US History - Unit 2

Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801.

Jefferson's administration brought reductions in debt, the military, and the size of the federal government.

Chief Justice John Marshall and the Supreme Court asserted the right of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison.

Jefferson authorized the $15 million Louisiana Purchase, doubling the nation in size and expanding federal power.

Social problems in American society in the early 1800s included urbanization, immigration, illiteracy, and slavery.

Prompted by their religious beliefs, including a belief in the perfectibility of society and the individual, Quakers, Unitarians, evangelical Protestants, and other religious groups attempted to find practical solutions to growing social problems.

Dreams of creating perfect communities led to the formation of utopian societies; these communities failed for a variety of reasons.

Temperance reformers advocated temperate (moderate) consumption of alcohol and later a complete ban on alcohol.

Education reform was led by Horace Mann, who established the first public teacher-training schools in the country, and Emma Willard, who took up the fight for women's education. Dorothea Dix led the way for reform for prisoners and the mentally ill.

The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state, provided popular sovereignty for two territories, passed a Fugitive Slave Act, and abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act destroyed the Missouri Compromise and resulting in "Bleeding Kansas."

Northern anti-slavery coalitions formed the Republican Party in the North while Southern pro-slavery forces coalesced around the Democratic Party.

The Dred Scott decision denied slaves citizenship rights, declared they were property, and overturned both popular sovereignty and any remaining elements of the Missouri Compromise.

The Illinois senatorial contest in 1858 brought Abraham Lincoln into national prominence.

John Brown became a martyr for abolition with his raid on Harpers Ferry and subsequent hanging.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth president of the United States.

South Carolina seceded and six other states followed suit and formed the Confederate States of America. Four more states seceded by the spring of 1861.
At the end of the Civil War, the South was devastated, both physically and economically.

Emancipated slaves seized Reconstruction as an opportunity to claim many rights that had been denied them, including the right to travel, to educate themselves, and to form their own churches.

During the period of "Presidential Reconstruction," newly constituted state legislatures in the South passed Black Codes to restrict the freedoms and rights of former slaves.

The Reconstruction Amendments abolished slavery and granted blacks citizenship and the right to vote.

Former Confederate states held constitutional conventions and created new state legislatures. New state constitutions guaranteed the political and civil rights of blacks.

Southern African Americans began voting in large numbers and running for, and holding, public office.

Racist whites across the South formed paramilitary groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, to terrorize blacks into submission.

Most black farmers became sharecroppers and fell deeper into debt.

In response to charges of vote fraud and voter intimidation, Republicans ended their support for southern Reconstruction.