4.2 The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson

Election of 1800 - Thomas Jefferson won, peaceful transfer of power from Adams to Jefferson

• During Adam’s presidency, Federalists lost popularity → Alien & Sedition acts, new taxes

• Change from Federalist to Democrat-Republican control in House and Senate = Revolution of 1800

*Louisiana Purchase - Purchased Louisiana territory from France from 15 million

• Jefferson justified with support for agrarian economy so more farmland

• Went against Jefferson's belief in enumerated power bc no where in Constitution did it say government could purchase land

*John Marshall's Court - Time during which John Marshall was the Chief Justice

• Staunch Federalist

Marbury v Madison - 1803; Establishes judicial review; Small Federalist loss for a bigger win, but ultimately expands federal power by expanding power of Supreme Court

• Adams made “midnight appointments” of Federalists as judges, but Madison blocked them

• John Marshall rules that Judicial Act of 1789 was unconstitutional, so Marbury cannot not get his judgeship

• Establishes precedent of judicial review; now Supreme Court has power to judge that acts are unconstitutional

McCulloch v Maryland - 1819; Gave government implied power to create a national bank

• Marshall rules that Maryland cannot tax the Second Bank of US, a federal institution, because federal laws are supreme over state laws

• Settled constitutionality of national bank → implied power

Gibbons v Ogden - 1821; Established federal government’s broad control of interstate commerce

• New York grant a monopoly to a steamboat company if action conflicted with charter authorized by Congress

4.3 Politics and Regional Interests

Era of Good Feelings - Monroe years were marked by spirit of nationalism, optimism, and goodwill

• Democratic-Republican dominated politics

• Perception of unity and harmony, but actually debates over tariffs, national bank, public land sales

• Antagonistic factions among DR would soon split in two - until Panic of 1819

Economic Nationalism - Outgrowth of War of 1812 was political movement to support the growth of nation’s economy

• Provide financial support to internal improvements (roads and canals)

• Protect US industries from EU competition

• Issues based on one’s region or section

Tariff of 1816 - First protective tariff in US history, after War of 1812

• Before War of 1812, had low tariffs on imports as method to raise government revenue

• During war, more factories built and raised imports on EU goods to protect from competition

• New England opposed higher tariffs, while South and West supported

American system* - Plan to have protective tariffs, a national bank, and internal improvements

• By Henry Clay, House of Reps of Kentucky

• Tariffs to promote manufacturing and raise money to build national transportation system → support mainly North

• National bank to have stable national currency

• Improvements to promote growth in West and South

Panic of 1819 - Economic disaster after 2nd Bank of US tightened credit (reduction in availability of loans) to control inflation

• Causes: Western land speculation, war inflation then post-war deflation, contractionary monetary policy (less money out so money worth more, but common people have less access to money)

• State banks closed; unemployment, bankruptcies, imprisonment for debt increased

• North want high tariffs, south wanted low tarrifs

• West was most affected bc many people were in debt - changed voter’s political outlook

  • Calling for land reform and opposition to national bank and debtor’s prisons

• → Nationalistic beliefs shaken

Missouri Compromise - Admit Missouri as slave-holding state, admit Maine as free state, prohibit slavery in rest of Louisiana Territory north of latitude 36° 30’

• To preserve sectional balance between North and South - in House, northern majority but in Senate, divided evenly

• When Missouri bid, it meant favor would tip towards South → compromise

• Preserved sectional balance for >30 years

Tallmadge Amendment - Prohibit further introduction of slaves in Missouri + required children of Missouri slaves to be emancipated at 25 yrs old

• By James Tallmadge, NY rep

• Would have led to me gradual elimination of slavery in Missouri

• Defeated bc southerners in Senate saw as northern effort to abolish slavery in all states

Sectionalism - Loyalty to one’s own region

• Sectional controversy high over Missouri

• Sectional feelings on slavery subsided after 1820

• Americans torn between feelings of nationalism (Union) and sectionalism

4.4 America on the World Stage

Barbury Pirates - Piracy practiced on North African coast; seized US merchant ships

