Unit 4.2 Heimler Notes

• The rise of political parties

• American foreign policy

• Innovations in technology, agriculture, and business

• Debates about federal power

• The Second Great Awakening

• Reform movements

• The experience of African Americans

Causes of political debates

• The rise of political partie that fiercely opposed one another

• George washigton’s cabinet vexed him about the bitter fighting between thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton

• Hamilton= leading man for the federalist party

  • fought for a powerful central government and favored manufacturing interests

• Jefferson= leadingman for the democratic republican party

  • fought for a limited central government and favored the ideal of agrarianism

  • Agrarianism→ nation of self sustaining farmers, known as yeoman farmers

Election of 1800

• Thomas Jefferson won the vote

• called it the revolution of 1800 since it marked the transfer of power peacefully between rival parties

• Although federalists were removed frompower,they never stopped arguing about bet policies for America

• Significant fights

  • Concerning the powersof the federal governmentand america’s relatioship with European powers

• Democratic republicans→ worked on limiting the power of the federal government

  • Abolishing the whiskey task

    • occured under washington’s administration andbecame the occasion whiskey rebellionin 1794

    • Jefferson argued against tis tax and led the congress to repeal it

    • Jefferson limited the power of te federal government by minimizing the military and reducing the number of federal jobs

  Louisiana Puchase of 1803

  • Jefferson strays from his values and leans more towards federalist action

  • Priorly owned by the french

  • had access to a very important trade route known as the mississippi river

  • French lose war during the Haitian revolution, making frenchaccess tothis land very difficult

  • Jefferson sends James monroe tosecure trading right

    • During negotiations, napolean offers the entirety of the louisiana territory and they agree

  • Conflicts

    • Democratic strict constructionism→ federal governmentcan only do what is in the constitution

      • Constitution did not outline the ability to purchase territory

  • Jefferson justified purchase by stating that this land will give America more opportunities to move American Indians westward while further curtailing european influence in america

• Corps of discovery→ led by merryweather lewis and william clark

  • Lewis and clark explored the northern louisiana territory

  • Southern part explored by zeblon pike

  • led to more accurate mapping, establishment of democrati relationships with Indians who lived there, and greater scientific knowledge of region

Supreme Court

• John Marshall→ Chief justice of the supreme court

  • Done moreto expand federalpower and the power of the court than anyone

• Marbury vs Madison

  • Before federalsts dominated congress passed to democratic republicans, the Judiciary act was passed

  • Judiciary Act→ created 16 new openings for federal judges

    • John Adams→ federalist, spent the last of his administration appointing federalist judges to those seats, known as the midnight judges

      • This meant that federal courts could be dominated by federal judges for a long time

  • Once Madison was appointed secretary of state, he did not deliver those appointments leading to William marbury to argue that he had a right to his comission under the Judiciary act leading to the supreme court involvement

  • John Marshall argued that under the lawMarbury had a right to his commision but marshall stated the the supreme court was the final interpreter of the constitution and had the authority to declare laws unconstitutional, thus the Judiciary act was unconstitutional

• This became known as the Judicial review

  • increased power of the federal supreme court

Mcculloch v maryland

• Argument wether the state had the power to tax a federal bank

  • Marhsall declared that states do not have the power to tax a federal bank

• National Law trumps state lws whenever the two contradicted

  • Another expansion of federal power

Relationship with European powers

• federal government paid tribute to the Barbary states of North Africa in exchange for their protection of US merchant ships traing in that area

  • Jefferson in office led to the tripling of these tributes to which jefferson apposed to make any payments to those states

  • Barbary pirates released to attack US merchant ships

  • Jefferson sends US navy to retaliate

  • fought for years leading to a reduced tribute

War of 1812

• War with britain

• James Madison is now president

• occured due to continued impressment of american citizens into fighting for the british under the claim that they were still british citizens

• and Issues on the frontier

  • Discovered that the british wereaiding natives in their resistance attempts toward american settlers who were expanding west

• War Hawks→ Supported the war in the house of representatives

• federalists opposed this war

  • Hartford convention→ threatened to scede from the union over war disagreenment

• America wins this war leading to an increase in nationalism throughout the states

• Another effect of this war was the demise of the federalist party.

