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In 1782, following the American Revolution and the establishment of their independence from Great Britain, the United States Congress adopted a new motto for their new nation: the Latin E Pluribus Unum (literally, 鈥渙ut of many, one鈥�). Lawmakers hoped the motto would reflect the ties that bound their new states 鈥� originally created individually as former British colonies 鈥� into one new nation. The idea of perfect union, however, was much more elusive than the motto implied. Though American policymakers claimed a United States under their new constitution in 1789, for almost a century the American continent would remain a deeply contested and disunited space.

This module will explore the ways that Americans and outsiders challenged the U.S. government鈥檚 claims to dominance over the continent, discovering an unconventional and unexpected history of the American continent from the founding of the United States to the Civil War. Throughout our course of study, we will range both chronologically and geographically across the area that is today the continental United States. Because ideas of place are central to this course, each week our readings centre on a particular geographical location which was a flashpoint for a particular controversy over or for an aspirational vision for the future of the continent. In seeking to understand the full extent and diversity of antebellum peoples鈥� visions of this continent, we will examine a diverse cast of characters, ranging from Comanche imperialists on the Great Plains and proslavery Southern imperialists in Nicaragua, to Mormon nation-builders in Utah and a same-sex couple in Vermont. As we range across the course, we will seek to explore these groups鈥� different visions of America on their own terms, as well as in terms of the challenges to American state formation and imperial control that they posed, and the ways that American officials sought to respond to them.