AMSCO Chapter 5

Territorial Gains and Boundary Disputes * Webster-Ashburton Treaty * 1842 * Compromise over Maine to allow Britain road access to Halifax to Quebec while U.S. gained territory * Treaty of 1818 led to a peaceful “joint occupation” of Oregon until “Oregon Fever” of the 1940s * “Fifty Four Forty or Fight” * Compromised to the 49°
John Tyler: Going Rogue * Entire cabinet resigned, except for Webster * Vetoed a proposed Whig tariff and disagreed with their Pro-Bank stance * Known as “His Accidency”
James Polk: Expansionist * 4 point mission * Lower the tariff * Restore the independent treasury * Put U.S. money into non-government banks * Clear up the Oregon border issue * Get California
Annexation of Texas * After Webster-Ashburton Treaty settled northern border disputes with Canada, Tyler made Texas a priority * The Lone Star Republic was rejected admission for about 10 years * Slavery issues * With the support of president-elect Polk, Tyler got a joint resolution and Texas was admitted into the Union
War with Mexico * 4000 men under Zachary Taylor march from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande, proactively near Mexican troops * Allegedly “American blood on American soil” * Questioned by Lincoln in the “Spot Resolution” * Pushed by Polk, Congress declared war on Mexico * War opposed by abolitionists and people like Henry David Thoreau who urged “civil disobedience”
19th Century Abolitionism * Context * Quakers * Ex: Ben Franklin opposed slavery * John Jay and Hamilton established the New York Manumission Society * 1817 * The American Colonization Society * Established to sent Blacks back to Africa * 1829 * Radical, David Walker, wrote “Appeal to the Colored Citizens Around the World” * Advocated a bloody end to white supremacy * 1830s * Second Great Awakening strengthens movement * Theodore Weld writes numerous pamphlets, some with Angelina Grimke * “American Supremacy As It Is” * 1831 * William Lloyd Garrison published the first edition of The Liberator * 1845 * Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas * 1851 * Sojourner Truth * “Ain’t I a Woman?”
Paradoxes of Slavery * Few aristocratic plantation owners * ¼ of whites owned slaves * Sleeveless whites also supported slavery * By 1860, 250,000 free blacks in the South * Free blacks were prohibited from working in certain occupations and forbidden to testify against whites in court * Slave auctions were brutal, with slaves inspected like animals and families separated * Harriet Beecher Stowe
Slave Resistance * Indirect * Slow-downs * Damaging property * Maintaining dignity in the face of dehumanization * Religion is key * Learning to read * Direct * Rebels and runaways * Nat Turner’s Rebellion * Preacher led slaves to kill their white oppressors * Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman
End of the Civil War * The Union out-supplied the Confederacy * General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse * April 15, 1865 * Lincoln was assassinated 5 days later after surrender by John Wilkes Booth * Actually hurts the South
Dilemmas of Reconstruction * How to rebuild the South? * What to do with freed slaves? * How would the South be reintegrated into the Union? * Who would control the process: Southern states, President, or Congress? * Should “rebel” leaders be punished
Competing Plans * Lincoln * Reintegrate states into the Union, where only 10% of its voters took an oath to the Union and acknowledged the emancipation of slaves * Johnson * Certain leading confederates were disenfranchised, the Confederate debt was repudiated, and states would ratify the 13th amendment * Radical Republicans * Felt south needed to be punished through Congress which required 50% of the state’s voters to take oaths of allegiance and demanded stronger safeguards for emancipation