How has geography influenced economic development, population trends, and historical events in the U.S.?

How did economic factors drive westward expansion and create new opportunities and challenges?

How did the acquisition of new territories impact the nation's growth and development?

What can we learn from the stories of individuals traveling westward to find new opportunities?

What drove immigration westward and what challenges and opportunities did those who undertake it experience?

How did U.S. expansion affect Native American communities?

How can primary source documents help us understand the perspective on slavery of the author's of the U.S. Constitution?

How did the expansion of slavery into new territories intensify sectional tensions?  

What did Americans think about slavery in the nineteenth century?

How did enslaved people resist slavery in their daily lives?

How did the drive for territorial expansion shape the nation’s identity and create new challenges for the United States?

Interpret and synthesize information from historical maps.

Investigate a timeline to identify important information and make connections.

Four primary sources that share the stories of those who traveled Westward during the mid-1800's.

A student handout that pairs with the four accounts from the Voices of the Westward Expansion lesson.

Guided questions to help students explore the primary sources associated with this lesson.

Four primary source documents from the mid-1800's that explore the topic of slavery and the U.S. Constitution.

Five primary sources that identify different perspectives on slavery in the nineteenth century.

Five primary sources that show how enslaved people resisted slavery in their daily lives.

A student handout to accompany the primary sources in this lesson.

An essay to help students explore the challenges and opportunities experienced by those who moved west during the mid-1800's.

A pre-built assessment for the Unit 7 DBQ.

A pre-built slide deck to accompany the Unit 7 DBQ.

Support for implementing the Unit 7 Deconstructed DBQ in the middle school classroom.

Provide support for analyzing historical maps.

A pre-built slide deck to accompany the student cyber sandwich handout.

Describe how U.S. expansion affected Native American communities.

In this middle school history lesson, step into one of the most transformative moments in American history, Westward Expansion. Using Alfred Rudolph Waud’s The Last Mile of the Pacific Railroad 1869, students explore how the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad connected the nation from coast to coast, symbolizing both extraordinary progress and the immense human cost of expansion. How did the drive for territorial expansion shape America’s identity and create new challenges for the United States? Through guided historical thinking, students analyze this powerful artwork as evidence, develop historical context, and craft a thesis supported by reasoning, skills they’ll apply in the unit’s scaffolded Document-Based Question (DBQ) assessment.