Antebellum Period

Westward Expansion (1819 - 1854)

Manifest Destiny (1839)

  • The belief that America had a divine mission to spread westward

    • Conquer the Native Americans’ and the Mexican’s land

  • Expansion supported by God

    • European American culture is superior to other cultures

  • American values, culture would advance, civilize the West

Oregon Territory

  • Territory - CA to the southern border of AK

  • Claimed by Spain, Great Britain, Russia, and the US

  • Oregon Trail (1830s - 1840s) - Main migration route to the West

  • The US removed the Spanish/Russian presence = treaties

  • 1840s = increased tension with the British in Canada

  • James Polk - Democratic candidate, expansionist (1844); “fifty-four forty or fight!” = threatened England

Southwest and California

  • Mexican Independence, 1821

  • Mexican government - pro-America; encouraged trade with America

  • Santa Fe Trail - traveled by American pioneers looking to trade goods with Mexicans and own land

Texas

  • Fertile soil (cotton) attracted American settlers

  • Stephen Austin - led American settlers in East Texas; established the American colony

  • Santa Anna - Mexican General; opposed American immigration

  • Mexico restricted US immigration

Texas War for Independence

  • Battle of the Alamo (1836) - Santa Anna defeated American settlers

  • Sam Houston - rallied American settlers; defeated Santa Anna (battle of San Jacinto)

  • Treaty of Velasco (1836) - recognized the Republic of Texas

    • Permitted Slavrey

  • Texas - US state, 1845

    • Starting to divide the country because of the topic of slavery

Mexican War (1846 - 1848)

  • Dispute over the southern boundary of Texas = Rio Grande River vs. Nueces River

  • James Polk - Democrat; expanionstist; wanted California

  • Zachary Taylor - General; sent into disputed territory in Texas to provoke war

  • Winfield Scott -  defeated Santa Anna in Mexico

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

  • Rio Grande - southern border of Texas

  • The US acquired New Mexico and California

  • The US paid 18 million dollars to Mexico

Impact of the War

  • Gadsden Purchase (1853 - 1854) - The US acquired the southern part of New Mexico and present-day Arizona

  • The war brought slavery to the forefront of American politics

    • This would start to lead to the American Civil War

Industrialization & Sectionalism (1790 - 1860)


Industrialization

The American population grows and expands

  • 1790 = 3,929,000

  • 1860 = 31,443,000

  • Industry fueled population growth

  • Immigration: Irish and Germans

  • Westward Expansion - 33 states in 1860

Inventions

  • Textile mills/factory systems

    • Specifically in MA

  • Cotton gin

    • Fueling the textile industry

    • Separated the cotton at a much faster rate

  • Interchangeable parts

    • Made it possible for people to replace a part instead of a whole new machine

Transportation & communication

  • Internal improvements, steamboats, canals, railroads, clipper ships

  • The postal service was established, and the telegraph was invented

    • People were not as scared to move away from home because they had a source of communication

  • Impacts:

    • Westward expansion

    • Trade has become more efficient

Impact of the Industrial Revolution

  • Increased the population

  • Urban growth was concentrated in the North

  • Demand for cotton grows

  • Slave labor increases

  • Southern states are more reliant on Northern goods

  • Cultural, economic, and political differences grow both in the North and the South


Sectionalism

The North

  • industries - factories, mills, slaughterhouses, banks/insurance companies led to urbanization

  • Production - ships lumber, iron, leather, textiles, etc

  • Population - European immigrants, European Americans, and a few African Americans

  • The urban population grows from around 5% to 15% 

The South

  • Southeast, Southwest, Gulf Coast

  • Farming - tobacco, rice, “king cotton”

  • Population - European Americans, African, African Americans

  • Labor - “peculiar institution” - the southerners didn’t use the word slavery

Slave owning families (1850)

  • Planter aristocracy: 50 or more slaves 2%

  • More than 50% owned fewer than 4 slaves

Planter aristocracy

  • Sons went to school in the North

    • Calhoun - Yale

    • Jefferson Davis - West Point

  • Public education was slower to spread because the rich didn’t want to pay for it

  • Idealized feudalism

The majority of White southerners had no slaves and were subsistence farmers


Consequences of differences

  • The North

    • Advancements in technology and education

    • Place of new ideas

      • Reform = suffrage and abolition

    • Diverse economy

    • Making much more money

  • The South

    • Traditional, stragnant

    • One industry: farming (monoculture)

    • Land and soil are exhausted

    • Few immigrants, ideas, jobs

    • Most southern whites were poor, subsistence farmers

American Slavery (1619 - 1865)


Servitude, forced labor, and slavery in America

  • Indentured servants - use during the 17th century

    • Signed contracts (7 years)

