[Illustration: PAUL REVERE.] HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE BY MRS. HELEN W. PIERSON WITH FORTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS. [Illustration: AN ARMORED LOOK-OUT] NEW YORK GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS 9 Lafayette Place Copyright, 1883. By Joseph L. Blamire. PREFATORY. In this "Child's History of the United States," it has been the aim to use words of only one syllable. But it will be seen that, in a historical work, names must be given of famous men, of great battles, and of some important measures. It is thought that parents or teachers can soon familiarize young people with these names, so that they will read them as readily as the rest. Titles have been sometimes omitted, and some names which deserve a place and have it in larger histories, are not found here. All such omissions have been made from the fear of rendering the task of reading the book too difficult for many, who, as they grow older, can add to the list that fame has made illustrious, and take wider views of the history of this land. H. W. P. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. How this Land was Found. CHAPTER II. The New World. CHAPTER III. The Red Men. CHAPTER IV. The War that Made us Free. CHAPTER V. Three Great Fights. CHAPTER VI. First in War--First in Peace. CHAPTER VII. The Rest of the War. CHAPTER VIII. In Times of Peace. CHAPTER IX. New Men and New Laws. CHAPTER X. The Slave Trade. CHAPTER XI. A New War. CHAPTER XII. The War of North and South. CHAPTER XIII. Peace Once More. History of the United States. CHAPTER I. HOW THIS LAND WAS FOUND. [Illustration: IN-DI-ANS HUNTING IN THE SNOW.] For a long time, in past years, it was not known that the world was round. If the men in those days had been told that a ship could start from a port and sail straight on for months and come round to the same place, it would have made them laugh as at a good joke. They did not know the real shape of the earth, but thought it was a flat plane. In those days our land was the home of the In-di-ans, or red men, as we call them, from their dark skins. The red man does not live in a house, but in a sort of tent or hut. The tribes of red men had all this land for their own when Co-lum-bus was born. The great woods, the green plains, the bright streams, were all theirs. They made their wars in a strange and fierce style, and wore at their belts locks of hair, cut from the heads of those slain by their hands. These locks, cut from the head with part of the skin, they call a scalp. It was the pride of an In-di-an to have scalps hung at his belt. No one had taught him that this was wrong, and he did not have the Word of God to show him the right way.