President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory (1803) from France for $15 million, doubling U.S. size. He sent Lewis and Clark to explore it to the Pacific.

The first permanent English settlement was Jamestown (Virginia, 1607), founded by a joint-stock company. It barely survived due to disease, hunger, and conflict with the Powhatan people. John Smith’s leadership and John Rolfe’s introduction of tobacco as a cash crop finally made Jamestown profitable. Part 2: The 13 Colonies & Colonial Life (1630–1754) Key Vocabulary: Puritan, Pilgrim, Mayflower Compact, Great Awakening, Mercantilism, Triangular Trade, Middle Passage

The United States was born from a fight for independence and the ideal that “all men are created equal.” Yet from the start, the nation was divided over slavery, Native American lands, and the power of government. The Revolution created the nation; the Constitution created a government; the Civil War tested whether that nation could survive; and Reconstruction attempted—but ultimately failed—to secure true freedom for all. By 1877, the U.S. remained a country still struggling to fulfill its founding promises.

Southern states passed Black Codes to restrict freedoms. Sharecropping trapped many Black families and poor whites in debt. Violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Black voters.

The Great Awakening (1730s–1740s) was a religious revival led by preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. It encouraged questioning authority and fostered a shared colonial identity. Part 3: Road to Revolution (1754–1775) Key Vocabulary: French and Indian War, Proclamation of 1763, Taxation without representation, Stamp Act, Boston Tea Party, Intolerable Acts

In April 1775, British troops marched to Concord, Massachusetts, to seize colonial weapons. At Lexington and Concord , the “shot heard ‘round the world” started the war.

The Proclamation of 1763 banned colonial settlement west of the Appalachians—enraging land-hungry colonists. Then came a series of acts: Sugar Act (1764), Stamp Act (1765), Townshend Acts (1767) . Colonists shouted, “No taxation without representation!” They boycotted British goods, formed the Sons of Liberty (led by Samuel Adams), and staged protests like the Boston Tea Party (1773) dumping tea into the harbor.