• Prior, Washington and Adams payed tribute to Barbary governments to protect

• Ruler of Tripoli demanded higher sum from Jefferson → refused to pay

• Jefferson sends US Navy to Mediterranean; fights with Tripoli for 4 years (1801-1805)

  • Ends up paying the tribute

• Gained respect and offered protection to US vessels in Med. waters

*Embargo Act of 1807 - prohibited US merchant ships from sailing to any foreign port, hoped that British would stop violating rights of neutral nations

• Chesapeake-Leopold affair (British impressment near VA) → Embargo Act

• Backfired and was devastating for US economy, esp for merchant marine and shipbuilders of New England

• Developed a movement in New England states to secede from Union

Nonintercourse Act of 1809 - Passed by James Madison, Americans can trade with all nations except Britain and France

• Maintain the country's rights as a neutral nation and end economic hardship

Macon's Bill No. 2 - 1810, Nathaniel Macon (Congressman) introduced bull that restored US trade with Britain and France

• If Britain or France agreed to respect US neutral rights at sea, then US would prohibit trade with the other country

• Napoleon deceived US and continued to seize American merchant ships

Tecumseh & Battle of Tippecanoe - Shawnee Tecumseh warrior attempted to unite all tribes east of Mississippi River; General William Harrison destroyed Shawnee headquarters

• The battle ended Tecumseh's efforts to form a Native confederacy

• British provided aid to Tecumseh, so Americans blamed them for being instigators

War of 1812 (causes) - Madison. Two main causes: violation of US neutral rights at sea and troubles with British on western frontier

• Free seas and trade

  • Belligerents in Europe, Britain, and France all did not respect neutral rights

  • Britain was cruel enemy during Revolution, French supported colonists, British violations were worse because of impressment

• Frontier pressures

  • American ambition for lands of British Canada and Spanish Florida

  • British support of Tecumseh and the Battle of Tippecanoe (see above)

War Hawks - Group of new, young Democratic-Republicans to Congress, many from frontier states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio) West and South

• Eagerness for war with Britain → only way to defend American honor, gain Canada, destroy Native resistance on frontier

• Gained quick significant influence in House of Reps

• Leaders: Henry Clay (KY) and John Calhoun (SC)

Opposition to war / Quids - Opposers mainly from New York, New Jersey, and New England; Mostly New England merchants, Federalist politicians, and Quids (Old Democratic-Republicans)

• Merchants opposed bc, after repeal of Embargo Act, made profits from European war, primary trading partner is Britain, and saw impressment as a mere inconvenience

  • Commercial interests and religious ties to Protestantism made them more sympathetic to Brits than French

• Federalists opposed bc they saw as scheme to conquer Canada and Florida, which would increase DR voting strength

• Quids opposed bc violated classic DR commitment to limit federal power and maintenance of peace

Battle of New Orleans - January 8, 1815; Part of US land campaign against Canada to win War of 1812

• Secured US control of Mississippi River and Port of New Orleans

• Happened 2 weeks after a treaty that ended the war had been signed in Ghent, Belgium

• Bolstered American morale and proved US could defend its territory against a major power = more nationalism and unity

Treaty of Ghent - American peace commissioners traveled to Ghent, Belgium to discuss terms of peace with British diplomats; ended on Christmas eve 1814

• Seized fighting, returned all conquered territory to prewar, recognized prewar boundary between Canada and US

• British did not address impressment, blockades, or other maritime issues

• Stalemate with no gain for either side

Hartford Convention - December 1814; Convention in Hartford, Connecticut, called by radical New England Federalists who wanted to secede from Union and amend Constitution

• Rejected secession, but adopted proposals

• Called for a 2/3 vote of both houses for any future declaration of war

• After Convention was over, Jackson's victory at New Orleans and Treaty of Ghent happened →ended criticism of war and weakened Federalists bc unpatriotic

Impact of War of 1812 - Achieved none of its original aims

• US gained respect of other nations having survived 2 wars with Britain

• US accepted Canada as part of British Empire

• Federalist Party came to an end bc of the party's talk of secession (Hartford Convention)

• Talk of nullification and secession in New England set precedent later used by the South

• Natives forced to surrender land to White settlement bc abandoned by British

• US factories were built and US moved towards industrial self sufficiency bc of British naval blockade

