Defying an empire -- Marching to war -- Designing a nation -- Heading West -- Seeking direction.

Defying an empire. Young George Washington : go west, young man ; Benjamin Franklin : the sage of reason ; Samuel Adams : rebel rouser ; Patrick Henry : seasoned in treason ; King George III : America's last king ; Worlds apart : Britain's American colonies were separate and unequal ; A new world, divisible : how Britain's mistakes drove the mismatched colonies to unity ; Places : Old State House, Boston ; Burning down the House : Parliament's unexpected Stamp Act unites the colonies in dissent ; Bullets and broadsides : patriots stir up trouble in Boston and get the martyrs they sought ; A first taste of rebellion : the Boston Tea Party is a brilliantly staged piece of political theater ; An intellectual revolution : the colonists' insurgency began in the mind, not on the battlefield ; Across the great divide : the colonies come together in the First Continental Congress ; Forced march to sunset : Pontiac's Rebellion, a great Indian uprising, ends in defeat ; Places : Drayton Hall, South Carolina ; "The peculiar institution" : slavery, America's original sin, seems impossible to eliminate ; Go fry a kite : why Ben Franklin was America's foremost scientist of the 1700s -- Marching to war. General George Washington : learning in the saddle ; John Adams : the revolution's utility man; Thomas Paine : vox populi ; Paul Revere : Cassandra on horseback ; Molly Pitcher : woman warrior ; Benedict Arnold : a Judas among rebels ; The Marquis de Lafayette : the French connection ; Revolution's first skirmish : the two sides draw blood at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 ; Place : Old North Bridge, Concord ; Bloody hell on Breed's Hill : in Boston, Britain's top general loses a deadly uphill battle ; Places : Fort Ticonderoga, New York ; Places : Independence Hall, Philadelphia ; America's birth certificate : Thomas Jefferson changes the world with 56 well-chosen words ; The empire strikes back : George Washington takes a beating in the Battle of Long Island ; The Christmas crossing : an American surprise attack brings a much needed victory ; Chronicles of war, 1777 : Washington scores a victory in New Jersey but loses Philadelphia ; Places : Valley Forge, Pennsylvania ; Chronicles of war, 1777-81 : The colonials' war of attrition keeps the British chasing victory ; Endgame at Yorktown : outfoxed and outmanned, General Charles Cornwallis surrenders ; Freedom : made in France : the young U.S. scores a diplomatic coup in the 1783 Treaty of Paris ; The best brush in Boston : John Singleton Copley illuminates America's first wealthy citizens -- Designing a nation. President George Washington : reluctant executive ; Abigail Adams : patriot and partner ; John Jay : hero and outcast ; Thomas Jefferson : equal to the occasion ; Alexander Hamilton : some kind of genius ; John Marshall : supreme being ; Benjamin Banneker : a man in full ; Some assembly required : only a new constitution can keep the ailing Union together ; Freedom, by the numbers : the Bill of Rights limits government and frees the individual ; The rise of factions : political parties make their appearance (to boos) on the U.S. scene ; Place : Adams homestead, Massachusetts ; The politics of the pistol : Vice President Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel ; Places : Trinity Churchyard, New York City ; Inventing a capital city : Washington, D.C., is born, but not without labor pains -- Heading West. Daniel Boone : the pathfinder ; Sacagawea : wilderness guide ; Johnny Appleseed : food for thought ; Tecumseh : many tribes, one people ; William Henry Harrison : Indian fighter ; How the West was won : the Louisiana Purchase : Thomas Jefferson buys his nation that rarest of goods, opportunity ; Across the wide Missouri : Jefferson sends Lewis and Clark to explore America's new frontier ; Chapters of discovery : a graphic account of the journeys of Lewis, Clark & Co. ; Places : the Cumberland Road ; Wars in the wilderness ; in the Western territories, whites defeat Indian confederations ; Territories to states, 1791-1821 : New states enter the Union in lockstep, one free and one slave ; A spiritual earthquake : the second Great Awakening is a gospel shaped by the frontier ; Rembrandt of a new Eden ; John James Audubon captures America's rich menagerie on canvas -- Seeking direction. President Thomas Jefferson : simply complex ; James Madison : eternal, paternal glory ; Dolley Madison : first of first ladies ; Andrew Jackson : Young Hickory ; Noah Webster : stellar speller ; A continent in flames : the War of 1812 sprawls from Canada to the West to New Orleans ; What so proudly we hailed : Francis Scott Key writes America's enduring wake-up call ; Uncle Sam starts to strut : in the Monroe Doctrine, a young America tells Europe: Hands off! ; Struggling to stay united : the Missouri Compromise holds the Union together, but barely ; Places : the Erie Canal, New York ; Looming changes for women : the cotton mills of New England are nurseries for women's rights ; Sunnyside, New York ; The purloined electors : damned as a "corrupt bargain," the election of 1824 splits the nation ; Places : Monticello, Virginia ; Places : Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C.