Manifest Destiny, Run-Up to the Civil War

What is Manifest Destiny?

Manifest Destiny was a national ideology that justified U.S. westward expansion in the 1830s and 1840s, portraying it as a natural, benevolent, and God-given right.

What is the problem with the ideology of Manifest Destiny?

It conceals the violence and conquest behind U.S. expansion, portraying it as peaceful while masking the seizure of land and oppression of Native and Mexican peoples.

Why did U.S. settlers begin to expel Native peoples from their lands?

Due to demographic growth and economic interest in cotton cultivation, settlers were interested in Native’s fertile lands for expanding plantation slavery.

Whose lands were intruded upon by U.S. settlers in the 1820s?

Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee lands in the Southeast (then considered the Southwest).

Who opposed the Indian Removal Act?

Protestant clergy and Northern Protestant women opposed it for religious and moral reasons.

Did Indian Removal happen immediately?

No, it was initially supposed to be voluntary, but over time it became a forced expulsion.

Why did Native peoples refuse to leave their homelands?

Their land was central to their cultural, political, and economic independence.

What is the Cherokee syllabary?

A written alphabet invented by Sequoyah that could be learned in six weeks.

How did the Cherokees try to assert their sovereignty?

They adopted Christianity, created a written language, published a newspaper, and drafted a constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution.

How did the Cherokees resist removal?

They filed 12 lawsuits, including Worcester v. Georgia, which the Supreme Court ruled in their favor.

What was the Trail of Tears?

The forced removal of the Cherokees during the winter of 1838

Who was President during the passage of the Indian Removal Act?

Andrew Jackson.

What was the Indian Removal Act?

A law passed in 1830 that authorized the forced relocation of Native peoples west of the Mississippi River.

What did John Gast’s illustration “American Progress” represent?

It depicted the ideology of Manifest Destiny, symbolizing expansion as peaceful and demonstrating progress.

What was the outcome of the Mexican-American War?

The War officially ended in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, transferring 500,000 square miles of Mexican land (over half of Mexico) to the United States. The United States gained what would form the states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as parts of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado.

Why did tensions arise between Anglo settlers and Mexico in Texas?

Because Anglos brought slaves into Texas, where slavery had been outlawed by Mexico.

What did John O’Sullivan mean by "Manifest Destiny"?

He claimed it was the U.S.'s divine right to expand across the continent.

What territory was jointly controlled by Britain and the U.S. before 1846?

Oregon Territory.

What caused the U.S. to declare war on Mexico in 1846?

In April 1846 the Congress, on James K. Polk’s request, finally declared war on Mexico after Mexican troops had attacked a US cavalry unit for trespassing the border.

What is sectionalism?

A growing division between Northern and Southern states over slavery, economic models, and westward expansion.

How did Manifest Destiny justify U.S. imperialism and conquest?

It portrayed expansion as moral and inevitable, concealing the violent dispossession of Native and Mexican peoples and presenting white settlement as progress.

How did the demographic and economic changes between 1790 and 1830 contribute to Native displacement?

Population growth and the profitability of cotton drove settlers to seize Native lands for agricultural expansion, particularly for slavery.

What role did Andrew Jackson play in the expansion of U.S. territory?

As President, he championed the Indian Removal Act and ignored Supreme Court rulings protecting Native sovereignty.

Why was the Indian Removal Act controversial, and how close was its passage?

It passed by a narrow vote (102 to 97), highlighting deep divisions in Congress over the ethics of forcibly relocating Native populations.

How did Protestant clergy and Northern women’s opposition to removal reflect cultural priorities?

They were more concerned with religious assimilation and Christian morality than territorial ownership.

Why was land so important to the Cherokees?

It was the foundation of their independence, identity, and ability to self.

What does the Cherokee’s embrace of U.S. institutions (language, religion, constitution) reveal about their strategy?

They wanted to prove their “civilization” and assimilate into American society to avoid removal.

What did the ruling in Worcester v. Georgia signify legally?

The Supreme Court recognized Cherokee sovereignty, but the ruling was ignored by the executive branch.

What does the Trail of Tears reveal about U.S. racial ideology at the time?

That white Americans believed themselves racially superior and entitled to nonwhite lands, regardless of assimilation efforts.

What were the human costs of Indian Removal?

Over 10,000 Native deaths and the displacement of 88,000 individuals from more than 30 different nations.

How did Texas become part of the United States?

After rebellion and independence from Mexico in 1836, Texas was annexed by the U.S. in 1845, reigniting sectional tensions.

Why did the annexation of Texas provoke political controversy in the U.S.?

