Unit 5 (1844-1877)

How were politics involved in the Election of 1844?

Whigs (Henry Clay): emphasized internal improvements, hoping to build “civilized” towns with factories

Democrats (James K. Polk): Expansionists, private ownership of newly added lands and less government involvement in developing new territories

Describe the annexation of Texas and how it led to the Mexican-American war

• Texas won it’s independence from Mexico, and borders were established

• The annexation of Texas was proposed, but was discouraged as it would add multiple slave states and start a war

• The U.S. (Polk) sent troops to the borders and claimed that Mexico attacked them, causing the Mexican-American war.

Describe the events that let up to the Oregon Treaty (1846).

• Polk pressed claims in the Oregon county (between Britain and U.S.)

• Could not handle 2 territorial warfares at the same time, especially with Britain

• Settled peacefully with the Oregon Treaty

What was the Free soil movement? What were the effects?

• Western lands should be reserved for free white labor (labor performed by independent, non-enslaved workers—freemen)

• Creation of the Free-soil party, a single issued party opposed to expansion of slavery

What was the Compromise of 1850?

• an attempt to calm tensions regarding expansion on slavery into the new territories

• admitted California as a free state

• Popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico

• Stronger Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

What was the Fugitive Slave Act (1850)? What did it do?

• Federal participation in capturing runaway enslaved people, penalized those who aided escapes, denied fugitives jury trials

• Nationalized slavery by compelling Northern communities to participate in enforcement, though the North resisted this

What was the name of the publication that influenced Northern public opinion by depicting the brutality of slavery and family seperations?

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)? What were its outcomes?

• Popular sovereignty would decide if the state would be admitted as a slave or free state and repealed the Missouri Compromise line.

• It resulted in pro and anti slavery settlers to influence elections which ended in violence (Bleeding Kansas)

How did the political parties change after 1850?

• The Whig party declined

• Republican party emerged: ANTI-SLAVERY

In the 1850s, what was the view of the south on slavery?

They feared being outvoted since they relied on slavery a lot.

Describe the Dred Scott V, Sandford (1857) case

• Dred scott and his owner settled in a free-state, so he sued for his freedom

• The supreme court ruled that enslaved people could not be freed even in free states; Enslaved people were not considered citizens

What was the significance of the Election of 1860?

• Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election without any southern electoral votes

• This scared the southerners as he didn’t need the south to win, therefore, it is possible for slavery to be abolished

• The south ceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America

Describe Lincolns goal for the Civil War. How did this change over time?

• Lincolns initial goal was the reunite the union and the confederacy through any means necessary, slavery or not

• It changed over time as he made it apparent that slavery would be abolished

What was the Unions plan to win the war?

Block resources by controlling the Mississippi river to split the confederacy and strangle its economy.

What was the importance of the Gettysburg Address?

It officially changed the meaning of the war as a struggle for human equality and democratic ideals

Describe the contraband policy union officers believed in.

If enslaved people were considered property, by them crossing onto union territory, it would be considered Union terriroty, therefore, they could not return the ‘property’

Who were the Radical republicans?

People in congress who pushed for immediate emancipation of enslaved people

What was the Emancipation Proclamation (1863)?

Enslaved people in the confederate states were free, but not in the border states to avoid them ceding from the Union as well

What did the Thirteenth Amendment do?

Abolished slavery nationwide, making it a permanent measure instead of a temporary war measure

What was Reconstruction?

The process of readmitting the confederate states, rebuilding physical damage, and integrating newly freed Black Americans into civic life

What did Lincolns ten percent plan do?

only 10% of voters needed to take an oath of allegiance and accepted emancipation, states could form new governments

What were Black codes?

Southern states passed these laws to restrict the freedom of African Americans and control labor, basically slavery of another form

Describe the purpose of Freedmen’s Bureau

Aid, education, and an attempt to regulate labor restrictions on African Americans

What did the Fourteenth Amendment do?

Anyone born in the U.S. is considered a U.S. citizen and established the due process and qual protection

What did the Fifteenth Amendment do?

You cannot deny vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude

What was sharecropping? How did it reestablish something similar to slavery?

Freed people needed money, so they turned to working on land owned by someone else in exchange for share of the crop,

What were reasons why Reconstruction faltered?

• Johnson didn’t enforce it that much

• White supremacists: KKK, White league