Period 5 (1840-1861)

Texas Significance

Texas Significance

Played a crucial role in the lead-up to the Civil War, as its annexation in 1845 intensified tensions between the North and South over the issue of slavery. The state's admission as a slave state furthered the sectional divide, while its disputed border with Mexico led to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), which resulted in the U.S. acquiring vast territories. It's subsequent secession from the Union in 1861 was a significant moment in the formation of the Confederacy.

Zachary Taylor’s beliefs

Elected president (12th US president) in 1848, held moderate views on slavery, believing it should not expand into the new territories acquired from Mexico. He opposed the extension of slavery into the western territories, though he did not advocate for immediate abolition, and favored a solution that would preserve the Union while maintaining Southern rights.

Manifest Destiny Overview

Originating in the 1840s, a term that referred to support of the expansion of the United States through the acquisition of Texas, Oregon, and parts of Mexico. The term was also used in the 1890s in reference to the conquest of foreign lands not meant to be incorporated into the United States. It embodied the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across North America, promoting the idea of American exceptionalism.

Outcomes of Manifest Destiny

Included territorial expansion, increased tensions over slavery, and significant conflicts such as the Mexican-American War.

Beliefs associated with Manifest Destiny

Included the idea of American superiority, the right to expand territory, and the belief that expansion was both justified and inevitable.

Issues surrounding California and the Gold Rush

Term for the gold-mining boom in the U.S. western territories in the late 1840s and 1850s.

It led to mass migration, economic growth, and heightened tensions over slavery as new states were formed. More than 80000 prospecters “rushed” to california after the discovery of Gold.

Important books and their impacts

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) vividly portrayed the brutal realities of slavery, galvanizing Northern abolitionist sentiment and provoking widespread Southern opposition.

In 1857, The Impending Crisis of the South by Hinton Rowan Helper argued that slavery hindered the South's economic growth, furthering regional tensions.

Frederick Douglass's autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), provided a powerful first-hand account of slavery's horrors, strengthening the abolitionist movement and fueling calls for emancipation.

Pro-Slavery Viewpoint

Argued that slavery was essential to the Southern economy, particularly its reliance on cotton and other cash crops. They often justified slavery on racial grounds, claiming African Americans were inherently inferior and benefited from the institution through "civilization" and Christianity. Some also invoked states' rights and the Constitution to defend slavery as a legal and sovereign choice for each state.

Anti-slavery Viewpoint

A perspective opposing slavery, advocating for abolition and equal rights for all individuals, emphasizing moral, economic, and social arguments against the institution of slavery.

Paternalism

The belief that slave owners had a duty to care for and protect enslaved people, often used to justify slavery as a benevolent institution.

Positive Good

A belief that slavery was beneficial for both enslaved people and society, promoting a moral justification for the institution.

Status of Free Blacks in the North

Free Blacks in the North often faced discrimination, limited rights, and economic challenges, despite being legally free from slavery.

Controversies surrounding slavery

Between 1841 and 1865, slavery was a divisive issue in the United States, fueling political, social, and economic tensions. Key controversies included the expansion of slavery into new territories (e.g., through the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854), the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and landmark legal battles like Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which denied African Americans citizenship and exacerbated sectional divides.

Abolitionist movement- include important abolitionists

The abolitionist movement between 1841 and 1865 sought to end slavery in the United States, gaining momentum through the efforts of passionate activists. Prominent abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and William Lloyd Garrison pushed for emancipation through speeches, publications, and direct action, with Douglass’s writings and Tubman’s work on the Underground Railroad being particularly influential. The movement, which was instrumental in shaping public opinion and influencing political action, contributed to the eventual passage of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Compromise of 1850

Proposed by Henry Clay and handled by Stephen Douglas. Several laws that sought to settle several outstanding issues involving slavery. They banned the slave trade, but not slavery in Washington, DC; admitted California as a free state; applied popular sovereignty to the remaining Mexican Cession territory; settled the Texas–New Mexico boundary dispute; and passed a more stringent Fugitive Slave Act.

Free Soil Party

A party that emerged in the 1840s in opposition to the expansion of slavery into the territories. Formally organized in 1848, it nominated Martin Van Buren for president. In 1856, Free Soil Party members joined with former Whigs and other disaffected voters to form the Republican Party.