Because it would add another slave state, potentially upsetting the balance of power between free and slave states.

How did racism and anti-Catholicism influence U.S. views of Mexicans during the war?

White Americans’ belief in their racial superiority and their God-given right to spread west provided a justification for a war that many welcomed. Mexican residents were seen as second rate citizens. The US could’ve gained the territory by negotiating with Mexico but instead they went to war.

What was the significance of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

It marked the U.S.'s transformation into a continental empire but set the stage for future conflicts over land, citizenship, and slavery.

How did the U.S. expansion into Mexican territory intensify sectional conflict?

It reignited disputes over the expansion of slavery, directly leading to the Civil War.

What was the purpose of the Missouri Compromise of 1820?

To maintain the balance of power by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

Why did the Compromise of 1850 fail to ease tensions?

It intensified conflict through the Fugitive Slave Act and left slavery unresolved in western territories.

How did the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) violate previous compromises?

People of both states were to decide on slavery, though both should have been free states under the terms of the Missouri Compromise.

What was "Bleeding Kansas"?

A violent conflict sparked by fraudulent voting and armed clashes over slavery in the Kansas Territory.

How did the Dred Scott Decision (1857) affect the legality of slavery?

It ruled that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in the territories, nullifying previous compromises and expanding slavery’s reach.

What did the Wilmot Proviso (1846) propose, and why did it fail?

It proposed banning slavery in territories acquired from Mexico but was blocked in the Senate, showing sectional divisions.

What argument did the Calhoun Resolutions (1847) make about western lands?

They claimed all citizens, including slaveholders, had a right to settle in new territories with their "property," including enslaved persons.

How did the theory of nullification challenge federal authority?

It argued that states could reject federal laws they found unconstitutional, undermining federal unity.

Why did the Free Soil Party emerge?

In response to the expansion of slavery, Northern Whigs and Democrats formed the party to prevent slavery in the West.

What was the significance of the 1860 presidential election?

It acted as a referendum on slavery, leading directly to Southern secession after Lincoln’s victory.

Why did Southern states secede after Lincoln’s election?

Though Lincoln did not call for immediate abolition, Southerners feared the end of slavery and loss of political power.

How did the economic models of North and South differ?

The South relied on cash crops and slavery, while the North was industrialized and more socially mobile.

How did literature like Uncle Tom’s Cabin contribute to the abolitionist cause?

It humanized enslaved people and stirred Northern public opinion against the brutality of slavery.

Why was slavery able to continue after the U.S. banned the international slave trade in 1808?

The domestic slave population grew due to the expansion of cotton cultivation and continued reproduction of enslaved people.

What were the consequences of westward expansion on the question of slavery?

It forced repeated political compromises and inflamed tensions over whether new states would be slave or free.

Why was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 significant?

It was an early attempt to regulate slavery by banning it in the Northwest Territory, setting a precedent for future territorial decisions.

What did the concept of “free soil” promote?

Preventing the expansion of slavery into western territories, protecting white labor and free farmers.

What were the main causes of the Civil War?

Conflicting visions of slavery, economic development, and westward expansion, exacerbated by political failures.

What is the 3/5 clause?

It is a clause written in the Constitution which states that slaves should be counted as ⅗ of a person because there were more slaves than white Americans in the South.

How did the 3/5 clause and fugitive slave clause help preserve slavery after the Revolution?

They gave Southern states disproportionate political power and legally protected the institution. If you had more states with slave holders, the Southerners would gain more power through voting.

What does the term “continental empire” imply about U.S. expansion?

That the U.S. was not merely growing, but deliberately pursuing imperial domination over vast lands and diverse peoples.

What is the difference between abolitionism/abolitionists and anti-slavery?

• abolitionists: care about enslaved people because of religious, moral reasons

• anti-slavery: up to the Civil War people were anti-slavery in the sense that they did not want slavery to spread, as they wanted more lands for themselves than the end of slavery itself

There were fewer abolitionists than anti-slavery people at the start of the Civil War.

How did white settlers move westward?

In most cases people moved westward as families; always sending married missionaries as they didn’t want them to marry Natives but also because they would bring their wives to help “civilise” the Natives.

How was religion used to justify or oppose slavery?

Many used the Bible as a justification for slavery, declaring that it was in favour of slavery. Simultaneously, there were also people who used the Bible to oppose slavery, stating that it is seen as a sin.

How did literature impact the opinions on slavery? Give one example.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is an anti-slavery novel which was widely read in the United States, therefore having an immense influence on its readers’ attitude towards slavery. It also helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War.