4.3 Heimler notes

explain how different regional interests affected debates about the role of the federal government in the early republic

• National political interets and regional political interests that collided

War of 1812

• National war putting regional interests on display

• federalists fiercely opposed to the war, threatening secession in the New england area but after the victory within the war, many americans opposed the fedealists

• War showed weaknessed within the US

  • Made plan without a national Bank whose charter expired in 1811

    • US lacked a reliable souce of credit to raise funds

  • systems of infrastructure and transportation was weak because it made difficult to move men and supplies during the war

Henry Clay proposd his american system to unify national economy

• federally funded intenal improvements helped farmers

• federal tariffs protecting US manufacturers

• Second bank of the US keeping the economy going with a national currency

Madison and monroe objected to polocies providing for roadsand canals due to regional interests

• argued that federl spending was an overreach of federal power and argued that such spending would disadvantage the south

• 1816→ tariffs and national bank were solidly in place

• regional tensions were exacerbated by westward expansion

  • improved roads that made travel easier and cheaper

  • americans begin settling in the frontier ineven greater numbers

Missouri applied for statehood in the union

• settlers had already brought thousands f enslaved people into the territory

• Assumer that missouriwould enter as a slave state

  • became an issue becausethere was a perfect balance between slave states and free states. 11 free and 11 slave states

    • balance important to the southern states

• House of representatives-nortern states ad majority due to their larger population

  • as long as the balance reamained, southerners could block any legistlation disadvantaging the south

  • decisively tipped the balance of power in favor of south over the north

Talimedge amendment

• proposed by New York Congressman James Tallmadge

• proposed amendment to Missouri’s application for statehood that would effectively ban slavery in the state after 25 years

  • senators were enraged by it because they saw it as an effort that if passed would eventually lead to the dissolution of slavery in all the states

  • they believed that the balance of power in the nation was at stake and they threatened to secede from the union over this issue

Missouri compromise/ compromise of 1820

• Missouri admitted into the union as a slave state

• Maine would also become a state which would be a free state

• established the 36-30 line as the boundry hereafter for slaves and free states

  • any territories above it would enter as free states (missouri being excepted) and any territries below it were eligable to enter as slave states

The panic of 1819

• A financial panic swept acroos the nation

• Many white male property owners lost their land due to the right to vote

• Resulted in widespread bank closures, unemployment, bankruptcies, and increased debt imprisonment.

• Hit the West hardest, where many settlers had taken on debt to buy land.

Reasons for westward expansion

• Acquisition of land

• economic pressures

• improved transportation

• Immigration

4.4 HEIMLER NOTES

How the US government sought to gain more territory and establish a growing influence in the western hemisphere?

• Treaty of Ghent ended the war between US and Britain

  • Left a lot of things unclear in regards to Canada

• James Manroe- president in 1817 and sought to do something about treaty of ghent

• Sent John Quincy Adams to settle lingering territorial claims and ended up negotiating a treaty establishing border between US and Canada along the 49th parallel

  • Established a jin US-British occupation of the disputed oregon territory for next ten years

Southern affairs

• Florida territory belongs to spain

• Spain had difficulty governing this territory due to moving out their troops to stop rebellion in their south American colonies

• Unsupervised territory leads to Indians and runaway slaves and various white folk who lived in Florida crossed the border and raid US territory

  • Manroe put the kibosh on such lawless behavior by sending Andrew Jackson to stop these raids

  • Manroe instructed jackson to not engage with Spanish forces to avoid war

    • Jackson attacks two Spanish forts, executed two seminole chiefs and two British citizens within territory

    • this enraged both Britain and spain but they decided to forget the insult in order to avoid war

    • Spain could see that the US wanted Florida and decided to sell it to the US

Adams-onis treaty- negotiated by John Quincy Adams making that sale official and defined the border between US territory and Spanish holdings in the West

• led to the US wanting to further limit European influence on America

  Countries in South America declared their independence on European countries and Monroe established diplomatic relationships with them.

