Map of the school-trust states

Each state is colored by its era cohort — the architectural moment in which it was admitted and given (or denied) a federal school-land grant. Click a state to open its encyclopedia entry.

1. Chapter 1. The Founding Floor
2. Chapter 2. Statehood Without the Federal Floor
3. Chapter 3. The Northwest Ordinance Template
4. Chapter 4. The Antebellum Doubling
5. Chapter 5. Reconstruction and the Western Stack
6. Chapter 6. The Twentieth-Century High-Water Mark