Primary Source Learning: Expansion & Reform Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the period 1815-1860, when the United States expanded dramatically geographically, displacing native peoples. But this time was also one of striving for social reforms (promoting temperance, creating public school systems, improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining equal rights for women). The story may focus on one aspect of this time period or both and may be in digital or print form. It could be nonfiction, fiction, poetry, or even a song. Click on each thumbnail image below to access the full size primary source. You may also use this primary set for a found poetry activity (click the previous link). Be sure to take a look at the Expansion & Reform timeline as well as associated lesson plans (see below). For more primary source sets and other teaching and learning resources by time period, access the U.S. History by Time Period themed link set.

Chiricahua Apaches as They Arrived at Carlisle	Passengers from Washington for the West	Tasunka, the Slayer of Lieut. Casey, near Pine Ridge, S.D.
Auction & Negro Sales	Daniel Webster Addressing the United States Senate	Slave Auction at the South
Tampa Bay on the Gulf of Mexico	Mr. Zina Hitchcock Benjamin Family	Gold mining in California
Landing of the American Forces under Genl. Scott, at Vera Cruz	Effects of the Fugitive-Slave-Law	Cache la Poudre Creek
Treaty between the U.S. and the Potawatomi Indians	Sarah Byrd Memories of Oregon Trail	American Moral Reform Society: Declaration of Sentiment

New nation lesson plans

• Journeys West
• Marco Paul’s Travels on the Erie Canal: An Educational Voyage
• A Russian Settlement in Alaska: A Community at the Meeting of Frontiers
• Westward Expansion: Links to the Past

Primary source sets by time period

• Settlement primary source set
• American Revolution primary source set
• Young Nation primary source set
• Civil War & Reconstruction primary source set
• Industrial America primary source set
• Progressive Era primary source set
• Great Depression & World War II primary source set
• Primary Source Learning: Postwar United States (1945-1968) primary source set