• War heroes, Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison, would become new generation of political leaders

• Nationalism grew stronger, belief that US’ future lay in west and away from Europe

James Monroe - 5th president of US

Adams-Onis Treaty - 1819; bought eastern Florida to establish boundary between Mexico and Louisiana Territory

• Spain gave Florida to US and surrendered claims to Pacific NW

• US recognized Spanish's claim to Texas

Monroe Doctrine - December 1823; inserted into annual message to Congress a declaration of US policy toward Europe and Latin America: US oppose attempts by any European power to interfere in affairs of any countries in the Western Hemisphere

• Applauded by American public, but forgotten

• European nations, British and monarchies, were mad

• Later, would be cornerstone of US foreign policy toward Latin America

4.5 Market Revolution

What it was: national market economy, urbanization, sectionalism, economic wealth based on individualism, mass production, steam power,

Causes

• War of 1812

• Henry Clay's American System

Features

• Subsistence → commercial agriculture

• Industrial innovations

  • Interchangeable parts… creation of factory system

  • Vulcanization

  • Sewing machine

• Textile

  • Cottage industries → textile industry in factories

  • Spinning jenny

Effects

• Increased immigration, especially from Ireland and Germany (old immigrants)

  • Economic stability for Ireland, political turmoil for Germany

  • Irish in NE factories, poor and unskilled

  • Germans in Midwest farms, middle class and more skilled

  • Leads to Nativism → anti-immigrant sentiment

• Women's role: cult of domesticity, factory/lowell system

• Economic and social mobility

  • Rise of wage labor (deskilling of labor)

  • Rise of middle class: managerial, clerical, secretarial work

• Labor unions

Old Northwest development - 6 states that joined Union before 1860: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota through Northwest Ordinance (1787)

• Unsettled frontier and relied on Mississippi to transport grain to southern markets and port of New Orleans

• Later, became tied to other northern states through…

  • military campaigns by federal troops that drove Natives from land

  • building of canals and railroads that established common markets between Great Lakes and East Coast

National Road - Paved highway and major route to the west, extended more than a thousand miles from Maryland to Illinois

• Completed in 1850s using federal and state money

• Efficient network of interconnecting roads for moving people, raw materials, manufactured goods

Erie Canal - 1825, New York; Linked economies of western farms and eastern cities

• Connects northeast and midwest

• Led to frenzy of canal building in other states

• Led to connection of all major lakes and rivers east of Mississippi

• → Lower food prices in East, more immigrants settling in West, stronger economic ties between two

Robert Fulton - Developed steamboat that allowed successful voyage up Hudson River (1807)

• Began age of mechanized, steam-powered travel

• Commercially operated steamboat lines made roundtrip shipping on rivers faster and cheaper

Railroads - mode of transportation for carrying passengers and freight

• Made a more rapid and reliable link between cities

• First lines in late 1820s

• Combined with other modes of transportation → changed small western towns (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago) into commercial centers

• Massachusetts and New York (growing population) needed wheat and corn from Ohio, Illinois, and other western states

• Less common in south

Telegraph - transmits messages along wires almost instantaneously; short and long signals (dots and dashes)

• People able to communicate much faster

• Businesses, government officials, and military all benefited

Eli Whitney - developed cotton gin in 1793, interchangeable parts (guns) in 1812

• Cotton gin - device for separating cotton fiber from seeds → in south, growing cotton became very profitable and demand for slaves increased

• Interchangeable parts - identical components that can be assembled to make a final product → each part can be mass produced and then put together, efficiency of production increased

Samuel Slater & Factory System - illegally took information about factory designs out of Britain

• Helped establish first US textile factory

• Embargo and War of 1812 stimulated domestic manufacturing, protective tariffs helped

• Factory system grew in New England bc of waterpower for machinery and seaports for trade

  • Decline in maritime industry → growth of manufacturing

  • Decline in farming → ready labor supply

Lowell System - recruitment of young farm women to work in textile mills, provide housing in company dorms

• Expanded to use of child labor

• Towards 1850s, more immigrants employed

Commercial agriculture - In early 1800s, farming became more for profit than subsistence

