Era of Reforms Antebellum Society Period 45 AP
Era of Reforms Antebellum Society Period 4/5 AP United States History
Regional Specialization ► NORTH ► ► ► WEST ► ► ► Industrialization Urbanization Immigration Reform Movements Nation’s Breadbasket Fur traders Cattle ranching Mining SOUTH § § § King Cotton Plantation system Upper South Deep South Peculiar Institution
The South King Cotton Year Exported Cotton $ Export Value (lbs) % of Exports 1800 17, 789, 803 $5, 000 7% 1810 93, 261, 462 $15, 108, 000 22% 1820 127, 860, 152 $22, 308, 667 32% 1830 298, 459, 102 $29, 674, 883 41% 1840 743, 941, 061 $63, 870, 307 51% 1850 635, 381, 604 $71, 984, 616 49% 1860 1, 767, 686, 338 $191, 806, 555 57%
The South White Society ► Planter Class § 20 or more slaves § 0. 6% of Southern population ► Small Slave owners § 88% of slave owners; strived to be Planters § Usually worked in fields with slaves ► Professionals § Lawyers, doctors, clergy, writers § Depended on planter class ► Yeoman Farmers § Backbone of Southern society § Independent, self-sufficient, local commercial market ► Poor Whites § § § 10% of population Pine barrens, pastoral farming Perceived as lazy and uneducated
Slave Life
Slave Population of the South (1860) ► South Carolina - 57% ► Mississippi - 55% ► Louisiana - 47% ► Alabama - 45% ► Florida - 45% ► Georgia - 44% ► North Carolina - 33% ► Virginia - 31% ► Texas - 30% ► Arkansas - 26% ► Tennessee - 25% ► Kentucky - 20% ► Maryland - 13% ► Missouri - 10% ► Delaware - 1. 5%
Abolitionism and Antislavery Reforms § Slavery considered a sin (religious) and a violation of natural rights (ideological) § American Colonization Society (1816) ► Founded by Quakers, abolitionists, former Upper South slave owners, Henry Clay, James Monroe ► Colony in Liberia (1821 -1822) § William Lloyd Garrison and the American Antislavery Society (18331870) ► The Liberator ► Absolute emancipation with no compensation for owners ► Pacifism and women’s rights endorsement loses support § Frederick Douglass ► Former slave who promoted political and direct actions ► The North Star
Slave Revolts § Nat Turner Inspired by rhetoric for direct action and resistance ► Revolt in Virginia in 1831 led to 55 white deaths ► Whites retaliated with brutality and quashed anti-slavery discussions in the South ► § La Amistad Case (1839 -1941) African slaves rebel on Spanish ship John Q. Adams argues their case to Supreme Court and helps earn their freedom ► Inspires abolitionism in northern states ► ►
Free and Slave States (1789 -1861)
Cult of Domesticity ► Separate Spheres ► “Cult of True Womanhood” ► Public sphere – men ► Private sphere – women; their “proper sphere” § § Piety Purity Submissiveness Domesticity
Women’s Rights Movement ► Letter on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes Sarah Grimke, 1837 § Genders are equal in standing § Men have kept women in inferior positions § Women capable of same skills as men ► Seneca Falls Convention (1848) § Declaration of Sentiments § Led to rise of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Seneca Falls Declaration ► ► ► ► “We hold these truth to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal… ” “…establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. ” “He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise…thereby leaving her without representation…he has oppressed her on all sides. ” “He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men – both natives and foreigners. ” “He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. ” “He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns. ” “He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband…compelled to promise obedience…he becoming to all intents and purposes, her master… ” “He has monopolized nearly all profitable employments…[as] a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known. ” “He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education… ” “He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry…” “He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women…” “He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life. ” “Resolved, That the speedy success of our cause upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for the securing to women an equal participation with men in various trades, professions, and commerce. ” “Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means… ”
Immigration ► Irish ► Germans ► ► Mexican-American War by 1849 California Gold Rush 1849 -1850 Democratic Party Nativists ► Irish Potato Famine (1840 s) ► Mostly settled in northeastern urban centers ► Mostly settled in northern states west of the Appalachians § Anti-immigrants, anti-Catholic § Know-Nothing Party
Antebellum Expansion
Fundamental Questions ► American expansionism became a cause of sectional tension and conflict. ► The national political system may have contributed to the cause of the Civil War.
