LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Explain the context in which sectional conflict emerged from 1844 to 1877.

INTRODUCTION

• The United States extended its territory to the Pacififc Ocean and suffered from rising sectionalism over the issues of expanding slavery

  • Tensions exploded into the civil war

    - permanently expanded the power of the federal government

    - end of slavery—→ “new birth of freedom” (racism remained)

• First half of the 19th century included many advances

  • Political, demographic, economic, and territorial development changed the country

    - right to vote expanded political partcipation

    - new technology & transportation supported the market revolution (altered relationships between people in different regions too)

    - reforms in education and other areas of life improved

    - new expressions of art and literature signified American culture

    - advances were not evenly shared, and challenges over foreign affairs and slavery remained.

GROWTH IN LAND AND POPULATION

• United States expanded westward (Citizens believed it had the destiny to control land to the Pacific Ocean)

  • Country added land through negotiations, purchase, and war

    - largest acquisition came from Mexican war (US established southern border and claimed ports in the Pacific)

  • Rapid expansion—→ new immigrants

    - immigrants left Europe beacause of famine, poverty, and political turmoil

    - people from Ireland, China, and some native-born Americans argued against citizenship for new residents—→ political organizations restricting immigration and citizenship

POLITICAL CONFLICTS OVER SLAVERY

• Expansion and sectionalism intensified differences over politics, economics, and slavery

  • Slaveowners became more insistent on their right to own slaves

    - argued for federal laws to return enslaved people who escaped bondage

  • Abolitionist became more insistent on ending slavery

    - organized “underground railroad” to help fugitives escape

  • Free-soilers argued that the institution should not be allowed into territories

  • Congress passed a series of compromises attempting to settle the issues of whether or not slavery could expand into new territories.

THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

• Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for president (1860)

  • Opposed to slavery, but also immeditate abolition

    - his election frightend slave holders (feared his opposition to the expansion of slavery would lead to the end of it).

• Union victory ended slavery and shifted power to federal gov from states

  • 12 years after civil war (Reconstruction), were marked by conflict

    - period of confrontations between exexcutive and legislative branches and between federal and state govs

    - confrontations shaped how people thought about federalism and separation of powers in gov

RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION

• Country suffered from tremendous racial conflict

  • Freed African Americans worked to establish new lives

    - white-dominated legislatures passed black codes to restrict rights of blacks.

  • Sharecropping emerged as new labor system

    - kept black farmers in conditions less important than slavery had on white farmers

  • White Americans killed thousands of black citizens

    - attempting to maintain racial supremacy

• Civil war preserved union

  • debates over the successes and failures of the Reconstruction continued

    - nation that survived civil war would continue to grow, expand, & industrialize

    - nation would continue to struggle over achieveing equal treatment for all of its people.