Monroe Doctorine- Lands and nations in the western hemisphere were the America’s only and europeans held no influence on any American affairs

• officially challenged European powers for control over America

• Trade was a significant factor in this decision

  • Americans established trade with Mexico and new englnd manufacturers who delighted to find a new market for their goods

  • US merchants ships carried goods across the pacific and established a trade in Chinese porcelain and silks

    • increased demands for US goods, led to a revolution in manufacturing known as the Market revolution

4.5 HEIMLER NOTES

Market revolution- the linking of northern industries with western and southern farms which was created by advances in agriculture, industry, and transportation

• marked America’s transition from mainly agrarian society into a capitalist society

Transportation

• National road- Cumberland Road

  • connected Maryland on the east coast to Illinois

  • Huge deal because states often rejected the idea of being responsible for a federal road that passed beyond their orders

• Canals

  • human constructed rivers'

  • Erie Canal constructed in New York in 1825

    • linked western farms with eastern manufacturing and created the occasion for a flurry of canal building throughout the states

• Steamboat

  • created due to canals

  • goods can be delivered and raw materials can be brought back down the river and can power their way right back upstream

  • increased efficiency of trade immensely

• Railroad

  • 1820-1830 largely replaced canals linking regions for trade and manufacture

  • Local and state governments assisted in this expansion by granting special loans and tax breaks to railroad companies and granted them land as well

Industrial Technology

• New patent laws protecting the rights to people’s inventions made the environment ripe for new technology

• Eli Whitney- new technology and interchangeable parts revolutionized the industrial sector

  • applied to the manufacturing of guns

• Factory system- factories could mass produce the discreet parts of any given item with precision and then workers could assemble them to be shipped to regional and more distant markets

  • manufactured goods can be mass-produced by unskilled laborers

  • Samuel Slator illegaly used british system and used it in the US

Communication innovation

• Telegraph - Samuel F.B. Morse

  • transmitted messages along wires almost instantly

  • Wires strung along railroad tracks and under oceans

  • people were able to communicate faster, increasing the spread of news

Agricultural innovation

• Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin

  • sped up the process of separating cotton seeds from cotton fibers thrown into a spinning machine which turned into raw cotton into yarn

  • transformed southern agriculture which could ship way more cotton than was previously possible

• Change in farming methods

  • Early 1800’s- Subsistence farming was the main goal of agriculture

    • farmed enough to feed themselves with barely anything left to sell locally

  • Now- Commercial farming replaced subsistence farming

    • focused on cash crop growth like cotton or tobacco

    • grown exclusively to be traded at local and increasingly distant markets

    • Cotton was important to Southern farmers

      • Southern cotton was in high demand from British textile factories

      • Linked American farms to both American and international industries

Due to increasing innovation in technology, transportation,qq and industry, different regions of America were growing increasingly interconnected economically, and increased economic ties internationally

Rise of capitalism

• New York passed a law that made it easier for a business to incorporate and raise money by selling shares of stocks

• Other states follow

• owners risked what they invested only which encouraged them to invest in industrialization

• Corporations raised large sums of capital necessary for building factories, canals, and railroads

4.6 HEIMLER NOTES

Migration- industrial cities exploded with opportunities and economic growth due to European immigrants, Irish and german folks, expanding the US population

• Irish immigrated due to the Irish potato famine

• German due to being displaced farmers whose crop failure invited them to look for other economic opportunities

• others due to revolutions and wars occuring in Europe

• Most immigrants worked in the industrial sector

Immigrants were underpaid and treated terribly which allowed the industry to expand greatly

immigrants changed urban landscapes where they settled, often crowded into poorly ventilated, high capacity building units, they brought their culture with them

