Hist 1301 short deck

King Cotton

The Southern economy's reliance on cotton as its main export crop; fueled by slavery and the cotton gin. Cotton accounted for over half of U.S. exports by 1860. Significance: Made slavery more profitable and entrenched, increasing sectional tensions.

Domestic Slave Trade (Aspects)

Involved selling enslaved people from Upper South to Deep South; families were often separated. Significance: Expanded slavery's reach and deepened its cruelty despite the end of the transatlantic trade in 1808.

Antebellum Southern Class Hierarchy

1. Planters (elite slaveowners), 2. Small farmers (some owned a few slaves), 3. Poor whites (no slaves), 4. Free Blacks, 5. Enslaved people. Significance: Maintained social order and justified slavery.

Politics of Slavery

Slaveholding elites dominated Southern politics; federal policies favored protecting slavery (e.g., gag rule, Fugitive Slave Act). Significance: Increased sectional conflict as North pushed back.

Why Did Non-Slaveowners Support Slavery?

Hoped to one day own slaves; believed slavery preserved racial hierarchy and gave them social status. Significance: Broad white support sustained the system.

Pro-Slavery Arguments

Biblical justifications, economic necessity, 'positive good' theory (Calhoun), racial superiority. Significance: Used to resist abolition and defend Southern society.

Denmark Vesey

Free Black man who allegedly plotted a major slave revolt in Charleston (1822); executed. Significance: Led to harsher slave laws and fear among whites.

Nat Turner

Led 1831 slave rebellion in Virginia; over 50 whites killed. Rebellion crushed. Significance: Resulted in harsher laws and increased fear in the South.

Harriet Tubman

Escaped enslaved woman; led hundreds to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Later served as Union spy. Significance: Heroic resistance figure and symbol of abolitionist cause.

Underground Railroad

Secret network aiding enslaved people's escape to the North. Used safe houses and abolitionist supporters. Significance: Undermined slavery and fueled Southern anger.

Wanted Ads for Runaways

Newspaper ads by slaveholders seeking return of escapees; described appearance, skills, and rewards. Significance: Showed how enslaved people resisted bondage.

Immigrant Groups and Characteristics

Irish (urban, poor, Catholic) and Germans (rural, skilled, some Protestant). Faced discrimination. Significance: Contributed to labor force and urban growth, sparked nativism.

Nativism

Anti-immigrant sentiment; fear immigrants would take jobs, change culture. Example: Know-Nothing Party. Significance: Highlighted tension over identity and race.

Mexican Government and Texas Immigration

Invited U.S. settlers to Texas with land grants; settlers ignored Mexican laws. Significance: Led to rising tensions and Texas Revolution.

Causes of the Texas Revolution

U.S. settlers clashed with Mexican gov't over slavery, language, autonomy, and Santa Anna's dictatorship. Significance: Texas gained independence; U.S.-Mexico conflict grew.

Manifest Destiny

Belief that the U.S. was destined to expand west to the Pacific.

Causes of Mexican-American War

Border dispute after U.S. annexed Texas; Polk's expansionist push. Significance: U.S. gained massive new territory (Mexican Cession).

Mexican Cession

Land won from Mexico in 1848 (California, Southwest). U.S. paid $15 million. Significance: Raised slavery expansion debate.

Wilmot Proviso

1846 proposal to ban slavery in Mexican Cession lands. Failed to pass Senate. Significance: Deepened sectional divide.

Lydia Allen Rudd Account

Diary of a woman on the Oregon Trail. Describes hardship, faith, family roles. Significance: Humanized westward expansion and women's frontier experiences.

Compromise of 1850 (All Terms)

1. CA = free state. 2. Slave trade ended in DC. 3. Fugitive Slave Law. 4. Pop. sovereignty in Utah/NM. 5. Texas gave up land. Significance: Temporary peace, but angered both sides.

Fugitive Slave Law (Effects)

Required return of escaped slaves, even in free states. Northerners resisted. Significance: Increased abolitionist support.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Depicted cruelty of slavery. Significance: Mobilized Northern opposition.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Repealed Missouri Compromise; allowed pop. sovereignty. Led to 'Bleeding Kansas.' Significance: Shattered political stability.

Republican Party Origins

Formed by anti-slavery Whigs, Free Soilers, and Dems after KS-NE Act. Significance: Became dominant Northern party; opposed slavery's expansion.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent struggle over slavery in Kansas. Pro-slavery fraud and John Brown's attacks. Significance: Preview of Civil War.

