AP US History Unit 6 Content Outline

• Slavery causes major sectionalism in the USA

• Cotton Gin gives slavery new life

• Southern “apologists” argued slaves were better off than northern factory workers

• Slave codes restricted slaves

• Some tried to run away – Harriet Tubman & Underground Railroad, etc.

• Some tried to rebel

• Stono River

• Denmark Vessey

• Nat Turner

• Abolition becomes a dominant reform movement

• William Lloyd Garrison publishes the very radical Liberator

• Frederick Douglass was more moderate and published the North Star

• Other abolitionists included the Grimkes, Tappans, Hinton Helper, 

   Beechers

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• Manifest Destiny:  the God-given right to expand sea-to-sea

• Why?

• Jacksonian democracy:  land for all people

• market economy & increased transportation networks

• Nationalism

• Texas 

• Mexico declares independent from Spain and wants settlers for its lands

• Attracts Stephen Austin and thousands of American settlers, many bring slaves

• Mexico outlaws slavery

• Texans declare their independence from Mexico  

• Under Santa Anna Mexico attacks and defeats Texans at Alamo in 1836

• With more American volunteers, Republic of Texas wins under Sam Houston

• Finally annexed by Polk & the US in 1845 to balance free-territory Oregon

• Webster-Ashburton Treaty 1842

• Rising tensions along US-Canada border leads to Lumberjack War 1838-1839

• Treaty signed between US and England divides land along border

• Election of 1844

• James Polk (Democrat, pro-expansion) against Henry Clay (Whig)

• Polk wins, fulfills expansion promises

• Annex Texas

• “54-40 or Fight!“ – lumberjacks, trappers want north border of Oregon

• Settled on 49 degree line to avoid war with England because he

  realized he couldn’t fight two wars at once

• Triggers war with Mexico to gain CA, NM, AZ

• Mexican War 1846-1848

• Causes

• Mexico refuses to honor US annexation of Texas

• Polk offers $30 million for  California and New Mexico/Arizona

• Mexico refuses so he orders troops to the border

• War Begins

• US divided when Wilmot Proviso (ban slavery in new lands) defeated in Senate

• Free Soil political party organized to oppose spread of slavery

• US wins hard-fought war under Generals Taylor and Scott

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo grants US AZ, NM, CA, NV, UT for $18 million

• Gadsden Purchase in 1853 for railroad land

• Ostend Manifesto in 1854 to acquire Cuba fails

• Gold Discovered in California in 1848

• Thousands head west, opening up new trails and lands for settlers

• Mormons make money selling supplies & American Indians lose land

• 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry opens up Japan for trade

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• Country tries to stay together through Compromises (often by Henry Clay)

• Constitution: 3/5ths Compromise

• Missouri Compromise

• Compromise of 1850: CA free, Popular Sovereignty, Fugitive Slave Law

• Election of Pierce as President because he was a moderate

• Kansas-Nebraska Act allows Popular Sovereignty

•  Leads to “Bleeding Kansas” mini Civil War

•  John Brown & family, militant abolitionists 

• Whigs and Free Soilers form new (modern) Republican Party

• Push for ending end of slavery & American System ideas to unite

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• Growing Sectionalism

• Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision

• John Brown’s failed Harper’s Ferry Raid

• Scares slaveowners and prompts them to arm themselves

•  __Uncle Tom’s Cabin__ by Harriet Beecher Stowe is national best-seller

•  Senator Sumner attacked in the US Senate

• Lincoln-Douglas Debates over future of slavery

•  The Republican Party – organized to stop the spread of slavery

•  Abraham Lincoln