HIST 1031 - U.S. History to 1865

Credits: 4
Hours/Week: Lecture 4 Lab 0
Internship hours per week 0
Course Description: This course surveys U.S. history from pre-colonial Indigenous America through the Civil War.  Recurring themes include settler colonialism and Indigenous resistance, religion, slavery and racism, immigration, gender, republicanism and democracy, and economic changes. The course will also introduce the limitations of historical sources, how knowledge about the past is produced, and the relevance of history to contemporary issues and questions.
MnTC Goals
Goal 5 Goal 7B

Prerequisite(s): Course placement into college-level English and Reading OR completion of ENGL 0950  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of RDNG 0940  with a grade of C or higher and qualifying English Placement Exam OR completion of RDNG 0950  with a grade of C or higher and ENGL 0090  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of ESOL 0051  with a grade of C or higher and ESOL 0052  with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content

1. Vast Indigenous America
2. European Settler Colonies
3. Slavery and the Atlantic World
4. The Historical Foundations of Racism in the United States
5. Social Change and Imperial Crisis in Anglo-America
6. The American Revolution, Constitution, and Early Republic
7. Democratization and Its Limits
8. Genocide, Removal, and Westward Expansion
9. Capital and Labor in the Antebellum North
10. Antebellum Reform Movements
11. The Cotton Revolution and African America
12. The Sectional Crisis
13. The Civil War and Reconstruction

1. interpret U.S. history to 1865 by making connections between events, movements, and ideas in the past. 
2. use historical thinking to make connections between the history of the United States and the present.
3. assess the relevance and limitations of primary and secondary sources.
4. formulate a historical argument.
5. analyze the challenges and contributions of communities experiencing intersecting systems of oppression. 
6. historicize structural racism in the United States.

05. 02. Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.

05. 03. Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
Theme Goals (MnTC Goals 7-10)
07B.01. Understand historical and contemporary systemic structures of racism that sustain social, political, economic, and/or environmental inequities, particularly for Black, Indigenous lands and people, and other communities of color.

07B.02. Describe individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations among racial groups in the United States and how inequality is maintained by redefining race and other social identities and structures.

07B.03. Examine significant challenges of and contributions by people in the United States who have experienced racism and other forms of oppression such as sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, transphobia, antisemitism, and Islamophobia.

Courses and Registration