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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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Bold Journey
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Boston Jane
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Bull Run
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Carolina's Courage
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Seeds of America #1
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Historic Communities
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Tales of the Wild West Volume 6
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Civil War
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Civil War
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Step Into History
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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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Courage to Run
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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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Biography for 4th-8th grade
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Diary of an Early American Boy
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from Dover Publications
American History Reference for 4th-8th grade
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Sowers Series
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Heroes of History
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Biography for 4th-7th grade
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Gettysburg Address in Translation
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Go Free or Die
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Biography for 4th-6th grade
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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
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Harriet Tubman
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Heading West
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History of US Book 4
History of US Book 4
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
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History of US Book 5
History of US Book 5
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
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History of US Book 5
History of US Book 5
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History of US Book 6
History of US Book 6
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
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History of US Book 6
History of US Book 6
by Joy Hakim
3rd edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
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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
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History of US Book 7
History of US Book 7
by Joy Hakim
3rd edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
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If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln
If You Were There
by Ann McGovern
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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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Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark
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Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark
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Historical Reference for 4th-6th grade
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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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John Paul Jones
Sterling Point Books
by Armstrong Sperry
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Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier
Landmark #53
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2005 printing from University of Nebraska
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Klondike Fever
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Ladies Were Not Expected
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Last Safe House
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Last Safe House
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Letter Writer
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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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Historical Reference/Activity Book for 4th-6th grade
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Lincoln: A Photobiography
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1988 Newbery Medal winner
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Long Road to Gettysburg
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Louisiana Purchase (Let Freedom Ring)
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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
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Meeting Natives with Lewis and Clark
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Men-of-War
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1st Us Edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
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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
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Oregon Trail
Tales of the Wild West Volume 1
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Oregon Trail
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Our Vanishing Landscape
by Eric Sloan
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$5.50 (1 in stock)
Outrageous Women of the American Frontier
Outrageous Women
by Mary Furbee
1st edition from Jossey-Bass
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Patty Reed's Doll
by Rachel K. Laurgaard
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Historical fiction for 5th-8th grade
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$7.00 (3 in stock)
Picture Book of Lewis and Clark
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Pioneer Crafts
by Inc. Kids Can Press
from Kids Can Press
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$3.50 (1 in stock)
Pioneer Days
American Kids in History
by David C. King
1st edition from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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in Pioneer & Frontier Life (Location: HISA-19PIO)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Pioneers
Tales of the Wild West Volume 11
by Rick Steber
from Bonanza Publishing
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$2.50 (1 in stock)
Pledge of Allegiance in Translation
by Elizabeth, Raum
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Prairie Songs
by Pam Conrad
from Scholastic Inc.
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in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Prairie Visions
by Pam Conrad
from Scholastic Inc.
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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
from Franklin Watts
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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
for 4th-6th grade
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$7.50 (2 in stock)
Sarah Whitcher's Story
by Elizabeth Yates
from Bob Jones University Press
Realistic Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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$8.99 $4.50 (1 in stock)
Seaman
by Gail Karwoski & James Watling
from Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.
Historical Fiction for 5th-8th grade
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$9.99 $6.00 (2 in stock)
Secret School
by Avi
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Secret School
by Avi
from Sandpiper Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99 $4.00 (2 in stock)
Seeds of America - Boxed Set
by Laurie Halse Anderson
from Atheneum
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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
from Carolrhoda Books, Inc.
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
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