• Large areas of western land made available at low prices by federal government

• State banks gave loans at low interest rates, which made acquiring land easier

• Development of canals and railroads opened new markets in factory cities of East

• Cotton gin and mechanical reaper

4.6 Effects of the Market Revolution on Society and Culture

Market Revolution - Innovations in technology, agriculture, and commerce; specialization on farm, growth of cities, industrialization, modern capitalism

• Development of distinctly American culture

• Increase in religious fervor

• Support for various reform movements

• Growing interdependence among people

• Standard of living increased

Role of women - More employment in city (domestic service or teaching), gained relatively more control over lives, still legally restricted

• Factory jobs (Lowell system) not common

• Working women were mostly single; married women stay home

  Development of the cult of domesticity: women's work is in domestic sphere, remaining in house, run household, take care of children and husband

• Decrease in arranged marriages, large families

Immigration (1830s) - After 1832, always >50k immigrants a year because…

• Inexpensive and rapid ocean transportation

• Famines and revolutions in Europe

• Rep of US as country offering economic opportunities and political freedom

• Northern seacoast cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia), Northwest farms and cities, few in South

• Strengthened US economy by providing inexpensive labor and demand for mass-produced goods

• Economic stability for Ireland, political turmoil for Germany

• Irish in NE factories, poor and unskilled

• Germans in Midwest farms, middle class and more skilled

• Leads to Nativism → anti-immigrant sentiment

Industrial Revolution - New economic opportunities in factories and manufacturing

• Northern slums had to crowded housing, poor sanitation, infectious diseases, high rates of crime

• Attracted people from farming communities, including native-born Americans and European immigrants

Urbanization - Small towns grew into thriving cities at key transportation/transfer points

• Process farm products for shipment to the east, distribute manufactured to their region Buffalo, NY; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL (Great Lakes)

• Cincinnati, OH (Ohio River)

• St. Louis, MO (Mississippi River)

Organized labor/unions - Urban workers to protect interests; resulted from low pay, long hours, unsafe working conditions

• Short time in 1830s, increased number of urban workers joined unions and strikes

Commonwealth v. Hunt - Victory for organized labor: MA Supreme Court ruled that “peaceful unions” had right to negotiate labor contracts with employers

• 1840s, northern state legislatures passed ten-hour workday law

• Still, improvements limited by

  • periodic depressions

  • hostile employers and courts

  • abundant supply of low-wage immigrant labor

4.7 Expanding Democracy

Universal white male suffrage - all White males could vote regardless of their social class or religion (1828)

• Newly admitted western states (IN, IL, MO) adopted state constitutions that allowed all White males to vote and hold office

• No religious or property qualifications for voting

• 1824, 350k voters → 1840, 2.4 million voters

• Political offices held by people in lower and middle society

Change in nomination conventions

• Before, candidates for office were nominated by state legislatures or by "King Caucus,” a closed-door meeting of political party's leaders in Congress

• In 1830s, replaced by nominating conventions

• Party politicians and voters gather in a large meeting hall to nominate the party's candidates

• Anti-Masonic Party was first ever to hold a nominating convention

• More open to popular participation → more democratic

Popular election of electors - Allowing voters to choose a state's slate of presidential electors

• By 1832, only SC used the old system: state legislature chose electors for president

Third parties - Political parties, other than the large national parties, emerged

• In 1830s, the two big national parties were the Democrats and the Whigs

• Example of third parties: Anti-Masonic Party and Workingmen's Party

  • Anti-Masons attacked secret societies of Masons, accusing them of being antidemocratic elites

  • Workingmen's tried to unite artisans and skilled laborers into a political organization

Spoils system & rotation in office - Practice of dispensing government jobs in return for party loyalty; limiting a person to one term in office

• Introduced by President Andrew Jackson

• Affirmed democratic ideal that one man was as good as another

• Ordinary Americans were capable of holding any government office

• Helped build strong two-party system

4.8 Jackson and Federal Power

Corrupt Bargain (Election of 1824)

• Andrew Jackson won in states that counted popular votes

• Henry Clay used his influence in the House to provide John Quincy Adams with enough votes to win the election, winning the electoral vote