• Jews established synagogues

• Catholics established churches and convents

• Others moved West of the Appalachians and developed new communities along Ohio and Mississippi River

Nativist- american citizens created stereotypes about immigrants because they were unhappy about them settling in their land

• Jews were portrayed as moneylenders

• Catholics were accused of being agents of the pope sent to overturn American culture

Middle class- Included folks like businessmen and shopkeepers and journalists and doctors, etc

• Developed a culture in which education was valued and moderation in alcohol consumption

• Protestants were famous due to their despise of cathlocism

• Cult of domesticity- a women´s identity is to have babies and raise a household adhering to their husband

  • common in wealthy classes and middle classes

  • Laboring women did not participate as they needed to also work

Laboring women- minimum wages and terrible treatment + constant supervisation from bosses and easily replaceable

• Lowell factory system was an example of this- bosses effectively controlled every aspect of their lives including what they did in their leisure time

4.7 Heimler notes

How the democratic process expanded to be more inclusive?

Causes of expansion

• Farmers and working men demanded the franchise

  • Franchise- the right to vote

    • connected with property

• Panic of 1819

  • Second bank tightens policies in order to control inflation

    • led to many state banks to close

  • Decrease in demand for explored American goods

  • People in prison due to debt

  • Due to this laboring men in the West wanted to hold the politicians accountable but because they didn’t own land, they couldn’t vote leading to reform

• Eastern and Western states partner up to lower or eliminate property qualifications for voting

  • Increase in voters leads to significant growth and realignment in political parties occurred

• Realignment

  • Democratic republican party fragments into factions: democratic and national republican

  • National republican

    • expansive view of federal power

    • loose constructionism

  • Democratic

    • limited federal power

    • strict constructionism

Election of 1824

• Unable to agree on presidential candidates due to fragmentation in the democratic-republican party

• Four candidates: John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, Andrew Jackson

• Jackson and Adams are the strongest contenders

• Jackson won the popular vote but no one won the electoral vote so the House of Representatives so Clay threw his support to Adams to get him elected.

• Adams becomes president and establishes Henry Clay as the Secretary of State making Jackson furious

• Corrupt Bargain- Jackson and his followers claimed it was a corrupt bargain although this was the product of the fragmentation of the Democratic republican and their indecision

• The election of 1828 is when the factions officially split apart and formed their own formal political parties

4.8 Heimler Notes

Separation of powers into democrats and Whigs

Democrats- led by Andrew Jackson

• drew values from democratic republicans in the image of Thomas Jefferson

• Favored

  • limited power in the federal government

  • free trade

  • local rule

• Against

  • corporate monopolies

  • high tariffs

Whigs- led by Henry Clay

• drew value from federalists under Hamilton

• Favored

  • Vigorous and involved central government

  • National Banks

  • Protective tariffs

  • federally funded internal improvements

• Against

  • Crimes committed by immigrants

Two parties argued over the role of federal power

• role of federal of tariffs, national banks and internal improvements

Protective tariff - raises prices on foreign-made goods so that domestic goods are more desired and protected

Tariff of 1828

• Passed under John Quincy Adams

• Raised duties on imports by 35-45 percent

• Negatively impacted the Southern economy

• Andrew Jackson is elected president

  • Vice President John C. Calhoun hated the tariff and the rest of the South and called it the tariff of abomination

  • Calhoun develops the doctrine of nullification

• Doctrine of Nullification

  • if a state judged a federal law to be unconstitutional, then that state can pretend like it doesn’t exist

    • Jackson was not happy and persuaded Congress to pass Force bill

• Force Bill

  • Authority to respond to South Carolina’s insolence with military action

  • led to Calhoun and supporters to back off their threat to scede from union if the tariff could be reduced and it was

  • Nullified later on

National Bank

• The second bank of US established and stabilized the economy

• State banks closed their doors because they were unable to make payments to national banks leaving a bunch of average citizens with worthless paper money

