Period 5 (1844 - 1877)

  • Westward Expansion/Manifest Destiny cont.

    • The US wanted more land for power and industry

    • White supremacy motivated pro-expansionists (believed they were better than other cultures and it wasn’t a problem to wipe out Native populations, thought it was their fate to expand and rise to power)

      • Expansion also increased white supremacist beliefs (settlers were taking over. Immigrants increased because of new land so more racism and discrimination)

    • California Gold Rush motivated westward expansion (people wanted to get rich)

    • Consequences

      • More land

      • Native American hostility 

        • Drove native americans out of Mexican land, but then issues with Mexico (Mexican-American War)

    • Infrastructure → westward expansion

      • Railroads and canals made travel and expansion easier

      • Pacific Railroad Act - funded the first continental railroad

      • Faster travel & shipping of goods leading to economic benefit → more motive for expansion

  • Immigrants 

    • Lots of factories for them to work in

      • They would work for less money so getting more jobs

      • More factories were being opened 

  • Mexican American war (1846-1848)

    • America got land 3x the size of what they wanted from Mexico

      • Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California

      • Mexico’s land decreased by 55%

    • Mexico-US borders were established

    • Mexicans invited settlers to drive out Native Americans, but settlers settled after

    • Raised debates on rights and citizenship in US because people were questioning who deserved land

      • Slavery was debated with all this new land added

  • A precursor to civil war because of this 

    • The idea of slavery was also debated whether or not it was unconstitutional

    • Supreme Court cases restricted African American rights, no matter if they were enslaved or free 

      • Dred Scott v Sanford (1857) said that enslaved people of those of African descent would not and could never become US citizens

  • Election of 1844

    • Polk vs Clay

    • Polk wins (democrat)

  • Compromise of 1850

    • Background: more sectionalism over territories in the West, gold rush made a lot of people move to CA and they wanted to be free but that would offset the balance of free and slave states

      • Clay (Whig) drafted it and wanted to ban slavery in the Mexican Cession

      • Calhoun opposed the Compromise and wanted popular sovereignty in the Mexican Cession

    • Admitted California as a free state, made the Fugitive Slave Act stronger, created the territories of Utah and New Mexico and left it up to the states to decide if they were slave or free

  • Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) / Bleeding Kansas

    • Kansas Nebraska Act - established Kansas and Nebraska territories

    • The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to violence in the territories, as abolitionists and proslavery groups rushed in and both antislavery and proslavery constitutions were sent to Washington known as Bleeding Kansas

    • Dispute over the Act caused the collapse of the Whigs which was replaced by the Republicans

  • Dred Scott vs Sanford (1857)

    • Dred Scott, a slave, tried to sue his master

    • The Court ruled that enslaved people were property, not citizens, and that Congress couldn't regulate slavery in the territories

  • Civil War

    • Lincoln gets elected (1860) and the South was scared that he would abolish slavery

      • The south basically ran on slavery

    • Seven states seceded 

    • Lincoln just wants the Union back together and in his inaugural address he plead to the South to come back and he won’t get rid of slavery

    • Union Advantages

      • More people, factories, railroads, money

      • More workers and resources

      • More military forces

      • More firearms

      • Had a lot of food production

      • Had enough free men to make an army

      • Anaconda Plan - the union cut off the South’s supplies and ports to “strangle” them

    • Union Disadvantages

      • Had to invade the South on their territory

      • Struggled to find competent generals

    • Confederacy Advantages

      • Home field advantage/ knowledge of the land

      • More cotton that could be used as materials or sold to other countries

      • Had more unity

      • Had a lot of good generals

      • Soldiers were more equipped to survive during the war

    • Confederacy Disadvantages

      • Less troops

      • Soldiers had to fight with their own weapons because they had little resources to make weapons

      • Limited food production

      • Didn’t have enough free men to make an army

      • Didn’t have a lot of railroads so it was hard to transport people and supplies

    • Battle of Antietam


    • Battle of Gettysburg

      • Northernmost battle

    • Confiscation Acts (1861 and 1862)

      • authorized the seizure of Confederate property, including slaves, and stated that slaves who fought for or worked with the Confederacy were freed

    • Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

      • Change the point of the war to abolishing slavery not just bringing the Union back together

      • Prevent foreign powers from recognizing the Confederacy as a legitimate nation or providing them with military aid

  • Reconstruction Era (1865)

    • Government policies (Andrew Johnson)

      • 13th Amendment - abolished slavery

      • 14th Amendment - birthright citizenship

      • 15th Amendment - all men could vote 

      • Freedmen’s Bureau

        • An institution that helped freed slaves who didn’t have anything (didn’t last very long, but was helpful)

      • Reconstruction Acts

        • Established how states could reenter the Union and put military control over the Southern states

      • Lincoln’s 10% Plan

        • Pardoned all confederates if they swore an oath of loyalty to the Union and accepted the emancipation of slaves

        • Let states reenter the union if 10% of the voting population accepts the oath

      • Andrew Johnson’s Plan

        • Required states to abolish slavery (they would have to sign the 13th Amendment in order to do so)

        • Gave specific/restricted rights to freed formerly enslaved people

      • Congress’ Plan

        • Give full citizenship to Black people

        • Punish the south

        • Wanted to take political power from those who had owned slaves

      • Why it failed

        • Major segregation even though blacks were free

          • Jim Crow laws starting

          • Sharecropping started in replace of slavery

        • White supremacy groups like KKK

        • Southern white democrats regained power

        • Northerners gave up on reconstruction

      • What happened because of reconstruction

        • Equality became more valuable

        • Slavery abolished

        • Black people got citizenship