Buchanan and Lecompton Constitution

Buchanan supported fraudulent pro-slavery KS constitution. Rejected by voters. Significance: Split Democratic Party.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Supreme Court ruled slaves were not citizens and Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Significance: Outraged North, emboldened South.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 IL Senate debates on slavery. Lincoln: Slavery wrong. Douglas: Popular sovereignty. Significance: Lincoln gained national fame.

John Brown

Led failed raid at Harpers Ferry (1859) to spark slave revolt. Executed. Significance: Martyr in North, terrorist in South.

Election of 1860

Lincoln elected without Southern votes. Significance: Prompted Deep South secession.

Crittenden Compromise

Proposal to protect slavery below 36°30′ line. Lincoln rejected it. Significance: Final failed attempt to avoid war.

Fort Sumter

Confederates attacked Union fort in SC (April 1861). Significance: Official start of Civil War.

Civil War Soldiers' Experience

Poor food, disease, fear, boredom. Many letters home. Significance: High death toll and psychological toll.

Union vs. Confederacy Advantages

Union: Industry, population, navy. Confederacy: Generals, defense, morale. Significance: Union had edge in long war.

Civil War Technology

Rifles, railroads, ironclads, telegraph. Significance: Modernized warfare, increased casualties.

Lincoln's Border State Strategy

Kept slave states like KY, MO in Union via moderation and martial law. Significance: Prevented larger Confederacy.

Anaconda Plan

Union strategy to blockade and divide South. Significance: Gradual, successful chokehold.

Civil War in the West

Grant's victories (Vicksburg, etc.) secured Mississippi River. Significance: Split Confederacy.

Federal Government Growth in War

Income tax, draft, national bank, Freedmen's Bureau. Significance: Expanded federal power permanently.

Confederate Government Failures

Weak central gov't, inflation, poor infrastructure. Significance: Undermined war effort.

Cotton Diplomacy

South tried to use cotton to gain European support. Failed. Significance: Europe found other sources.

Runaway Slaves

Fled to Union lines; became contrabands or soldiers. Significance: Undermined Southern labor force.

Emancipation Proclamation

Freed slaves in rebel areas (1863). Significance: Made war about ending slavery, hurt Confederacy.

Gettysburg and Address

Major Northern victory; turning point. Address = moral justification for war. Significance: Boosted morale, defined purpose.

Sherman's March to the Sea

Union troops destroyed Southern land/resources. Significance: Crushed morale, quickened end of war.

Civil War Dissent

Union: Draft riots, Copperheads. South: Desertions, food riots. Significance: War unpopular on both sides.

Election of 1864

Lincoln reelected; McClellan defeated. Significance: Ensured war would continue to Union victory.

Ten Percent Plan vs. Wade-Davis Bill

Lincoln's plan = lenient; Wade-Davis = strict. Significance: Conflict over control of Reconstruction.

Freedmen's Bureau

Federal agency helping freed slaves with food, education, jobs. Significance: Major step toward Black support and equality.

Black Codes

Laws to restrict freed Blacks' rights. Forced labor, limited movement. Significance: Continuation of slavery by other means.

Andrew Johnson's Presidency

Lenient to South, vetoed civil rights bills. Impeached but acquitted. Significance: Failed leadership during crucial period.

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Divided South into military districts; required new constitutions and Black suffrage. Significance: Radical Reconstruction begins.

Carpetbaggers and Scalawags

Carpetbaggers = Northerners in South; Scalawags = pro-Union Southerners. Significance: Helped rebuild South, but hated by many Southerners.

New Freedoms for Freedpeople

Voting, holding office, education, church autonomy. Significance: Major social shift, though short-lived.

Sharecropping

Freedmen worked land for share of crops. Significance: Economic exploitation and poverty cycle.

14th Amendment

Citizenship and equal protection for all born in the U.S. Significance: Foundation of civil rights law.

15th Amendment

Gave Black men voting rights. Significance: Progress, but undermined later by Jim Crow laws.

Reconstruction Waning

Causes: Northern fatigue, economic crisis, violence in South. Significance: Led to loss of federal protection for Blacks.

Election of 1876 and Compromise of 1877

Hayes became president; troops withdrawn from South. Significance: End of Reconstruction and start of Jim Crow.