Republican Party Platform

One of the original two political parties in American politics, sometimes called the Democratic-Republican Party, it was organized by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson and generally stood for states’ rights, an agrarian economy, and the interests of farmers and planters over those of financial and commercial groups, who generally supported the Federalist Party. A new Republican Party emerged in the 1850s in opposition to the extension of slavery in the territories. It also adopted most of the old Whig Party’s economic program. The party nominated John C. Frémont for president in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

Kansas–Nebraska Act

Was originally aimed at facilitating the building of a transcotinental railroad that ran west from Chicago through unorganized territory that needed to be organized for it to be built. A compromise law in 1854 that superseded the Missouri Compromise and left it to voters in Kansas and Nebraska to determine whether they would be slave or free states. The law exacerbated sectional tensions when voters came to blows over the question of slavery in Kansas.

Bleeding Kansas

(1854-1859) was a violent conflict triggered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed settlers in Kansas to decide whether to permit slavery. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces flooded into the territory, leading to violent clashes, including the sacking of Lawrence and the Pottawatomie massacre. This conflict highlighted the intense sectional divisions over slavery and served as a prelude to the Civil War.

Freeport Doctrine

Articulated by Stephen A. Douglas during the 1858 Illinois Senate debates, asserted that despite the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, local governments in territories could still effectively exclude slavery by not passing laws to protect it. Douglas's stance aimed to balance the interests of both pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, but it angered Southern Democrats who saw it as insufficiently supportive of slavery. The doctrine deepened divisions within the Democratic Party and was a key moment leading up to the Civil War.

Donner Party

A group of American pioneers who set out for California in 1846 but became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada during the winter of 1846-1847, leading to tragedy and cannibalism.

Ostend Manifesto

A confidential 1854 dispatch to the U.S. State Department from American diplomats meeting in Ostend, Belgium, suggesting that the United States would be justified in seizing Cuba if Spain refused to sell it to the United States. When word of the document was leaked, northerners seethed at this “slaveholders’ plot” to extend slavery.

Election of 1860

Was a turning point in American history, as it marked the victory of Abraham Lincoln, who ran on a platform opposing the expansion of slavery into new territories. His election prompted Southern states to secede from the Union, fearing that his presidency would threaten the institution of slavery. Lincoln's victory thus directly contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War, as it highlighted the irreconcilable sectional divisions between North and South.

Abraham Lincoln’s views on slavery

Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong and sought to contain its spread, advocating for gradual emancipation. Initially focused on preventing its expansion into new territories rather than immediate abolition. He believed slavery was morally wrong but felt the federal government had limited power to end it where it already existed, advocating instead for its containment. As the Civil War progressed, Lincoln became more committed to abolition, culminating in his issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and his support for the Thirteenth Amendment to permanently abolish slavery.

Fugitive Slave Act

Initially, a 1793 law to encourage the return of runaway slaves; this law was amended, as part of the Compromise of 1850, to authorize federal commissioners to compel citizens to assist in the return of runaway (fugitive) slaves. The law offended northerners and its nonenforcement offended southerners.

Mexican-American War

Fought between the United States and Mexico from May 1846 to February 1848, the Mexican War greatly added to the national domain of the United States; see also Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This conflict was driven by the U.S. desire for territorial expansion and issues related to slavery.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle of allowing people to make political decisions by majority vote. As applied to American history, the term generally refers to the 1848 proposal of Michigan Senator Lewis Cass to allow settlers to determine the status of slavery in the territories.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Signed in 1848, this treaty ended the Mexican War, forcing that nation to relinquish all of the land north of the Rio Grande, including what would eventually become California, in return for monetary compensations.

Wilmot Proviso

A proposed amendment to an 1846 appropriations bill that banned slavery from any territory the United States might acquire from Spain. It never passed Congress but generated a great debate on the authority of the federal government to ban slavery from the territories.

Irish Potato Famine

A period of food scarcity in Ireland, from 1845 to 1851, when the potato crop failed. About a million Irish people died of starvation and another million emigrated to the United States.

Crittenden Compromise

Legislation proposed by Kentucky Senator John Crittenden during the secession crisis in 1860–1861. It called for a constitutional amendment recognizing slavery in all territory south of latitude 36°30′ N (the Missouri Compromise line) and an ironclad amendment guaranteeing slavery in slave states. President-elect Lincoln and the Republicans rejected Crittenden’s proposals.

