Unit 5 (5.1-5.6)

5.1

Contextualizing Period 5 (1844-1877)

What happened to the land and population of the United States during this time (and why)?

The United States expanded westward which attracted new immigrants from Europe and Asia.

In this time period, the United States experienced great political and sectional conflict over the topic of: ______

Territorial expansion and slavery.

Did Lincoln’s election to presidential office play a part in the Civil War?

Yes, because while he opposed the immediate abolition of slavery, he also opposed its expansion into new states.

What were three things freed African Americans faced racial discrimination from (after Reconstruction)?

Black Codes, sharecropping, and violent White supremacist groups.

5.2

The Idea of Manifest Destiny

Who coined the term “Manifest Destiny”?

John O’Sullivan

The term “Manifest Destiny” described the popular belief that Americans had a ______ mission to expand across North America, which was an idea rooted in American ______.

divine, exceptionalism

Texas

A provincial territory in Mexico that attracted American settlers but generated conflict between immigrants and Mexicans over the topic of slavery.

This dictator of Mexico fought against the Texan revolt for freedom, but was ultimately captured and forced to sign a treaty for their independence.

Antonio López de Santa Anna 

Texas was successfully annexed as an American state in 1845, during the term (and involvement) of president _______.

James K. Polk

Maine

An American territory with an ill-defined boundary line between itself and British-ruled Canada (New Brunswick). 

The Aroostook War in Maine was a conflict between lumber groups in Maine and Canada, resolved by the _____ Treaty.

Webster-Ashburton

Oregan

A British territory that was largely populated by American settlers (causing conflict) until it was divided along its 49th parallel to become a state.

Great American Dessert

Arid region between the Mississippi Valley and Pacific Coast.

After fur traders (called “mountain men”) explored the Far West, pioneers moved westward on a dangerous journey using ____.

trails

The Gold Rush

The discovery of gold in California in 1848, which (along with similar mineral booms) set off migrations from across the world. 

Name some factors that caused exports and imports to grow during this time period.

More manufactured goods, more agricultural products, and improved transportation (better ship designs).

“Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!”

A popular slogan in the 1840s that American expansionists used to rally for an American claim to the Oregon territory up to the latitude line of 54°40’.

Why did the Mexican-American War start?

The U.S. annexation of Texas angered Mexico and there were diplomatic issues about further expansion into Mexican territories.

Polk justified the Mexican-American War after a military altercation in Mexico by falsely claiming that

“American blood was shed on American soil”.

When California was proclaimed an independent republic by John C. Frémont, what was it originally known as? 

Bear Flag Republic

Was the Mexican-American War fought with large-scale armies?

No.

What treaty was negotiated with Mexico (biased towards the US) to end the Mexican-American War after it proved to be a military disaster for them?

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo negotiated for….

An expanded Texas (up to the Rio Grande borderline) and the Mexican Cession (California, New Mexico) in exchange for $15 million and assumed claims.

Who opposed the Mexican Cession and why?

Whigs in Senate saw it as an immoral way to expand slavery (because it was south of the line established by the Missouri Compromise 28 years prior). 

Wilmot Proviso

A proposed “appropriations bill” that would forbid slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.

Did the Wilmot Proviso succeed?

Partially: It passed the House twice (Northern state majority) but was defeated in the Senate twice (Southern state majority) 

5.4

The Compromise of 1850

Manifest destiny and expansionism was often supported equally by most Americans; However, some opposed the process in fear of slavery’s growth into new territories, while this group encouraged it. 

Slaveholders and White elites in the North/South.

Manifest Destiny to the South

Eager for new territorial gains (to cultivate using forced labor) and unsatisfied with the products of the Mexican-American War, many Southerners turned to the acquisition of Cuba.

Ostend Manifesto

A failed agreement created in the secret mission President Franklin Pierce dispatched three diplomats on (secret negotiation to buy Cuba from Spain). It was leaked to the press and caused anger among antislavery members of Congress.

Walker Expedition

Southern adventure William Walker sought expansionism, failing to take Baja California but managing to seize Nicaragua (to develop a proslavery empire). However, he was invaded by a coalition of countries and later executed in 1860.  

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

An 1850 treaty (supported by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty) that aimed to build a canal through Central America with the agreement of the United States and Britain. 

Gadsden Purchase

President Pierce bought a strip of land from Mexico (1853) for $10 million dollars, which laid on the best route for a potential railroad.

Free-Soil Movement

A movement that both supported the Wilmot Proviso and the position that all African Americans (slave or free) should be excluded from the Mexican Cession. Northern Democrats and Whigs wanted to make the the West “White-only”, banning opportunities for African Americans completely.

Free-Soil Party

A political party organized in 1848 by Northerners that opposed allowing slavery into new territories (advocated for free homesteads/land grants and internal improvements). NOT abolitionist.

Popular sovereignty

A compromise solution proposed by Lewis Cass: Slavery would be allowed (or banned) in a new western territory based on a vote of the people who settled it. 

The Gold Rush of ____.