  • In return, Clay was appointed Secretary of State

Election of 1828

• Adams sought reelection, but southerners and westerners used new campaign tactics → smearing, accusing wife of being born out of wedlock

• Adam’s supporters accused Jackson’s wife of adultery (mudslinging)

• Jackson won w reputation as war hero and man of western frontier

Presidential Power of Jackson

• Presented himself as representative of all people and protector of “common man”

• Frugal Jeffersonian, opposed increasing federal spending and national debt

• Vetoed more bills than all 6 preceding presidents combined bc enumerated power

• Closest advisors were his “kitchen cabinet,” not a part of his official cabinet

Indian Removal Act (1830) - forced the resettlement of many thousands of Natives, creating the Bureau of Indian Affairs (1836)

• from Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole in GA and FL to Oklahoma and Arkansas "Indian territory"

• Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831) - Supreme court ruled that Cherokees were not a foreign nation with right to sue in a federal court

• Worcester v Georgia - laws of Georgia had no force within Cherokee territory; supported by Jackson

• Trail of Tears - 1838 US Army forced 15k Cherokees to leave GA, 4k died

Tariff of Abominations & Nullification

• South Carolina legislature declared increased tariff of 1828 unconstitutional

• Nullification theory - each state had right to decide whether to obey a federal law or to declare it null and void

• Jackson passed the Force Bill, which gave authority to act against SC; stated nullification and disunion were treason

• Henry Clay helps compromise for Tariff of 1833 which decreases tariff

Veto Power - Even though Jackson believed in limited government, Jackson used veto power more than any prior president

• Vetoed internal improvement in Kentucky

• Start of my vetos

Bank Veto - Jackson vetoed a bank recharter bill; was a private monopoly that enriched the wealthy and foreigners at expense of common people and a “hydra of corruption”

• Pet Banks - Jackson withdrew all federal funds, transferring into state banks

  • loaned too much $ and inflation → Panic of 1837

• Specie Circular - all purchases of public land must be made with gold or silver (specie) instead of paper money

  • bank notes lost value, land sales plummeted, tightening of credit, economic downturn → Panic of 1837

Democrats - Supported Jackson

• Opposed nat. bank, protective tariffs, federal spending for internal improvements

• Concerned about high land prices in West + business monopolies

• From South and West

  • Urban workers

Whigs - Supported Henry Clay

• Supported nat. bank, protective tariffs, federal spending for internal improvements

• Concerned about crime associated with immigrants

• From New England and Mid-atlantic

  • Urban professionals

Panic of 1837 - Financial panic and economic depression after Andrew Jackson left office

• Opposition to rechartering the Bank of the US

• Whigs blamed the laissez-faire economics of Democrats (little gov involve in economy)

Native Americans & Western Frontier

• Definition of “west” kept changing

  • 1600s - lands not along Atlantic

  • 1700s - lands on other side of Appalachian

  • 1800s - land beyond Mississippi River and reached to California/Oregon territory on Pacific coast

• By 1850, most Natives lived west of Mississippi

  • East had been killed by disease, battle, or emigrated

• Horses allowed Cheyenne and the Sioux to continue nomadic life

The Frontier and Mountain Men

• Concept of “frontier” stayed relatively same

  • represented possibility of a fresh start, promised greater freedom for all ethnic groups

• Mountain men - White people who followed Lewis and Clark and explore Native trails as they trapped for furs

  • served as guides and pathfinders for settlers crossing the mountains into California and Oregon in 1840s

4.9 The Development of American Culture

Transcendentalists - Questioned doctrines of established churches (hierarchy) and business practices of the merchant class (materialism); focusing on nature, intuition, individualism

• Ralph Waldo Emerson - Writer and speaker, essays + lectures expressed individualistic + nationalistic spirit of Americans. Self-reliance, independent thinking, spiritual thinking. Leading critic of slavery and supporter of Union

• Henry David Thoreau - 2 year experiment of living in a cabin in the woods, wrote Walden, pioneer ecologist and conservationalist. Essay “On Civil Disobedience” inspired Gandhi and MLK Jr.

