Note: Each chapter ends with a timeline, "The Years in Review," and a bibliography, "Additional Readings."
VOLUME I
Preface
PART I COLONIZATION AND REVOLUTION, 1492–1815
1. A Meeting of Three Worlds: Europe, Africa, and American Colonization, 1492–1680
Peoples of the New World
The Background to Overseas Expansion: Europe and Africa
The Invasion of the Americas Begins: Portugal, Spain, and the Need for Labor
Early Colonization Efforts in North America
The English Colonial Experience
Native Americans: Decline, Resistance, Exchange
Conclusion: The Remaking of Three Worlds
2. Servitude, Slavery, and the Growth of the Southern Colonies, 1620–1760
The Development of the Southern Colonies
The Making of Southern Slave Societies
African-American Culture in the South
Prosperity, Inequality, and Shifting Ideas in Slave Societies
Conclusion: The Southern Colonies at Mid-Eighteenth Century
3. Family Labor and the Growth of the Northern Colonies, 1640–1760
Early New England
America and England in the Late Seventeenth Century
Rural Societies in the Eighteenth Century
Urban America
Hierarchy and Equality in Northern Societies
Conclusion: Prosperity and Inequality at Mid-Century
4. Toward Revolution, 1750–1776
The Colonial Roots of Rebellion
The First British Empire: Triumph and Crisis
Imperial Conflict Grows
Resistance Becomes Revolution
Conclusion: What Sort of American Society?
5. Revolution, Constitution, and the People, 1776–1815
The Course of the War
Building a Republic
Creating a National Government
American Society: Competing Visions
Post-Revolutionary America in the World
Conclusion: Legacies of Revolution
PART II FREE LABOR AND SLAVERY, 1790–1850
6. The Consolidation of Slavery in the South, 1790–1836
Cotton and the Expansion of Slavery
Southern Slave Experiences
Southern White Experiences
Religion, Resistance, and Rebellion
The Planter Class Consolidates Power
Conclusion: The Challenges of a Slave Society
7. Northern Society and the Growth of Wage Labor, 1790–1837
The Early Nineteenth-Century North
A Transformation Begins
Wage Labor and Resistance
Democracy and Class in Jacksonian Society
Conclusion: A Divided Republic
8. Immigration, Urban Life, and Social Reform in the Free Labor North, 1838–1860
The Transformation of the American Labor Force
Urban Mayhem and Middle Class Reform
Radical Reform
Conclusion: The Free Labor North Faces an Uncertain Future
9. The Spread of Slavery and the Crisis of Southern Society, 1836–1848
The Master’s Precarious Domain
New Frontiers and New Challenges for Southern Slavery
Extending an Empire of Slavery
Conclusion: Western Expansion and the Path to War
PART III WAR, RECONSTRUCTION AND LABOR, 1848–1877
10. The Deepening Rift over Slavery, 1848–1860
The Transformation of the West
Uneasy Compromises over Slavery
The Labor Question in a Time of Rising Tension
Toward a Showdown
Conclusion The Deepening Rift Becomes a Chasm
11. The Civil War: America’s Second Revolution, 1861–1865
The Nation Disintegrates
The War for the Union and Against Slavery
The Cold Realities of War
War Transforms the North
War Transforms the South
Military Victory Assured
Conclusion: Revolutionary Consequences and Daunting Questions
12. Reconstructing the Nation, 1865–1877
The Beginnings of Reconstruction
African Americans Build New Lives After Emancipation
The Drama of Reconstruction Unfolds
The End of Reconstruction
Conclusion: Still Searching for Freedom
13. New Frontiers: Westward Expansion and Industrial Growth, 1865–1877
Change and Violence on the Frontier
Industrialization and the Working Class
An American Labor Movement Emerges
Conclusion: The Lessons of 1877