1. In the South, Reconstruction promised African Americans a better way of life.

 2. The failure of Reconstruction led to a segregated South by the end of the 19th century.

 3. Westward expansion changed the lives of Indians in many ways.

 4. America's western frontiers during this period were settled by such people as miners, cattlemen, and homesteaders.

 5. America became an industrial giant through the efforts of many people.

 6. Unions formed as a response to the rapid, unbridled, and unregulated growth of industry.

 7. America is a nation of immigrants.

 8. America at the end of the 19th century was a diverse mosaic of people and their ways of life.

The focus of this unit is on people and their contributions to the rapid change and growth of the United States in the last half of the 19th century. The unit is divided into lessons that examine life in the South, the West and the North, with an emphasis on the vast diversity of people both within and between the geographic regions.

 The purpose of the summative activity is to draw the attention of students to the similarities within the diversity of Americans, in the hope that they can then appreciate the title of this unit, "What, then, is this American?"

Question/Problem 1 : In what ways did the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments exemplify the ideals of Reconstruction?

Question/Problem 2 : What were the political, economic, and social reasons for the failure of Reconstruction?

Question/Problem 3 : What was it like to live under segregation?

Question/Problem 4 : What was the West like for miners, cattlemen, and homesteaders?

Question/Problem 5 : What was the impact of westward expansion on Indians?

Question/Problem 6 : What were the major inventions and new technologies of the late 1800s?

Question/Problem 7 : Were industrial leaders "captains of industry" or "robber barons?"

Question/Problem 8 : What pushed immigrants from their homelands and pulled them to the United States?

Question/Problem 9 : What effects did immigrants have on the United States?

Question/Problem 10 : Describe the working conditions in factories in the late 19th century?

Question/Problem 11 : How did workers react to working condidtions in the late 19th century?

Question/Problem 12 : Describe America at the close of the 19th century.