Utopia - Withdrawing from conventional society to create an ideal, perfect society. Reflects the progressive social and religious ideas of the time

Communal Experiments

• Brook Farm - MA, founded by minister George Ripley, intellectual elites and their children, artistic creativity, innovative school (secular)

• Shakers - Founded by Mother Ann Lee, forbid marriage and sex (religious)

• New Harmony - IN, founded by Robert Owen, socialist community, inequality and alienation caused by industrial Revolution (secular)

• Oneida - NY, shared property and spouses, communal child-rearing “free-love” (religious)

Art and Literature of Antebellum Era

• Painting - Genre painting, depicts everyday life of ordinary people: domestic chores, rural life, American landscapes. Romantic age, natural world

• Literature - Transcendalist authors, but also nationalistic and more distinctly American lit. (partly bc War of 1812)

  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: intolerance and conformity

  • Moby-Dick by Herman Melville: theological and cultural conflicts

  • Edgar Allan Poe focused on supernatural, mysterious, horrific events

4.10 The Second Great Awakening

Second Great Awakening - Reassertion of traditional Calvinist (Puritan) teachings of original sin and predestination; others new developments in Christianity in US

• Growing emphasis on democracy + individual influenced politics and arts, but also religion = attracted to services that more participatory, less formal

• Wanted more emotional expressions of beliefs

• Market revolution = worried that industrialization and commercialization → more greed and sin

Revivals - Began among highly educated people who saw themselves as traditional Calvinists v liberal views

• Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College inspired many evangelical preachers

• Audience centered + easily understood

• Opportunity for salvation for all

• Attracted thousands

Charles Grandison Finney - Presbyterian minister that appealed to emotions and fear of damnation

• Everyone could be saved through faith + hard work

• Appealed to rising middle class in uptown and western NY

• “burned-over district” bc of “hell-and-brimstone” revivals

Mormonism - Based on book of Scripture - The Book of Mormon - tracing connection between Natives and lost tribes of Israel

• Joseph Smith founded in NY, moving to OH, MI, then IL where he was murdered

• Brigham Young migrated to UT, named community New Zion

4.11 An Age of Reform

Antebellum Period - Historical reform movements began during Jacksonian era and following decades, before Civil War (1861)

• Diverse mix of reform issues: free schools, mental illness, controlling sale of alcohol, winning equal rights for women, abolishing slavery

• Causes: Puritan sense of mission, Enlightenment belief in human goodness, Jacksonian emphasis on democracy

Temperance - abstaining and/or controlling alcoholic consumption

• Cause of crime, poverty, abuse of women, and other social ills

• Moral exhortation, alcoholism as disease

• German and Irish immigrants opposed temperance movement

• Factory owners + politicians joined movement bc workers output increased

• Politician Neal Dow helped Maine be first state to prohibit manufacture and sale of alcohol

Dorothea Dix & Asylum Movement - Former schoolteacher from MA fought for better treatment of mentally ill

• Mentally ill locked up with criminals in unsanitary cells

• Publicized the awful treatment she saw

• State legislatures built new mental hospitals + mental patients began receiving professional treatment

Horace Mann & Public Education - leading advocate of common (public) school movement

• Compulsory attendance for all children, longer school year, increased teacher prep

• Literacy and moral principals (hard work, punctuality, sobriety)

Cult of Domesticity - View that women were moral leaders in the home, teaching the children values and maintaining household while husband worked for salaries or wages

• Inspired by Republican Motherhood

Grimke Sisters - Sarah and Angelina spoke out against gender discrimination and abolition

Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Campaign for women’s rights

• Led, with Susan B Anthony, first women’s rights convention in US, Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

• Equal voting, legal, and property rights

Seneca Falls Convention - 1848, First women’s rights convention in US

• “Declaration of Sentiments” modeled after Declaration of Independence

• “all men and women are created equal”

American Colonization Society - idea of transporting freed slaves to African colony

• appealed to opponents of slavery and Whites who wanted to remove all free Blacks from US society

• Monrovia, Liberia settlement in 1822

• Only 12k moved to Africa, but slave population grew 2.5 mill

American Antislavery Society - Founded by William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists

• Burned Constitution as a proslavery doc

• “no Union with slaveholders”

