Building a Nation:
Westward Expansion and the Coming of the Civil War

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 | 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m. (EST)

Map of westward expansion (detail)

Leader

Elliott West

Alumni Distinguished Professor of History
University of Arkansas

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You will need to install the WebEx ARF player, available at download, to play back the recording. Map of Mexico, 1847 (detail)

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Assigned Readings

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  1. Map: Westward expansion.
  2. John O’Sullivan, excerpt from “The Great Nation of Futurity” (source of term ‘manifest destiny’). From the United States Democratic Review, 1839.
  3. Walt Whitman on the Mexican War, from Brooklyn Eagle, May 11 and June 6, 1846. (PDF)
  4. Frederick Douglass on the Mexican War, from The North Star, January 21, 1848. (PDF)
  5. Map: Mexico, 1847.
  6. Cartoon: “Plucked; or, the Mexican Eagle Before the War...” Library of Congress.
  7. Excerpt from speech of John C. Calhoun to Senate, 1850 (PDF)
  8. Excerpt from speech of William Seward to House of Representatives, 1850
  9. David Wilmot: (a) Wilmot Proviso; (b) excerpt of speech to House of Representatives (PDF)
  10. Oregon Negro Exclusion law, 1849. (PDF)
  11. Map: Missouri Compromise/Compromise of 1850/Kansas-Nebraska Act
  12. Map: G. K. Warren, “Maps for Routes for a Pacific Railroad”. Library of Congress.
  13. Cartoon: “Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler.” Library of Congress.
  14. Excerpt of Charles Sumner speech to Senate, “The Crime Against Kansas.”
  15. First-hand account of a Free Soiler in Bleeding Kansas and a photograph of the man.
  16. Excerpts from Rodman W. Paul, The California Gold Discovery. (PDF)
  17. John Unruh, The Plains Across, tables on pp. 119, 120, 185.