Unit 4 SPICE Chart

S

  • Native Americans were increasingly squeezed off their lands through forced removals & treaties, and Thomas Jefferson hoped they would settle in the Louisiana Territory

  • Utopian communities

    • Formed in reaction to economic upheaval and commercialism; based on religious and philosophical beliefs, especially those from the Second Great Awakening

    • Aimed to create an ideal society (utopia)

    • Members had equal share in the community’s wealth (precursor to communism!)

    • Valued arts and culture

    • Established far away from mainstream society

    • Example: Shakers, Mormons, Brook Farm, the Oneida Community

  • Horace Mann, an education reformer, led the movement to establish state-funded “common schools” across America; by 1870, all northern states had public schools (the southern states were slow to adopt them due to opposition towards the education of lower-class people and slaves, and their commitment to religious rather than secular education)

  • Despite most Southerners not owning slaves, the majority of Southerners believed that slavery was a part of their regional lifestyle; thus, they opposed the abolitionist movement

  • Violent slave resistance

    • Poisoning of the slaveholder & his family

    • Maiming work animals or oneself

    • Destroying work tools

    • Infanticide

    • Suicide

    • Revolts (mainly by newly arrived slaves)

  • Nonviolent slave resistance

    • Work slowdowns & stoppages

    • Feigned lack of understanding of tasks

    • Women claiming to have to nurse their infants

    • Escape (e.g., to form maroon communities)

      • Maroon communities were settlements founded by escaped enslaved Blacks throughout the Americas in remote, difficult-to-access areas (e.g., mountains & swamps); examples of maroon communities include the Cockpit Country of Jamaica & Fort Mose in Florida

        • Many maroon communities were inspired by the biblical story of Moses freeing enslaved Israelites from Egypt, praying that Moses would free them from the slave states of the U.S.

    • Education (e.g., learning to read)

  • Transcendentalism

    • An idealistic philosophical & social movement in the 19th century (mainly 1830s)

    • Emphasized individualism, self-reliance, intuition over reason, connection with nature, and the inherent goodness of humanity

    • Based in New England

    • Major figures in this movement included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau

P

  • Thomas Jefferson’s goals as president were to reduce the size of the government, lower taxes, shrink the military, and enable an agrarian utopia; however, his policies often contradicted these very goals (for example, he expanded power in the federal government despite being an Anti-Federalist and Democratic-Republican who campaigned on consolidating power in the states & limiting the power of the federal government)

  • Supreme Court decisions (e.g., Marbury v. Madison) established that they had the right to interpret the meaning of the Constitution and deem laws constitutional or unconstitutional, and asserted that federal laws superceded state laws

  • America, during Jefferson’s presidency, bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleonic France through the Louisiana Exchange, which included land that went from, from south to north, New Orleans to part of modern-day Canada (which was later ceded to the British through the Treaty of 1818)

  • The U.S. claimed the Oregon Territory along with Russia (which controlled Alaska), Spain (which controlled the Viceroyalty of New Spain), and Britain (which controlled Canada)

  • War of 1812

    • “War Hawks” (supported the war) v.s. New Englanders (against it) in Congress

    • James Madison asked Congress to declare war agains the British

    • Britain announced it would repeal its order to seize American ships, but that message didn’t reach U.S. in time to prevent war from being declared

    • America’s goal in the war was to retake their land seized by the British and even take over Canada

    • Most battles were fought in the Great Lakes region, near Canada

    • A large minority of Americans were against the War

    • The U.S. military was ill-equipped to fight, and lost the war

    • Ended under the Treaty of Ghent

      • Signed in August 1814

      • All territories remained in the same hands as before the war

      • U.S. sovereignty is now seen as non-negotiable

      • Tensions between Britain and America dissolve

  • Hartford Convention

    • Federalist New England largely opposed the War of 1812

    • 26 delegates met in secret in Hartford, CT to discuss secession

    • With the war’s end, the Federalists appeared treasonous & subversive

    • Support for Federalists vanished; party soon collapsed

  • The First Seminole War

    • Andrew Jackson ordered to fight the Seminoles & Creeks in GA and Spanish Florida

    • Jackson captured Pensacola

    • Spain ceded Florida in the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819

  • McCulloch v. Maryland

    • Second Bank of the U.S. had a Baltimore branch

    • Maryland voted to tax the bank, but bank head McCulloch refused to pay, causing Maryland to sue the bank

    • The court ruled that banks were allowed to exist, an implied right by the Constitution, and McCulloch did not have to pay the state of Maryland

  • Monroe Doctrine

    • Stated that the U.S. would defend the Western Hemisphere from European interference

    • Mainly invoked in the 20th century

  • Missouri Compromise

    • Question of whether to permit slavery in new states & territories of America

    • No clear way to determine Missouri’s status as a slave or free state

    • Eventually, Missouri was admitted as a slave states and Maine as a free one

    • Set 36°30’ as boundary between slave and free states

  • The Federalist Party collapsed following the War of 1812, and the Democratic-Republican Party split into the next major parties: the Whig Party (Henry Clay, etc.) and the Democratic Party (Andrew Jackson, etc.)

