Unit 10: SECTIONALISM IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA

who won the 1836 election?

martin van buren

what was mvb’s political affiliation and where was he from? how many terms? who was he to the president before him?

• dem

• NY

• 1 term

• AJ’s 2nd-term VP

what # president was mvb?

8

what was mvb trying to heal america from? what did he try to do, with what, and what are two reasons it did/didn’t work?

• the panic of 1837

• tried to stabilize economy

• independent treasury system (an independent agency)

• didn’t work

  • too little too late

  • he was a superfluous spender as President, too

what does the fact that this unit corresponds with the global age of impearialism have to do with mvb?

• he signed the treaty of wanghia, opening trade with china (bc china was doing so well during the age of imperialism)

what’s one word to describe mvb’s presidency?

mid.

okay, mvb is a democrat. what’s going on with the whigs? how did they change? how was mvb painted as an enemy to the whigs’ new thing? what’s an example of mvb doing something wrong in that sense?

• whig party emerged as a major opposition to mvb

• how did they change? well, they began to appeal to the common man more and more (going against their federalist roots)

• mvb didn’t support common man, total yes man to southern politicians

  • pressured by southern politicians to rally against the amistad slaves’ freedom; favor slavery (even though the case eventually went the slaves’ way in the SCOTUS)

    • he even appealed the CT case that gave the slaves their freedom to the supreme court…”nuh-uh, you’re not free yet!”

who defended the slaves in the amistad case?

jqa

what is the relationship looking like between the north and south from 1820 to 1850? also what is that period called?

SECTIONALISM. antebellum america.

what does it mean that the face of america was changing during its antebellum period? what specific event did this happen after? what was increasing and why? where was this increase concentrated, what grew bigger in turn, what DID NOT grow bigger (in fact there was none of it), and what can we say about the economy due to these things?

• population changes

• wo1812

• immigration

• bc of push and pull factors experienced in europe

• immigrant influx to cities

• labor supply grew bigger

• but no pay minimums! (factory owners are like “WOOP WOOP!”)

• wealth was moving to cities

how do we divide the two kinds of early immigrants? WHEN do we DEFINE you as an early immigrant?

• english, german, french

• as opposed to irish, northern europe

• 1820s and on

what are 4 luxuries that the english, german, and french immigrants experienced? who would you say less so than the other two? when did this influx happen anyway?

• widely accepted

• were enticed by america’s “pull factors”…”ooh, let’s go to america!”, not so much “push factors”

• many americans had ancestry from these countries

• many of these immigrants were protestant, like most Americans

  • germans less so, many catholic germans

• post-1812

why did the irish and northern europeans come to america? what happened when they got here and why?

• main “push factor” was potato famine

• not as widely accepted due to catholic vs. protestant hatred

what became a big political debate in antebellum america? how did it manifest? give me a quote you would have heard at the time and explain what the warning pertains to. what belief does this sound like? define it.

• IMMIGRATION

• manifested as anti-immigrant propaganda, often

• “Native Americans: beware of foreign influence!”

  • foreign influence in voting, foreign influence in the labor supply and therefore jobs

• nativism: NAs deserve special treatment

following this president, we see a lot of “wet blanket” presidents.

AJ!

who was 9th president? party? length of officeholding and why? where did we see him last (two places and one position)? what was the american public hoping he’d be?

• will henry harrison

• whig

• 32 days (died)

• general from tippecanoe and thames

• american public hoping he’d redo the magic of the GW and AJ general thing

10th president? prior position? what did we call him and why? how many terms?

• john tyler

• WHH’s VP (but then WHH died)

• the president w/o a party

  • kicked out of whigs

• 1 term

what division and tensions were present with the rise of immigrants in the workforce?

“help wanted, no irish need apply” kinda nativist thing

what two groups changed the workforce in antebellum america?

women and immigrants

what are two reasons women had such a hard time in the workforce? who fought back (two names) and what did they get? what about this resistance was like “uhh…”? what did their opponents do about it and who won?

• factory work was harsh and unforgiving

• faced societal backlash

• factory girls association/female labor reform fought back, got 10-hr. workday

• they were a union, though, so they had to go through commonwealth (of Mass.) vs. Hunt, which legalized unions (yay for the women!) and helped reform

where are the social elites now? give me a specific example. who else is there with them, though (two groups)? oh, and who is expanding nearby, too, and what did they have access to? what emerged and from what that allowed this? based on this, what can we say was causing what to go up? still, the majority of wealth belonged to _____. based on ALL of this, how would we say the economy is changing?

• cities

• NYC especially

• urban poor and free blacks there too

• middle class expanding, access to comfortable living

  • thanks to their small businesses that emerged from industry

• overall, technology was causing quality of life to go up

• less than 5% of americans held majority of wealth

• economy is changing bc distribution of wealth is changing

what were the two “safety valves” in america at the time? what made them special? who said that first one?

• move out west - offered opportunities to the desperate

  • “if all else fails” kinda thing

  • frederick jackson turner

• politics - use democracy to change for better if needed

• other nations don’t have them

two reasons it was called “King Cotton”

• requires huge amounts of land to grow

• most plantations in lower or deep south operated on it

three big characteristics of life in the south in antebellum america

• king cotton

• lack of development

• dependent on the north

what things weren’t developing in the south at the time?

travel and infrastructure

what movement is happening in the background of the south that’s solidifying gender roles? what did women need to do and why? men were called what, which meant what? who did they hate, and what was this name associated with? what do we call the women?

• 2nd GA

• women needed to obey husbands to hold onto southern honor

• cavaliers, honorable association

• hated the “northern yankee”, associated with the corrupt businessman

• southern belles!

were yeoman farmers still around in antebellum america? what did they help with?

yes. in fact, they made up most of the southern population! helped push economy beyond just cotton—food, etc.