Dred Scott decision

The 1857 Supreme Court ruling that held that blacks were not citizens and could not sue in a federal court, and, most important, that Congress had exceeded its constitutional authority in banning slavery from the territories. By declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, and making future compromises even more difficult, the decision pushed the nation closer to civil war.

Know-Nothing Party

A nativist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Catholic party that emerged in response to the flood of Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany in the 1840s. The party achieved mostly local successes in northeastern port cities; but in 1856 former president Millard Fillmore, whose Whig Party had dissolved, accepted the nomination of southern Know-Nothings, carrying only Maryland, a failure that contributed to the party’s decline.

Lecompton constitution

A proslavery constitution (that put no restrictions on slavery), drafted in 1857 by delegates in the Kansas territory who were elected under questionable circumstances, seeking admission to the United States. It would not leave Kansas a free territory and was boycotted by Free-soilers. Two territorial governors rejected it, supported by President Buchanan, and decisively defeated by Congress.

Underground Railroad

A support system established by antislavery groups in the upper South and the North to help fugitive slaves who had escaped from the South to make their way to Canada.

Young America Movement

The confident enthusiasm, infused with a belief in the nation’s “manifest destiny,” that spread rapidly during the 1850s.

James K. Polk

11th president of the US (1845-1849), was the “dark horse” Democratic canidate who won the presidential election, big believer in Manifest Destiny, introduced a new independent treasury system, settled the Oregon boundary dispute with the Oregon treaty, acquired California, led the US into the Mexican-American War

Negotiating the Oregon border

Great Britain and the US both made claims to the Pacific Northwest, specifically occupying Oregon jointly. However, when Americans began traveling west along the Oregon Trail and settling in the area, US politicians such as Polk pushed for sole ownership. Eventually, the border was established at the 49th parallel.

Stephen A. Douglas

Senator of Illinois, was an expansionist and supporter of the Mexican War, unbundled the Compromise of 1850 into smaller, more acceptable pieces of legislation and pushed it through using various allies in Congress, introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act, participated in debates against Abraham Lincoln, strongly believed in popular sovereignty.

Millard Fillmore

13th president of the US (1850-1853) after Zachary Taylor died while in office, supported the Compromise of 1850, and opposed the expansion of slavery and abolitionist activities, nativist leader (of the know-nothing party)

Know-Nothings

Active in the 1840s and 1850s, was a nativist political movement that opposed immigration, particularly of Catholics and Irish immigrants, claiming they threatened American values and jobs. Although briefly influential, their anti-immigrant stance and secretive nature limited their appeal, and they faded as sectional tensions over slavery overshadowed their platform.

Franklin Pierce

14th President of the US, Democrat, supported manifest destiny despite northern concerns over the spread of slavery, signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, his diplomats failed to purchase Cuba from Spain which led to the drafting of the Ostend Manifesto.

Commodore Perry’s Expedition to Japan

Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853-1854 was a U.S. mission to open Japanese ports to American trade and establish diplomatic relations after centuries of Japanese isolation. Perry's display of naval power and negotiation tactics led to the Treaty of Kanagawa, which marked the beginning of Japan's integration into global trade and its eventual modernization.

James Buchanan

15th President of the US (1857-1861), presided over the country when the Dred Scott decision was announced, backed the Lecompton Constitution to appease the South, denied the legal right of the states to secede but believed that the federal government could not legally prevent them, appointed northerners at posts and helped prepare Fort Sumner before leaving office.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

A series of seven public debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas during their campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. The debates focused on slavery's expansion, with Lincoln opposing its spread and Douglas promoting popular sovereignty through his Freeport Doctrine. These debates elevated Lincoln’s national profile, setting the stage for his 1860 presidential run, and deepened the sectional divide over slavery, further polarizing the nation.

John Brown

John Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed in using violence to overthrow the institution of slavery. He led the 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, intending to spark a slave uprising, but the plan failed, and he was captured and executed. Brown's actions and martyrdom polarized the nation, intensifying sectional tensions and making him a symbol of the growing conflict over slavery.

Fort Sumter

Located in Charleston Harbor, was the site of the first battle of the Civil War when Confederate forces fired upon the Union garrison on April 12, 1861, after months of rising tensions. The Confederate attack followed the secession of Southern states, which viewed federal control of the fort as a threat to their sovereignty. The fall of Fort Sumter rallied the North to defend the Union, marking the official start of the Civil War and solidifying the divisions between the Union and Confederacy.