Teaching “Peopling” in the High School APUSH Course

This presentation will focus upon possible ways to integrate the theme of peopling in the high school U.S. History course. Migration offers an excellent opportunity for helping students to understand patterns of change and continuity over time. This presentation will focus on peopling in four key periods in United States History. The first period deals with the impact of European migration in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with a particular focus on the changing relationship between European settlers and native populations. The presentation will include a discussion of both written and visual sources for understanding  cultural interactions in early American history. The second period focuses upon migration in the antebellum period, with discussion of the arrival of large numbers of migrants of German and Irish descent and how these new arrivals influenced discussions about the scope and future of American democracy. The third period focuses on migration at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, with particular discussion of debates over cultural assimilation. The final section deals with migration in the latter third of the twentieth century, following the immigration reforms of the 1960s. The presentation will conclude with discussion of ways to help students to discern patterns of continuity and change in various contexts, ranging from the groups which migrated to the United States, the response of those already living in the country, and changing government immigration policies.