race and war - slavery wars (1776-1876)

The Age of Jackson

1810s-1830s

Nègro Fort: Jackson attacked a fort in Spanish Florida. Black-Native coalition destroyed

1810s

Denmark Vesey Revolt: citadel military arsenal was built, fear of enslaved revolt shaped military institutions

1822

President Jackson, Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears

1830s

Jackson sent the Navy to Indonesia (power beyond the continent)

1831

Mexican-American War: linked to US slavery debate, since Mexico had abolished slavery and the war added territory

1840s

Douglass’ take on the Mexican-American War

A murderous war “against freedom, against Nègro, and against the interest of workingmen”

Lincoln’s take on the Mexican-American War

Lincoln mocked glory as a “serpent’s eye, that charms to destroy”

Grant’s take on the Mexican-American War

Grant later states he was “ashamed of his country” over it

San Patricios

Irish soldiers in the US Army switched to the Mexican side. The Choctaw people, facing the Trail of Tears, sent money to Ireland during the Famine

William Walker (1850s)

feared anti-slavery in the US, launched “filibuster” wars in Latin America, declared himself Nicaragua’s president and was executed in Honduras

Tie between Lincoln and Douglass — from anti-war in the 1840s to pro-war in the 1860s

Both opposed the Mexican War but supported the Civil War once it targeted slavery

Civil War

1860s

Enslaved General Strike: escape, rebellion, sabotage, work stoppage, and enlistment

1863-65

3 movements critical to Union victory

the abolition movement, Underground Railroad, the general strike

Buffalo Soldiers: post Civil War, colored troops in the Indian Wars

1866

Confederados

confederates that fled to Brazil after Civil War to keep slavery

Daniel O’Connell

Irish leader that denounced US slavery and Irish-Americans’ anti-black racism.

UK textile worker pressures on slave trade influence

UK textile workers wrote to Lincoln refusing to handle slave-made cotton

13th Amendment: Reconstruction begins, “Second founding”

1865

Reconstruction

1876-77