Voyages
by Valerie Petrillo
1st edition from Chicago Review Press
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Sarah Whitcher's Story
by Elizabeth Yates
from Bob Jones University Press
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Secret School
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Secret School
by Avi
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Seeds of America - Boxed Set
by Laurie Halse Anderson
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$26.99 $17.00 (1 in stock)
Seneca Chief, Army General
Creative Minds Biographies
by Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, illustrated by Karen Ritz
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Sounding Forth the Trumpet for Young Readers
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Split History of the Battle of Gettysburg Union/Confederate
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Star-Spangled Banner
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Start Exploring the American West
by Emmanuel M. Kramer, illustrated by Helen I. Driggs
from Running Press
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Eli Whitney
by Jean Lee Latham
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
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$6.00 (3 in stock)
Story of Eli Whitney
by Jean Lee Latham
Second Edition from Avyx, Inc.
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Story of the Golden Spike
Cornerstones of Freedom
by R. Conrad Stein
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
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in History of Railroads (Location: HISA-19TRR)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Story of the Pony Express
Cornerstones of Freedom
by R. Conrad Stein
from Children's Press
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$2.50 (1 in stock)
Story of the Star-Spangled Banner
by Deborah Kent
from Children's Press
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Tall Tales
Tales of the Wild West Volume 13
by Rick Steber
from Bonanza Publishing
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in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$2.50 (2 in stock)
Tecumseh
by Dwight Jon Zimmerman
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 3rd-8th grade
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
The Story of the Erie Canal
from Children's Press
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in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Thee, Hannah!
by Marguerite de Angeli
from Herald Press
Realistic Fiction for
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Thomas Edison for Kids
by Laurie Carlson
from Chicago Review Press
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$19.99 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Thunder at Gettysburg
by Patricia Lee Gauch, Stephen Gammell
from Boyds Mill Press
for 1st-4th grade
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Trails to Poosey
by Olive R. Cook
from Misty Hill Press
Pioneer Fiction for 4th-7th grade
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$4.00 (2 in stock)
Trouble for Lucy
by Carla Stevens
from Clarion Books
Historical Fiction for 4th-5th grade
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$7.95 $5.50 (1 in stock)
Underground Railroad: An Interactive History Adventure
by Allison Lassieur
1st edition from Capstone Press
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Victorian Days
American Kids in History
by David C. King & Cheryl Kirk Noll
1st edition from Wiley-Interscience
for 3rd-6th grade
in 19th Century America (Location: HISA-19C)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Walking the Road to Freedom
by Jeri Ferris
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
Biography for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
War Within
by Carol Matas
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Western Heroes
Tales of the Wild West Volume 16
by Rick Steber
from Bonanza Publishing
for 4th-7th grade
in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
What Is the Panama Canal? (What Was...?)
What Was?
by Janet Pascal
1st edition from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Gilded Age & Progressive Era (1877-1918) (Location: HISA-19GI)
$5.99 $4.00 (2 in stock)
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