Contested Territories

Unit Resources

Unit Reference Materials

Asing, Norman. "To His Excellency Gov. Bigler," Daily Alta California (San Francisco) May 5, 1852. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

Basler, Roy P., ed. Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings. Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing Company, 1946.

Black Hawk. Black Hawk’s Autobiography, ed. Roger L. Nichols. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1964. Also available at www.gutenberg.org.

Cherokee leaders. "Indians Memorial (of the Cherokee Legislature)," Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate, vol. 2 no. 52 (April 14, 1830).

Hastings, Lansford. The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California. 1st ed. Cincinnati: George Conclin, 1845. E-book available from http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/67595-ebook.htm (2001).

McGee, Mary Ann Wilson. Letter From Polly Wilson McGee to Joshua Lacy Wilson (1814). Reuben T. Durrett Collection on Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley. Joshua Lacy Wilson Papers. Chicago: Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Nash, Gary B., Julie Roy Jeffrey, John R. Howe, Peter J. Frederick, Allen F. Davis, and Allan M. Winkler. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, 6th ed. New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2004. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc.

Spooner, Elijah. "To His Wife." 20 Oct. 1849. Letter 8 in Letters and Diary, 1849–1850 (Harold B. Lee Library. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University). Available from the Library of Congress, memory.loc.gov.

Wood, Peter, Jacqueline Jones, Thomas Borstelmann, Elaine Tyler May, and Vicki Ruiz. Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States. New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2003. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc.

Further Reading

Dippie, Brian W. "The Visual West," in The Oxford History of the American West, ed. Clyde Milner, et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Chang, Iris. The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. New York: Penguin, 2003.

Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. New York: Norton, 1987.

McLoughlin, William G. Cherokee Renaissance in the New Republic. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.

White, Richard. "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A History of the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

National Center for History in the Schools Teaching Units

U.S. Indian Policy, 1815-1860: Removal to Reservations (PDF)

Duel of Eagles: Conflicts in the Southwest, 1820-1860 (PDF)

Organization of American Historians: Talking History Radio Program

Nat Turner
This month we celebrate Black History. Bryan Le Beau's guest this week, Ken Greenberg, discusses Nat Turner, leader of the slave rebellion in August 1831, and perhaps one of the least understood figures in American history. Ken Greenberg is author of Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory and writer, co-producer for "A Troublesome Property," a documentary about Nat Turner.

Airdate: February 7, 2005
Listen Now: MP3 Format
Running time: 29 minutes

And for our commentary, we are joined by Richard Labunski. He cautions against Congress exercising its power to take cases away from the Supreme Court, as happened last year, in the case involving the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Labunski teaches at the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. He is currently writing a book about James Madison and the Bill of Rights.

Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass's autobiography, published in 1845, after Douglass escaped from slavery, became an international best seller, as well as a rallying pint for the abolitionist movement in the United States. Our guest this week, William L. Andrews, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examines DouglassÕs autobiography as a source of information on the man and the institution. This segment of the show comes to us courtesy of Talking HistoryÕs new partner, The Teacher as Historian, which is produced at WNYE - FM in New York City.

Airdate: January 5, 2004.
Listen Now: MP3 Format
Running time: 29 minutes

Commentary: Also joining us will be Doug Wead, who will answer the question: Why have so many Presidents' kids gone wrong?