Academic standards list
Eighth Grade: United States History and Geography: Colonization of North America to Reconstruction and the American West — Social Studies (2014-2019)
Introduction
Content Strands: Many academic standards for social studies courses are categorized into content strands as indicated by letter codes. (C=Culture, E=Economics, G=Geography, H=History, P=Politics/Government, TN=Tennessee)
Colonialism (1600-1750)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from The First Virginia Charter, 1606; The Mayflower Compact, 1620; excerpts from the Charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1629; excerpts from The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1639; excerpts from The Maryland Toleration Act, 1649; excerpts from The New England Articles of Confederation; excerpts from A Historie of Virginia, ("starving time") John Smith; excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford
Development of a New Nation (1720-1787)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech, Patrick Henry; The Declaration of Independence; excerpts from "Common Sense" and "The Crisis," Thomas Paine; excerpts from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Consider: excerpts from Andrew Hamilton's closing argument in the trial of John Peter Zenger; excerpts from John Donelson's journal
The Constitution and Foundation of the American Political System (1777-1789)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from The Articles of Confederation; the U.S. Constitution; The Federalist Paper # 10 and #51; The Bill of Rights; Washington's Farewell Address
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Consider: excerpts from The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison; Patrick Henry's arguments against ratification
Growth of the Young Nation (1789-1849)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from the journals of Lewis and Clark; excerpts from decision in Marbury vs. Madison, John Marshall
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Consider: excerpts from John Marshall's decisions in Gibbons v. Ogden and McCulloch v. Maryland; excerpts from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Washington Irving; excerpts from The Deerslayer series, James Fenimore Cooper
The United States' Role on the World Stage (1789-1849)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from The Monroe Doctrine
The Sectionalism of the American North, South, and West (1800-1850)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from "The Declaration of Sentiments," Seneca Falls Convention; excerpts from "Nature" and "Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson; excerpts from "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau; excerpts from "Ain't I A Woman," Sojourner Truth translated by Frances Dana Barker Gage; excerpts from Eliza Bryan of the New Madrid Earthquakes
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Consider: excerpts from Roughing It, Mark Twain; excerpts from A Narrative in the Life of David Crockett of the state of Tennessee, David Crockett
Slavery in America (1800-1850)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; excerpts from the Lincoln-Douglas Debates; excerpts from Roger Taney's decision in the Dred Scott case; excerpts from The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass.
Civil War (1830-1865)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from the "House Divided" speech in 1858, Gettysburg Address in 1863, Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and Inaugural Addresses in 1861 and 1865, Abraham Lincoln; excerpts from The Respective of Co. Aytch, Sam Watkins
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Consider: excerpts from Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Westward Expansion after the Civil War (1865-1890)
Primary Documents and Supporting Texts to Read: excerpts from A Century of Dishonor, Helen Hunt Jacks
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