One Time
Get lifetime access to American History 101: Pre-Colonial to Civil War
for a single one-time payment.
- 48 self-paced lessons spanning pre-colonial America through the Civil War
- A quiz with every lesson, plus a full final exam
- Exclusive “alternative perspectives” on pivotal moments other courses overlook
- Designed for high school, homeschool, and adult education
- Pay once — no subscriptions, no renewals
About This Course
History isn’t a settled story — it’s an argument still in progress. American History 101: Pre-Colonial to Civil War puts students at the table where that argument began. Across 48 lessons in six units, from the first peoples of the Americas through the Civil War, students don’t memorize a tidy narrative. They work through the questions Americans have been fighting over since before the country existed: Who counts as free? Who holds power? What does self-government actually mean?
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Describe the nations and societies of the Americas before European contact, and how colonization reshaped them.
- Explain how British policy and colonial self-rule collided on the road to revolution, 1754–1776.
- Trace the Revolution and the founding of the United States, 1775–1783.
- Analyze the Bill of Rights and the debates of the early republic, 1789–1800.
- Evaluate how expansion, democracy, and sectional tension grew together, 1803–1850.
- Explain the road to disunion and the Civil War, 1848–1865.
- Weigh conflicting historical evidence and reach your own well-supported conclusions.
Every major turning point is told through conflicting vantage points. Founders’ letters and courtroom rulings sit alongside the voices of the enslaved, Indigenous nations, immigrants, laborers, and activists who lived the same moments very differently. American history was never one story; it was always several, running at once.
Who is this course for?
- High school students studying U.S. history.
- Homeschool families looking for a complete, question-driven curriculum.
- Adult learners who want to understand the arguments behind America’s founding.
- Teachers — the companion Teacher’s Handbook brings the course into the classroom, with assessment tools built around the same question-driven approach.
Why choose this course?
- A comprehensive 48-lesson course: self-paced lessons spanning pre-colonial America through the Civil War.
- Lesson quizzes and a final exam: a quiz with every lesson, plus a full final exam.
- Alternative perspectives: special looks at key turning points that other courses overlook.
- “Debating the Past”: real disagreements among historians — was the Constitution a compromise or a betrayal of its own ideals? — with students weighing the evidence themselves.
- Built on the textbook: follows American History 101: Pre-Colonial to Civil War by Clyde J. Cleveland and Eric B. Randall.