    • Included both black and white people

  • Native Americans - used during the 17th and 18th centuries

    • Demise of Native American labor:

      • Used knowledge of the land to escape in large numbers

      • Many died from European diseases/conditions of slavery

Origins of African slavery in the Americas: Colonial slavery (1619 - 1770)

  • Results of European expansion in Africa (16th and 17th centuries)

  • Triangular slave trade (1528 - 1807) - slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods

    • Places involved: West Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and Europe

  • 1619 - Africans brought to Jamestown, VA

    • Slavery becomes race-based, hereditary, years to follow

Distinct systems of slavery emerged during colonial slavery:

  • South - slavery was used mostly in agriculture

  • North - slaves used in agriculture, trades, or as household servants for the urban elite

American Revolution - helped to eventually end slavery in the North

  • 1840s slavery ended in every northern state

  • Connecticut was the last state to abolish slavery in the North

The South: Antebellum Slavery (1800 - 1865)

  • Confined mostly in the South

  • Population shift - “South by Southwest”

    • Slavery shifts from VA, NC, SC to GA, MO, AR, MS, TX

  • Civil War (1860 - 1865) - brought an end to slavery in America

Abolitionist Movement

History

  • African Americans led the abolitionist movement

  • Quakers were consistent allies of African Americans and abolitionists

  • American Revolution - Ideals contradict institutions

  • American Colonization Society - focused on transporting enslaved blacks to Africa

    • Liberia was established for former slaves

  • The 1830s abolitionist movement renewed, focused primarily in the North

Abolitionists were unpopular among the general population

  • Reasons:

    • Slavery was protected by the Constitution

    • Economic stake

    • Racism

    • Supported by the Bible

    • Good for African Americans - lifted them from “barbarism” - Christianized them

    • Slaves were happy, well taken care of

    • Slaves were treated better than Northern laborers

Southern Dissent of Slavery

  • Prevented the economic development of the South

  • Impeded upon the arts, literature, and education

  • Caused the population to decline

  • Caused the South to become too dependent on the North

  • Economically harmed non-slaveholding white population


Resistance:

Abolitionist methods

  • Sermons, speeches

  • Books, newspapers, letters, pamphlets, etc

    • Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 12 Years a Slave, The Liberator, The North Star

  • Fought in the Civil War: MA 54th

  • Resisted the law - Fugitive Slave Act

  • Underground Railroad - Harriet Tubman

  • Violent raids. Attacks

    • John Brown (Pottawatomie Massacre and Harpers Ferry, VA)

Slave revolts/resistance

  • Slowed down production

  • Practiced their own customs

  • Stole from their master

  • Escaped captivity

    • Gabriel Prosser

      • He was enslaved

      • Planned to attack an armory in Richmond, VA, and arm rebel slaves

      • Betrayed by two followers, bad weather foiled the plan

      • Prosser and his followers were executed

      • The impact was that it scared white people more and more

    • Denmark Vesey

      • Free man in Charleston, South Carolina

      • 1821/1822 organized revolt

      • Betrayed by a follower

      • Vesey and his co-leaders were executed

    • Nat Turner “Prophet”

      • Slave in Southampton, Virginia

      • Deeply religious - he experienced visions

      • Inspired by Biblical stories

      • Led a successful rebellion

      • The rebellion was put down, and Turner and his followers were executed

Impact of resistance

  • Inspired and divided abolitionists

  • Southern whites became fearful and angry

  • Tightened restrictions on slaves



Road to the Civil War

Forces converge

  • Reform: abolition

  • Westward expansion

    • More territories are gaining enough population to be a state

    • Should this new state be a slave state?

  • Growing sectional differences

  • Differing political ideologies

Major issues

  • States' right philosophy - popular sovereignty

    • Meant to be a comprose and avoid conflict

    • The idea that when a country got enough people to be a state, that state should decide whether they wanted to be a free or slave state

  • Growing tension over slavery - free soilers, abolitionists, slave owners

    • Free Soilers were for stopping the expansion of slavery, not ending it

  • Free state, slave state balance - Senate vs the House

Political leaders/parties

  • Whig party

    • Opposed Andrew Jackson

    • attracted northerners and southerners

    • supported national programs

    • Divided over slavery

      • Henry Clay (KY) - Unionist, compromiser

      • Daniel Webster (MA) - Unionist, compromiser

  • Democrats

    • Majority party

    • Supported a limited government

      • Stephen Douglas (IL) - advocated for popular sovereignty

      • John C Calhoun (SC) - States’ rights, limited federal government secession (Nullification Theory)

Republican Party (1854)

  • Supporters included: anti-slvaery democrats, Whigs, “free soilers”

    • Abraham Lincoln (IL) - unionist, free-soiler

    • Charles Sumner (MA) - senator, abolitionist