Explore Resources

Explore  the motivations for the Louisiana Purchase, as well as the terms of the purchase and its consequences. In this interactive lesson from WGBH, students develop a written argument in response to the question “Do you agree that the Louisiana Purchase was a ‘most splendid’ event?” They gather evidence from videos featuring historian Ben Weber and from primary source documents, images, and maps. This resource was originally developed for the Writing in U.S. History collection, the Calderwood Writing Course: U.S. History.