• Jackson believed that the bank was unconstitutional and that it helped the wealthy and harmed the poor

• Henry Clay persuaded Congress to pass a bill recharting the bank and when the bill reached the desk for Andrew Jackson to sign into law, he vetoed it

  • Hydra of corruption

• Jackson is reelected

Internal improvements

• Henry Clay’s American system was under the federal system dividing those in rival political camps

• Whigs thought it was necessary to keep the nation connected

• Jacksonian sensibilities stated this was federal overreach and that this was unconstitutional

Indian Removal Act

• Under Jackson’s presidency

• The Cherokee Nation in Georgia declared itself a sovereign nation within the bounds of state but Georgia government saw the Cherokees as guests

• Gold discovered in those lands leading to their removal

• all natives relocated west of the Mississippi River in Oklahoma Territory

• Cherokee challenged the constitutionality of this removal in Supreme Court

  • Worcester v georgia

  • Supreme Court side with natives because their land enjoyed federal protection and could not be affected by state laws

• Treaty of New Echota

  • officials exchanged territory in east reservation territory west of Mississippi

  • Traveled along the trail of tears- due to great sickness and dying in this journey

  • Some resisted violently or hid and eventually settled in a reservation in the western portion of North Carolina and became known as the eastern band of the Cherokee Indians

    • eventually became citizens of North Carolina and later the US

4.9 Heimler notes

The beginning of accumulating a distinct US culture without the influence of European countries

Enlightenment thinking paved the way for feeling and thought leading to Romanticism

This goes on to create a Second great awakening and social reforms

How this was expressed in literature, art, architecture, and philosophy?

Architecture

• During colonial period, architecture was built after British Georgian style

  • Restrained and symmetrical

• Current Period= transition to a more Greek and Roman revival architecture

  • Capital building in Washington DC with arches and domes

Literature

• Early 1800’s, Sir Walter Scott was a popular British novelist in America

  • heroic and historical character epitomized the romanticism feeling

• 1820=American authors took those elements and mixed them with American sensibilities

  • James Fenimore Cooper book- the last of the Mohecan’s romanticized the opportunity and danger of mysterious western lands of America

  • Washington Irving- Rip Van winkle and the legend of sleepy hollow recast America’s landscape and people into a world of fantasy

  • Noah Webster- Published American dictionary 1828

    • Used in an extended network of schools and academics and had the effect of standardizing spelling and pronunciation of American English

Art

• Hudson River School- used canvases to portray dramatic renditions of American landscapes

  • Devoted paintings to untouched land in America

  • Included hints of the encroachment of civilization that they believed had arrived to spoil it

  • As painters channeled the romanticism of this age, they emphasized sentiment and emotion at the expense of accuracy

Philosophy

• Transcendentalism- deeply rooted in romantic view of transcendent power and beauty of nature

  • Emphasized the belief in human predictability

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson- writing emphasized individualism and self- reliance

  • Henry David Thoreau- tested beliefs by living in a cabin in the woods by a pond for two years

    • aimed to live as simply as possible and used his thought on nature to understand life and the universe and if human perfection was attainable

    • Famous book Walden

• Utopian Communities- movement of people from society and creating these communities

  • Shakers- christian group establishing community in Kentucky

    • held property in common

    • Disliked men and women enjoying conjugal union

    • Due to this they died out due to lack of repopulation

  • Oneida Community- dedicated to perfect equality socially and with respect to property which they held in common

    • Equality spread to Marriage and parenting, everybody was everybody spouse and every kid was everybody’s kid which stirred a lot of controversy outside community

    • Created silverware which sustained them financially

4.10 Heimler Notes

Second Great Awakening- series of religious revivals Amon Protestant Christians that emphasized righteous living, personal restraint, and a strong moral rectitude that would lead a person and society to salvation