    • The Whig Party formed over a nullification process and the closing of the Second Bank of the U.S. in opposition to Jackson; wanted a stronger Congress, less powerful executive, modernization of the economy, a National Bank, and higher tariffs

  • Andrew Jackson was extremely controversial, praised for expanding universal white male suffrage, encouraging democratic participation, but criticized now for his pro-slavery stance, anti-Native American policy (e.g., Trail of Tears), and aggressive foreign policy.

  • In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention was held in New York state

    • The Declaration of Sentiments was written during the convention

      • Based on Declaration of Independence

      • Called for complete equality of women & men

      • Demanded women’s suffrage

    • Mainly wealthy white women and men who were pro-women’s suffrage attended, and there were only around 300 attendees in total

  • Manifest Destiny

    • Advocates for westward expansion argued that the Manifest Destiny gave America the divine right to the land west of the Mississippi

    • Advocates for westward expansion also believed in the superiority of American institutions, and that by expanding, democratic ideals would spread all the way to the Pacific Ocean

  • The “gag rule” prevented discussion of anti-slavery petitions in Congress

I

  • Jefferson funded the Lewis & Clark expedition to the Louisiana Territory and other Western lands shortly after the Louisiana Purchase; the expedition required the help of Native Americans like Sacagawea and led to an enhanced understanding of the unique flora, fauna, climate, and terrain of all that laid west of the U.S. until the Pacific Ocean

C

  • America saw increased German and Irish immigration

    • The Germans (Protestant) left Germany due to rising land costs, overcrowding, and political upheaval

    • Many Germans settled in the Midwest to farm

    • The Irish (Catholic), however, immigrated to the U.S. due to the potato famine in Ireland

    • Many Irish settled on the East Coast, working industrial jobs

    • There was a lot of prejudice against the Irish by ordinary Americans due to their Catholic beliefs, seeing them anti-American and anti-Protestant

  • Nativism

    • The American Republican Party (“Know Nothings”) had nativist beliefs; they were anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, advocated immigration limits, believed native-born whites should be the only ones able to hold office, and wanted a 21-year wait to naturalize immigrants

    • Generally, the “Know Nothings” favored U.S.-born ethnically Anglo-Saxon men over immigrant groups and minorities

    • The “Know Nothings” movement declined in the 1850s

  • Second Great Awakening

    • A religious revival asserting that people could work toward perfection in themselves and society

    • Bigger religious movement than the First Great Awakening many decades prior

    • Championed abolition, abstinence from alcohol (temperance movement), and prison reform (very pro-human rights)

    • Held popular revival meetings (a form of entertainment at the time for many Americans)

E

  • The Embargo Act of 1807 laid “an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States” during the Napoleonic Wars from abroad; however, the act proved to be very unpopular because it failed to achieve the goal of pressuring Britain and France, and severely harmed the American economy

  • The U.S. expanded its system of canals and railroads, including with the Erie Canal, which was key to Henry Clay’s American System

  • Factories emerged in the Northeast with new machines & tools; British imports decline as a result

  • Lowell, MA

    • A hub for growth of the textile industry

    • “The Lowell System”

      • “Mill girl” workers lived in boardinghouses

      • Company owned everything (even the onsite church!)

      • Company provided leisure & entertainment

      • Spawned the first labor movements advocating for workers’ rights

      • Declined as other cities increased production

  • The Market Revolution (roughly 1815-1860) was period in the 19th century where the economy transitioned from small-scale, self-sufficient production to a commercial system focused on mass production, wage labor, and vast consumer markets, fueled by innovations in transportation (canals, steam engines) and communication (telegraph)

  • The Panic of 1837 was a major economic depression that existed during the Jackson and Van Buren presidencies.

    • It was caused by a land speculation bubble, easy credit, and the withdrawal of gold & silver from the banking system, triggered by President Jackson's policies (e.g., emphasis on “hard” money) and the closing of the Second Bank of the United States

  • Industrial Revolution

    • Spurred technological innovation starting in the late 18th century

    • Industrial growth exploded in the 1830s

    • Mainly occurred in the Northeastern U.S., leading to a move away from agrarianism in the region

    • The textile industry relied on the South’s cotton industry and slavery

  • Socioeconomic tensions between the North and South

    • North:

      • Manufacturing-based economy

      • Benefited from slavery

      • Mainly abolitionist

      • Supported tariffs

      • Favored a strong central government

    • South:

      • Based on cotton production

      • Reliant on slavery

      • Mainly pro-slavery

      • Against tariffs

      • Wanted expanded power and rights for states