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Course image American: Migration Patterns
Intermediate American Records
Course Summary:

Optional Print Course Material: American: Migration Patterns

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

The purpose of this course is to discuss and illustrate the history of migration across the United States. This includes particular routes individual ancestors would have followed in the migration westward. the time period of settlement of areas of the United States, and specifics about the common patterns of movement of people between areas and states through the decades.


Contact Hours: 18
Grading Scale: 70% Tests/30% Assignments
Course Length: 8 weeks
Course Content

MODULE 1
WHY STUDY MIGRATION PATTERNS?
Why Migrate?
Successful Migration
Waves of American Migration
Was There a ‘Typical’ Migrant?
History & Geography—Keys to Understanding Migration Patterns

MODULE 2
COLONIAL AMERICA, 1607-1783
Coastal Settlement
Settlements in the Early Western Frontier
The Appalachian Barrier
American Revolutionary War
Transportation Demands in the New Nation

MODULE 3
BEYOND THE EASTERN SHORES 1784-1839
Post-Revolution Migrations
Federal & State Military Bounty Lands
Securing the West for the New Nation
Areas of Largest Growth by 1840
Growth in Other Parts of the Northwest Territory
Early Southwest
River Traffic, Canals & Railroads

MODULE 4
OPENING OF THE WEST, 1840-1865
A Rapidly Growing Nation
The Far West
Land Sales—The Homestead Act of 1862
Popular Overland Routes, 1840-1865
Ocean Routes to California
Railroads
The Civil War, an Interruption & a Stimulus for Postwar Migration

MODULE 5
COMING OF AGE, 1866-1919
Homestead Acts Brought Settlers to the Great Plains
Immigrant Migrations
World War I

MODULE 6
MODERN ERA, 1920-PRESENT
Post-World War I Era
Depression Years
World War II & Its Effect on the Postwar Era
Interstate Highways
CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICA