Washington DC Academic Standards
DC.5. U.S. History and Geography: Westward Expansion to the Present
THE NEW NATION’S WESTWARD EXPANSION (1790–1860)
5.1. Students trace the colonization, immigration, and settlement patterns of the American people from 1789 to the mid-1800s.
5.1.3. Describe the process of the “internal slave trade” that saw Africans born in the United States sold into the southernmost states (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina) from more Northern states (Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland).
THE GROWTH OF THE REPUBLIC (1800–1860)
5.2. Students describe the emergence of a fledgling industrial economy.
5.2.1. Explain the expansion of the plantation system and slavery as the demand for cotton production grew. (G, S, E)
5.3. Students describe the rapid growth of slavery in the South after 1800.
5.3.1. Describe how Southern colonists slowly altered their attitudes toward Africans, increasingly viewing them as permanent servants or slaves; the harsh conditions of the Middle Passage; the responses of slave families to their condition; and the ongoing struggle between proponents and opponents of slavery. (S)
5.3.2. Describe the contributions of enslaved and free Africans to the economic development of the colonies. (S, E)
5.3.3. Identify the characteristics of slave life and the resistance on plantations and farms across the South. (P, S)
5.3.4. Explain the significance of and consequences ensuing from the abolition of slavery in the Northern states after the Revolution, and of the 1808 law that banned the importation of slaves into the United States. (P, S)
5.3.5. Describe the impact of the cotton gin on the economics and culture of slavery and Southern agriculture. (E, I)
THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION (1860–1877)
5.5. Students summarize the causes and consequences of the Civil War.
5.5.1. Describe the extension of and controversy about slavery into the territories, including popular sovereignty, the Dred Scott decision, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. (P, S)