• Spread rapidly through Methodists and Baptists who organized camp meeting

  • multiple preachers spoke with great emotion day in and day out

Causes

• Market revolution- messages were similar to second great awakening

  • Individuals learned that economic success or failure was largely in their own hands

  • This message was preached in the 2nd Great Awakening

    • Preachers told sinners that salvation was in their hands, reform your life, do justice, control your impulses and you would receive everlasting bliss

    • Different from the first great awakening preaching Calvinism- Salvation was in the hands of god alone and there was nothing you could do to change that - John Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards

• Rising tide of democratic and individualistic beliefs

  • Now there was a greater desire for participation in America’s democratic process especially in lower classes who owned no land

  • This applied to their spiritual desire

  • Second Great Awakening was directed to lower classes

    • Camp meetings were mostly egalitarian including whites, blacks, and enslaved/ free men and women all as equal members of the movement

• Rejection of rationalism in favor of Romanticism

  • Romanticism championed emotional reality over against rational reality

  • People preferred following their feelings and not their mind

  • During 1st great awakening, preaching was highly philosophical and structured meaning it appealed to the thought

  • However in 2nd great awakening, Charles Grandson Finneys introduced a new kind of preaching less cerebral and God centered. Appealed to emotion and to awaken emotion with his listeners. Less philosophical, more audience centered sermons and used plain language and metaphors that common folk could understand

  • Preaching was moral in nature = emphasized moral reformassion of society and not personal salvation

  • Other preachers did the same and it spread rapidly throughout the nation

• People converting to Christian program of social reform, leading to reforms like the temperance movement and ignited new forms of Christianity such as Mormonism

4.11 Notes

How and why did various reform movements develop and expand from 1800 to 1848

• occasioned by cultural and economic shifts resulting from the Market Revolution

• The market revolution created the idea in many Americans minds that economic improvement was largely in their hands by virtue of hard work and industry

• The movement of expanding democracy sweeping the nation, increasing amounts of people felt that they had agency in the affairs of their nation

  • These notions were applied to social reform

Religious reform, temperance, abolitionism, and women’s rights

Religious reform movements

• Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints (Mormons)- sought to reform Christianity

  • The founder of Mormonism was Joseph Smith who began receiving revelations from god in New York

  • instructed in visions to dig up gold plates + with the help of a seer stone to translate tablets

  • Summary of tablets: The Church of Jesus Christ had strayed from the true teachings and witness of Christ, and Joseph Smith was God’s appointed prophet to bring the church back into its true form

  • Wrote visions in the Book of Mormon

    • Preached in New York and gathered devotees

  • He began receiving subsequent visions and instructions from god commanding polygamy- marriage to multiple partners

    • This led to his arrest and lynched the prophet

• The second prophet of the church, Brigham Young, took up leadership of the Mormons and led them to migrate yet again to Utah

  • hoped to be far enough into the frontier to avoid any further anti-mormon sentiment

Temperance- avoidance of alcoholic beverages

• The average consumption of alcohol was five gallons of liquor per person which is a lot of liquor

• Induced by the second great awakening, began as a movement in the protestant church

• Moral exhortation to cure social ills by abandoning alcohol

• American Temperance Society was founded in 1826 by an association of clergy and businessmen

  • directed most of their efforts at working-class men who drank more than anyone

  • Due to the moral influence of the Second Great Awakening over 5000 chapters of the American Temperance Society were established across the country

• This movement eventually found supporters in the hall of power and that is when factory owners and politicians started enacting measures to crack down on drinking

  • Good proposal to them since reformers claimed that temperance could increase productivity and reduce crime

  • Irish and German immigrants rejected the movement but didn’t have enough political influence to do anything about it

Abolitionism- movement to bring the end of slavery

• A spectrum of those who wanted a gradual end to the institution all the way to those who wanted to end slavery immediately, no matter the cost to slave owners

• Second great awakening had a great role in influencing this, convincing people that slavery was a sinful institution and this made compromise difficult

• Main voices were William Lloyd Garrison- who published an abolitionist newspaper called the liberator

  • argued white folks needed to take a stand against slavery by means of moral persuasion, not violence

• Garrison established the American Anti-slavery Society which spread rapidly across rapidly across the North.

