Curated OER
National Park Service: Stories of the Westward Expansion: Exodus to Freedom
Contains an article written on the African American exodus to Kansas to farm in the late 19th century.
Other
Western History Genealogy: Digital Images: Native American Women
A picture gallery with information about the roles that Native American women played in everyday life in the late 19th century in the West.
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: The Orphan Trains
A site telling of the trains during the late 1800s that took orphans and unwanted children from the cities and transported them to the West to work on farms and hopefully be adopted.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Whose Land Is This? Webisode 8
From Joy Hakim's marvelous set of books, A History of US, this webisode offers narrative, pictures, and teaching guides for the settling of the West after the Civil War.
Library of Congress
Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf]
As the United States expanded westward, many cultural groups came into contact with one another, such as Native American tribes, Chinese, and various Europeans. For this set of exercises, students use primary source documents to explore...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Utah History Encyclopedia: Outlaws in Utah
This site discusses the cultural icon of the western "outlaw" in the context of the state of Utah.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: Exodusters
Read about the reasons for the extensive black migration to Kansas, especially in the 1870s. These emigrants were called Exodusters. From the National Park Service.
Other
Women in History: Mary Fields
This site contains facts about the life of Stagecoach Mary Fields (1832-1913).
Oklahoma State University
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: All Black Towns
Read about the all-black towns that were settled in Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory in the mid-19th century.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Reasons for Westward Expansion
Students will examine a variety of documents that reference reasons why Americans living in the East migrated west of the Mississippi immediately before, during, and right after the Civil War. Documents cover the mining industry, new...
Legends of America
Legends of Kansas: Exodusters of Kansas
A look at the exodusters and the reasons the blacks left the South and migrated to Kansas after the Civil War.
Curated OER
Etc: American Rev War Operations in the West, 1775 1782
A map of the Northwest Territory between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes to the Tennessee River showing the military operations and extent of settlement in the area during the American Revolutionary...
Library of Congress
Loc: National Expansion and Reform 1815 1880
Follow the territorial and westward expansion of the newly formed United States. Learn about the thriving slave trade of that era and the spread of reform efforts across the country.
Yale University
Yale Law School: Proclamation of 1763 by King George Iii
Primary text of the Proclamation of 1763 ordered by King George III. The colonists' main objection was to a reserved area west of the Appalachian Mountains. American colonists were forbidden to settle in this area, and many colonies...
Curated OER
National Park Service: Nicodemus National Historic Site
This site from the National Park Service provides the history of Nidodemus, Kansas, first western town planned by and for African-Americans. Settled by exodusters, the town served as a symbol as a land of opportunity for blacks escaping...
Curated OER
Owen Wister
Three chapters from Owen Wister's fiction, The Virginian, that establish the protagonist as a representative American hero in the newly settled West.
Curated OER
Educational Technology Clearinghouse: Maps Etc: Utah, 1898
A map from 1898 of Utah showing the capital at Salt Lake City, principal cities and towns, railroads, mountains, lakes, rivers, and the Great American Desert to the west of Salt Lake. "Settled 1848 at Salt Lake by Mormons from Illinois,...