Primary Sources of Westward Expansion

Starting with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States more than doubled in size in less than seventy years. By 1867, a railroad connected the East Coast to the new acquisitions in the West. This series sets the historical stage for the expansions, and presents the laws, doctrines, and decrees that sparked the fulfillment of Manifest Destiny. Through the use of primary sources, it also introduces to students the men and women, free, slave, and foreign-born who played key roles in the growth of the U.S., and those who were disenfranchised by that growth.