7th grade Social Studies
18 units matched to the New York State Learning Standards.
Focus areas
- US and New York history from Native American nations to the Civil War
- New Netherland, the Revolution in New York and the Constitution
- Westward expansion, the Erie Canal and reform movements born in New York
- Sectional conflict, slavery and the Civil War
Units
Unit 1
Colonial Trade & Work
Resources, specialization and trade in the colonies, mercantilism, and the Atlantic slave trade and its impact on African peoples, told plainly and age-appropriately.
Learning standard: 7.2c; 7.2e · how land, climate and labor shaped the colonies' economies, and the growth of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade
Unit 2
Road to Revolution
British taxes, colonial protests such as boycotts and the Boston Tea Party, the Continental Congresses, and why Loyalists and Patriots saw things differently.
Learning standard: 7.3a; 7.3b · the French and Indian War, the British taxes that followed and the colonists' protests
Unit 3
The American Revolution
The Declaration of Independence and its ideals, key battles from Lexington to Yorktown, help from France and others, and the people of many backgrounds who shaped the war.
Learning standard: 7.3c; 7.3d · the Declaration of Independence and the battles, allies and people that decided the American Revolution
Unit 4
Building a Government
Why the Articles of Confederation were replaced, the compromises of 1787, the three branches, checks and balances, federalism and the Bill of Rights (1791).
Learning standard: 7.4a; 7.4b; 7.4c · the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the compromises of 1787 and the Constitution's plan of government
Unit 5
Founding Ideals
The Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights and Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the debates of 1787, the Federalist Papers, and the principles of the Constitution.
Learning standard: 7.3c; 7.4c; 7.5a; 7.5b · Enlightenment ideas in the Declaration, the debate over ratification and the principles of the Constitution
Unit 6
Rights & Amendments
What the first ten amendments protect, the Reconstruction Amendments, and why rights come with limits and responsibilities.
Learning standard: 7.5b; 7.5c · the rights the Bill of Rights protects and how amendments have changed the Constitution
Unit 7
A New Nation
The first presidents and parties, judicial review, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, the War of 1812 and early foreign policy.
Learning standard: 7.5d; 7.6b · the first presidents and parties, judicial review, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812 and the Monroe Doctrine
Unit 8
Factories & Reformers
The Industrial Revolution in the North, canals, roads and railroads, immigration, public schools, and the abolition and women's rights movements before 1861.
Learning standard: 7.7a; 7.7c; 7.8a · early factories, canals and railroads, and the reform movements for schools, abolition and women's rights
Unit 9
Native Nations of New York
How geography shaped the Native nations of New York, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and its Great Law of Peace, the Lenape, Mohican, Shinnecock and Unkechaug homelands, and the effects of European contact. Light, in the present tense, with nations as living communities today.
Learning standard: 7.1; 7.1a; 7.2b · how geography shaped Native American nations in New York and how European contact affected them
Unit 10
New Netherland to New York
The Age of Exploration, Hudson and Champlain, Dutch New Netherland and its lasting contributions, the English takeover in 1664, slavery and resistance in colonial New York, and the Zenger trial.
Learning standard: 7.2a; 7.2c; 7.2d; 7.2e · the Age of Exploration, Dutch and French settlement in New York, colonial economies and the growth of slavery
Unit 11
The Revolution in New York
New York's part in the road to revolution and the war: the Stamp Act Congress, Fort Ticonderoga, the Battle of Long Island and British-held New York City, Saratoga as the turning point, West Point, the Haudenosaunee nations divided by the war, and New York's first state constitution.
Learning standard: 7.3; 7.3b; 7.3d; 7.6a · New York's role in the American Revolution, including the Haudenosaunee nations, and what the war cost them
Unit 12
New York & the Constitution
The ratification debate in New York and The Federalist Papers, New York City as the first capital, federalism, New York's own government, and how New York's constitution changed over time, including the end of slavery in 1827.
Learning standard: 7.4c; 7.5a; 7.5b; 7.5c · the debate over the Constitution in New York, federalism and the branches of government, and changes to New York's constitution
Unit 13
The Erie Canal & Early Industry
The Erie Canal and how it made New York City the nation's leading port, steamboats and early railroads, early factories, and how the North's and South's economies grew apart.
Learning standard: 7.6c; 7.8a · early industrialization and the Erie Canal, and how regional economic differences grew
Unit 14
Reformers of New York
The Second Great Awakening and the Burned-over District, abolition and the Underground Railroad, the resistance of enslaved people, Seneca Falls and the women's rights movement, and the Anti-Rent movement of Hudson Valley tenant farmers.
Learning standard: 7.7; 7.7a; 7.7b; 7.7c; 7.7d · reform movements, many rooted in New York: abolition, women's rights, temperance and the Anti-Rent movement
Unit 15
Westward Expansion
Manifest Destiny, Indian removal and the Trail of Tears, Haudenosaunee land loss in New York, Texas and the Mexican-American War, and the people the westward movement helped and harmed.
Learning standard: 7.6; 7.6a; 7.6b; 7.6c · westward expansion from 1800 to 1860, conflict and compromise with other nations, and who gained and who lost
Unit 16
A Nation Divided
Cotton and slavery in the South, free Black Americans and abolitionists, the compromises from the Missouri Compromise to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act in New York, and the election of 1860.
Learning standard: 7.8a; 7.8b; 7.8c · regional differences, the failed compromises over slavery in the territories, and the causes of secession
Unit 17
The Civil War
Leaders, strategy and decisive battles from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, how enslaved people helped win their own freedom, and the war in New York: its soldiers, the draft riots of 1863 and the Elmira prison camp.
Learning standard: 7.8d; 7.8e · the leaders, battles and strategy of the Civil War, and how it affected lives and the nation, including New York
Unit 18
Timeline 1609–1865
Putting events from the Dutch colony through the Revolution, the early republic and the Civil War in order, with New York's events along the way.
Learning standard: 7.2; 7.3; 7.4; 7.6; 7.7; 7.8 · the order of events in US and New York history from colonization to the end of the Civil War
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