  • Garrison argued for persuasive means of ending slavery

  • Believed slavery had to come to an immediate end and publically burn the Constitution, claiming it was a pro-slavery document

• Another sections was composed of free blacks and escaped slaves

  • Fredrick Douglass

    • an escaped slave who taught himself to read and write after his master forbade such education

    • after escaping to the north, he found way under Garrison’s influence but broke away eventually to establish is own movement

    • Published “The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass

    • emphasized the dehumanization that occurred not only in the person who was enslaved, but also dehumanization that occurred in the slave holder in order to perpetuate the institution

Women’s right moment

• Grew alongside the ablation movement

• Many women were members of the Amercan Anti-slavery society which made them frustrated because their status as women did not allow them to advocate for abolitionism

• Under Cult of domesticity, moral reformation of society was man’s work, not a women

• Women decided that if they were going to advocate the way they wanted to, they needed more rights for themselves

• Seneca Falls Convention 1848

  • called to address women’s rights in American society and was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

  • drafted a document codifying their desires known as the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions- cast in the form of the Declaration of Independence- all men and women are created equal

  • women refused to give up on their rights

4.12 Notes

Lives and resistance of African Americans in the early republic

• In the midst of the dehumanization of slavery, enslaved people created a social identity and a rich culture that belonged to them despite the harsh conditions

Culture

• Enslaved people claimed their names for themselves

  • Plantation owners tried to change their names but enslaved people continued to address each other by their African names as a way to sustain the memory of their culture and communal heritage

• Preserved West African and Caribbean Lnaguages when they were amongst themselves

• Preserved culture through telling folk tales, music and dance belonging to them apart from their slave owners

• Cultures spread throughout the South as enslaved people from different plantations interacted with one another during cotton market visits, or through a secret marriage

• Maintained their own and syncretized versions of their religions

  • Muslim Africans who continued to pray and perform demanded rituals, even if they were also required to attend protestant churches on Sunday

  • others embraced Christianity because of powerful black preachers who combined culturally African and American elements into their services like drums and dancing

• Despite dehumanization by slavery, they resisted slavery in subtle ways and outright rebelled

Rebellions

• slave owners greatest fears

• Haitain rebellion- ended in 1804 in which the enslaved population rose and killed much of the white population and established a government of their own

  • Led to white plantation owners to go to extraordinary lengths to suppress unique cultural expression developed by their enslaved workforce

• Nat Turner’s Rebellion- organized slave reolt in Virginia led by enslaved worker named Nat turner

  • spiritual man who believed that God had chosen him for a mission

  • Turner and followers began killing their masters in Southampton county and then headed to other plantations to do the same

  • killed 57 white people and the next day Virginia Milita squashed the rebellion and hanged him and his helpers

  • Virginia planters panicked and unleashed terror on 200 of their enslaved workers, beating them and killing many

• Mutiny on Spanish slave ship Amistad 1839- packed with enslaved people being transported from west Africa for sale in the west indies

  • A cook jokes about cooking the slaves, a man unshackled himself and helped the others to get free and killed the cook and ship’s captain

  • Africans were incarcerated and awaited trial

  • US v Amistad- enslaved Africans were represented by John Quincy Adams

  • Court decides in favor of rebels and sets them free

  • lives of enslaved blacks became difficult as white owners sought to gain a stricter measure of control over them

• 1820-1840- most southern legislatures made it illegal to free a slave

  • deemed crimes to teach them to read and write + outlawed marriages between enslaved people and any access they had to courts was handed down

  • Southerners stated that slaves were not simply slaves but more like farm animals and therefore, they benefited from slavery

    • Proclamations became harder to justify as rebellions and time went on