William Lloyd Garrison - White radical abolitionist who viewed slavery as sinful

• Began abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator

• Founded American Antislavery Society

• Advocated for immediate abolition

Liberty Party - Split in abolitionist movement due to Garrison’s radicalism, northerners formed Liberty Party

• Bring end of slavery by political and legal means

• Less radical

Black Abolitionists - Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth

• Formerly enslaved people coudl talk about brutality and degradation of slavery from firsthand experience

• FD: started antislavery journal The North Star

4.12 African Americans in the Early Republic

Free African Americans - By 1860, ~500k free African Americans living in US

• North: 250k AA (1% of all Northerners, 50% of all free AA)

  • Maintained family, own land, separate Christian congregations (African Methodist Episcopal Church)

  • Did not have economic or political equality bc racial prejudice

    • Immigrants displaced AAs from jobs

    • No membership in unions

• South: 250k AA

  • Some emancipated during American Revolution, mulattoes freed by White fathers, self-paid through skilled work

  • Could own property; could not vote, danger from being kidnapped by slave traders

  • Stayed in South to be near family, thought of South as home and no advantages in North

Restrained/Passive Resistance - Work slowdowns and equipment sabotage

Runaways - Growth of Underground Railroad + stricter slave laws → more slaves willing to run away

• Difficult for women with children/pregnant

• Militia patrols and hunters who were paid bounty per captured slave

• Severely physically abused when returned to owner

Haitian Revolution - Successful slave revolt in early 1800s in Haiti

• Established independent nation

• Southerners resisted political recognition or diplomatic interactions with Haiti

Gabriel’s Rebellion - Richmond, VA in 1800

• ~1k slaves to rise up against oppressors

• Betrayed and executed before action was taken

Nat Turner’s Rebellion - Southampton County, VA in 1831

• Religious zealot led attack

• Killed >50 White men, women, and children

• Rebels killed and innocent AAs punished

Denmark Vesey - Charleston, SC in 1822

• Free African American led congregants of large African Methodist Church

• Inspired by Bible and recent Missouri Compromise

• Planned to seize ships and sail to freedom (Haiti)

• Hung before action

Slave Codes - As a result of slave rebellions, Southern states tightened slave codes even further

• Demonstrated evils of slavery

• Non-slaveholders became more critical of slavery

4.13 Southern Society in the Early Republic

King Cotton - South’s chief economic activity was the production and sale of cotton

• Eli Whitney’s cotton gin → cotton cloth affordable

• Deep south (GA, SC; then AL, MS, LA, TX)

• High cotton yields depleted soil → demand for new land

• 1850s: cotton was 2/3 of all US exports, esp to Britain

Deep South - GA, SC, AL, MS, LA, TX

• Economy dependent on cotton

• Need for slaves → strict slave codes, esp on movement and education

  • Field laborers, skilled crafts, house servants

• Cost of slaves = Had much less capital than the North to undertake industrialization

Peculiar Institution - Term used in the North after slavery was abolished

• Slavery seen as unique to Southern society

• Freedom and slavery separated by Mason-Dixon line

Southern White Society -

• Hierarchy:

  • Small elite of wealthy farmers had at least 100 slaves and 1k acres, maintaining power by being in state legislatures

  • ¾ White households had no slaves, called “hillbillies” or “poor White trash,” defended slavery bc they also wanted slaves and would always be superior to Black people

  • Mountain people (farmers) isolated from the rest of South, disliked planters and slavery, remained loyal to Union during Civil War

• Culture:

  • Code of Chivalry - strong sense of personal honor, defense of womanhood, paternalistic attitudes

  • Education - upper class valued college education → farming, law, ministry, military. Higher schooling not available for lower class, and none for slaves

  • Religion - Methodist and Baptist taught biblical support for slavery, 1840s split into northern and southern branches; Unitarians challenged slavery, Catholics and Episcopalians neutral, so decline in members

  • Social Reform - antebellum reform movement had little impact in South; Southerners committed to tradition and saw as a threat against southern way of life

Slavery impact on Black culture -

• Slavery was so oppressive that no distinctive Black culture could develop

• AAs did develop and maintain a culture based on family life, tradition, and religion

• People developed long-term relationships, despite obstacles to traditional marriage