Standard 4-5: The student will demonstrate an understanding of westward expansion of the United
States and its impact on the institution of slavery.
4-5.1 Summarize the major expeditions that played a role in westward expansions including those of
Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, and Zebulon Pike.
1. Three explorers traveled west resulting in people following their trails and eventually settling in
the west.
a. Daniel Boone
i. Traveled through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky creating the Wilderness Trail
(first National Road)
ii. Established first US settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains
b. Lewis and Clark
i. Sacajawea guided the two men into the west
ii. Established American claims to the Pacific Northwest (Oregon Country) and
documented land that would later be purchased from France (Louisiana
Purchase)
iii. Returned with information about the Native Americans living in the region as
well as specimens of new plants and animals
c. Zebulon Pike
i. Explorer, mapped, and claimed land for the US
1. Upper region of the Mississippi River
2. Territories that stretched to the Pacific Ocean and up to Oregon Country
3. The southwest (Spanish territory)
4-5.2 Explain the motivations and methods of migrants and immigrants, who moved West, including
economic opportunities, the availability of rich land, and the country’s belief in Manifest Destiny.
2. Pioneers began to settle in the west helping to claim land for America.
a. Manifest Destiny- American’s believed that they had a God given right to expand and
claim lands coast to coast
b. Motives included economic and personal opportunities:
i. Furs to be sold in Europe for profit
ii. Inexpensive farmland in Oregon made it possible to own land
iii. Southerners moved to Texas to plant cotton
iv. Merchants followed miners of the California Gold Rush to provide food and
supplies
v. Mormons settled in Utah for religious freedom
c. Hardship on the trails:
i. Broken axels, accidents, bad weather, rough river crossings, limited food supply,
sickness, bandits, unfriendly Native Americans
ii. Cooperation, lack of conflict and weather made the trip a success or failure
4-5.3 Explain the purpose, location, and impact of key United States acquisitions in the first half of the
nineteenth century, including the Louisiana Purchase, the Florida Purchase, the Oregon Treaty, the
annexation of Texas, and the Mexican Cession.
3. The United States gains land…
a. Louisiana Purchase
i. Thomas Jefferson wanted to buy the port city of New Orleans to help transport
goods
ii. France offered to sell the entire area of Louisiana for $15 million
1. Doubled the size of the US
b. Florida Purchase
i. Friction between Spain and the US over boundary lines of the Louisiana Purchase
ii. Spain sold Florida to the US in exchange for $5 million and a clear boundary line
between Louisiana Territory and New Spain
c. Oregon Treaty
i. Americans move into Oregon area, but British had originally claimed the area
ii. Compromise was for the US to gain Oregon Territory and the British to stay
north (present day Canada)
d. Annexation of Texas
i. Texas was a part of Mexico and then fought the Mexicans for their independence
(Texan War)
ii. After nine year of independence, Texas became a part of the US
e. Mexican Cession
i. US wanted a port on the Pacific coast
ii. Gained Mexican Cession after winning the Mexican War
4-5.4 Summarize how territorial expansion, related land policies, and specific legislation that affected
Native Americans, including the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Indian Removal Act.
4. Westward Expansion had a negative impact on Native Americans
a. Northwest Ordinance of 1787
i. Outlined how territories could become states
ii. Provided public schools and prohibited slavery in this region (Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin)
iii. Promised good faith towards Indians and to never take land from them
iv. Outcome: westward movement of white settlers forced Native Americans to give
up land and move further west
b. Indian Removal Act
i. Provided land and money president could use to enter treaties with Native
Americans in which tribes were to leave lands east of the Mississippi and move
west
ii. Some tribes moved voluntarily and other tribes resisted
1. Cherokees
a. Lived in harmony with Americans (adopted language,
government, plantation system with slavery)
b. Resisted by taking case to Supreme Court—ruled they had the
right to keep their land
i. Andrew Jackson ignored court and used the army to force
them to travel to Indian Territory on the “Trail of Tears”
ii. ¼ died on the forced foot march during winter
2. Seminoles
a. Went to war in Florida to resist moving
b. Many were captured and forced to move to Indian Territory
iii. Promised reservations ended in broken treaties because settlers wanted gold,
silver, and land
4-5.5 Explain how the Missouri Compromise, the fugitive slave laws, the annexations of Texas, the
Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision affected the institution of
slavery in the United States and its territories.
5. As Americans moved west, the US added more territories raising the issue of whether or not to
allow slavery in these new states.
a. Missouri Compromise (1820)
i. Missouri (slave state) and Maine (free state) were added to the US
ii. Adding two states at the same time kept the balance of free and slave states
b. Annexation of Texas (1845)
i. Texas was added to the US as a slave state resulting in the Mexican War
ii. US gained more land (Mexican Cession) after winning the Mexican War
1. Southerners wanted slavery in the area
2. Northerners wanted the area to be “free soil”
c. Fugitive Slave Laws
i. Gave southerners more opportunity to have their escaped slaves returned
ii. Northerners did not always follow these laws
d. Compromise of 1850
i. California wanted to be added as a free state
1. This would upset the balance of free and slave states
ii. Compromise was for Washington, D.C. to allow slavery and the Mexican Cession
to decide by voting (popular sovereignty)
e. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
i. Slavery decision was to be decided by voting
1. Northern abolitionists (free states) and southern slave owners (slave
states) moved to this territory to influence the vote
2. People fought—“Bleeding Kansas”
f. Dred Scott Decision (1858)
i. Controversy over slaves taken to free states
1. Scott’s master took him into free territory
2. Scott sued his master for freedom claiming “once free, always free”
3. Supreme Court decided that African Americans were not citizens of the
US and could not sue; slaves were considered property
a. Southerners supported the ruling
b. Northerners saw this as denying them the right to outlaw slavery
in their states