1849

The Compromise of 1850

Admitted California (as a free state), divided the Mexican Cession into Utah and New Mexico (popular sovereignty), assumed Texas’ debt of $10 million, banned slave trade in DC (but not ownership), and adopted a new Fugitive Slave Law.

Who proposed both the Compromise of 1820 and 1850?

Henry Clay

5.5

Sectional Conflict: Regional Differences

Why did people dislike or fear immigrants?

Their ethnicities, religious faiths, and position on the job force.

Irish immigrants worked as ___, faced discrimination because of their ___ background, and overcame challenge by controlling __ by the 1880s.

domestic/low-skill laborers, Roman Catholic, Tammany Hall

Germans worked as ___, ___ slavery, and like the Irish, formed tight-knit communities (often) around the ____ churches.

farmers and artisans, opposed, Roman Catholic or Lutheran

Nativism

Hostility towards immigrants by native-born Americans based on their presence in the job force, ethnicities, and religion.

Know-Nothing or American Party

Political organization that supported policies that limited the ability of immigrants to become citizens or find new opportunities politically.

Groups that faced religious discrimination (besides immigrants) during this period were…

Native Americans and Mexican Americans (joined US after war)

After 1840, industrialization __.

Spread to states in the Northwest beyond New England, which had new factories producing shoes, sewing machines, clothing, firearms, and products for railroads.

Elias Howe

Inventor of the sewing machine (helped move clothes production into factories).

Samuel F. B. Morse

Inventor of the electric telegraph (sped up communication and transportation across the country).

The 1820s and 1830s was an era concentrated around building canals. In the next two decades, this was ___ due to rail lines.

replaced

Panic of 1857

A financial panic that decreased prices of Midwestern agricultural products but increased unemployment in Northern cities. Inspired the South to consider themselves superior due to their economy since they weren’t affected.

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 was accepted by ____ (persuading them to recognize California as a free state) but bitterly resented by ___.

Southerners, Northerners

The Fugitive Slave Act

A statute that helped owners track down escaped slaves (denying juries to even those who were wrongfully captured) and heavily penalized those who hide slaves/obstructed the law.

Underground Railroad

A loose network of activists that helped move escaping slaves from the South to freedom in the North or Canada, with many of the “conductors” operating “stations” being free African Americans/former slaves who escaped with the help of White abolitionists.

Harriet Tubman

The most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, a woman who helped ~300 people escape slavery.

This influential book by Harriet Beecher Stowe portrayed a brutal relationship between a slave and a White slave owner, inspiring Northerners and many Europeans to regard slave owners as cruel and inhuman (while Southerners condemned it for expressing prejudice against their “way of life”). 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

This nonfiction book by Hinton R. Helper used statistics to attack slavery, demonstrating how it weakened the economy to Southerners (quickly banned in the South but redistributed by antislavery and Free-Soil leaders). 

Impending Crisis of the South

As a response to Northern attacks on slavery via literature, this proslavery author created a series of works that critiqued the wage system and conditions of Northern workers in factories and mines (calling it worse than slavery). 

George Fitzhugh

5.6

Failure of Compromise

Who won the Election of 1852?

Franklin Pierce

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

A bill that divided the Nebraska territory into two parts (Kansas and Nebraska) to build a transcontinental railroad to promote westward settlement. The bill determined the two territories would decide if they would allow slavery via popular sovereignty. 

What was significant about the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

It repealed the Missouri Compromise and increased conflict between anti- and proslavery forces.

Bleeding Kansas

A series of violent confrontations in the Kansas territory (1854-1859), emerging from a political and idealogical debate over the legality of slavery. 

What was the New England Emigrant Aid Company (1855)?

Organized by Northern abolitionists and Free-Soilers, this company paid for the transportation of antislavery settlers to Kansas. 

Brooks–Sumner Affair

In 1856, Northern senator Charles Sumner criticized pro-slavery Democrats, personally attacking Andrew Butler, the uncle of Congressman Preston Brooks. Brooks defended his uncle’s honor by walking into the Senate chamber and bludgeoning Sumner over the head with a cane. This outraged the North while Southerners applauded him.

Birth of the Republican Party

Founded in Wisconsin in 1854 as a reaction to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, opposing the spread of slavery (but not aiming for its end). Consisted of Free-Soilers, antislaver and Whigs/Democrats. 

Who won the Election of 1856?

James Buchanan

Lecompton Constitution

A proslavery state constitution proposed for Kansas (while James Buchanan asked for Congress to accept it, they refused and it was rejected). 

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

A case in which the Supreme Court ruled that enslaved people weren’t citizens of the United States (no protection from federal government or courts) and that Congress lacked the authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory. 

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Several campaign debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, where Lincoln attacked Douglas’s indifference to slavery as a moral issue. In Freeport, Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision.

Freeport Doctrine

At a campaign debate with Lincoln, Stephen Douglas said slavery couldn’t exist in a community if locals didn’t pass slave codes maintaining it. He angered/alienated Southern Democrats because they believed he didn’t support the implications of the Dred Scott decision enough.