Manifest Destiny ► Believed it was our God-given right to expand from coast to coast ► “Away, away with these cobweb tissues of the rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, … [The American claim] is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty…” - John L. Sullivan, Democratic Review, 1845
American Progress
Overland Trails
Result of Manifest Destiny
Texas Revolution ► American settlement § Fueled by Manifest Destiny § Encouraged by Mexican government ► Texas Revolution (1836) § Santa Anna’s policies § The Alamo (Feb-Mar 1836) § Battle of San Jacinto (Apr 21, 1836)
Taney Court ► Chief Justice Roger Taney § Appointed by Andrew Jackson § Slave owner ► Ideology § States’ rights § Limited government ► Major Cases § Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837) § Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Election of 1840 ► William Henry Harrison (W) § § ► “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Martin Van Buren (D) § Suffers from Panic of 1837
Sectionalist Presidents William Henry Harrison (W) (1841) ► Campaign § A war hero and hero of the common man ► Reality § Wealthy plantation and slave owner ► Administration § Intended to re-establish and promote American System policies § Lasts one month after contracting pneumonia § John Tyler assumes presidency
Sectionalist Presidents John Tyler (W) (1841 -1845) ► “His Accidency” § Assumes full presidential powers ► A Democrat in Whig Clothing § Slave owner from Virginia § Rejects American System policies § Passionately pursues Texas annexation ► Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) § Settles boundary disputes with Great Britain
Election of 1844 ► James K. Polk (D) § Darkhorse candidate § Expansion platform ► Henry Clay (W) § Avoided direct expansionist rhetoric
Sectionalist Presidents James K. Polk (D) (1845 -1849) Jacksonian Democrat, slave owner, and ardent expansionist ► Agenda ► § § ► Independent national treasury Lower tariffs Oregon California Oregon § “ 54’ 40 or Fight!” § 49 th Parallel ► Mexican-American War (1848) § Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo § Mexican Cession
Oregon Country
Mexican-American War (1846 -1848) ► Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) § Rio Grande as Texas border § Mexican Cession ► $15 million and assumption of claims against Mexico ► Wilmot Proviso § Prohibit slavery in Mexican Cession lands § Failed to pass Senate
Election of 1848 ► Zachary Taylor (W) § Slave owner § War hero Lewis Cass (D) ► Martin van Buren (FSP) ►
California Gold Rush ► ► ► Massive migration to California Forty-Niners San Francisco § 5, 000 in 1848 § 25, 000 in 1850
Compromise of 1850 ► Parameters § Admit California as free state § Mexican Cession ► Popular sovereignty § Reinforced Fugitive Slave Law § Texas boundary and debt disputes § Slave trade abolished in D. C. ► “I trust we shall persist in our resistance [to the admission of California] until the restoration of all our rights, or disunion, one or the other is the consequence. We have borne the wrongs and insults of the North long enough. ” - John C. Calhoun
Fugitive Slave Law ► Enforcement of capturing and returning escaped slaves ► Slaves flee to Canada ► Right to trial by jury denied ► Special Commission § $10 for those finding for slaveholder § $5 for those finding for fugitive
Underground Railroad ► Mostly run by free blacks and fugitive slaves § Harriet Tubman ► Abolitionists and white supporters § Few white families in South assisted § Slave catchers knowledge
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) ► Harriet Beacher Stowe ► Bestselling novel ► Fuels abolitionist guilt and rhetoric in Northern free states
Slavery and Literature Anti-Slavery Arguments ► Uncle Tom’s Cabin § Harriet Beecher Stowe § Moral and emotional argument against slavery Pro-Slavery Arguments ► Sociology for the South (1854) § George Fitzhugh § Capitalism and liberalism virtually enslaved the lower classes ► Cannibals All! (1857) § George Fitzhugh § "the unrestricted exploitation of so-called free society is more oppressive to the laborer than domestic slavery. "
Sectionalist Presidents Zachary Taylor (W) (1849 -1850) War hero of Mexican-American War ► States’ rights, but no secession ► Views on Slavery ► § Slave owner § No expansion of slavery § Refused to sign Compromise of 1850 ► Died after a year in office
Sectionalist Presidents Millard Fillmore (W) (1850 -1853) Assumes the presidency after Taylor’s death ► Anti-slave moderate ► Signs Compromise of 1850 ► Perry Expedition to Japan (1853 -1854) ►
The Death of Compromising? ► The Great Triumvirate was no more by 1852 ► A new generation of sectional and ambitious politicians assume leadership roles William Seward (W, R) Stephen Douglas (D) Jefferson Davis (D)
Election of 1852 ► Franklin Pierce (D) § “Doughface” ► Winfield Scott (W)
Sectionalist Presidents Franklin Pierce (D) (1853 -1857) Jackson Democrat from New Hampshire ► Doughface (Northerners who favored the Southern position in political disputes) § Supported Compromise of 1850 § Gadsden Purchase § Ostend Manifesto (1854) § Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) ►
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) Stephen Douglas and Chicago ► Parameters ► § Separate Nebraska Territory into Nebraska and Kansas § Each territory voted for slavery based on popular sovereignty ► Impact § Douglas won his railroad and Southern support § Virtually repealed the Missouri Compromise § Ended the Whig Party and Second Party System
Bleeding Kansas (1854 -1861) ► Kansas Territory settled by two groups § Free-Soilers § Border Ruffians A virtual civil war between anti-slave and pro-slave local governments ► Pierce and federal government barely addressed the issue ► A Tragic Prelude, John Steuart Curry, 1937
Brooks-Sumner Incident May 22, 1856 ► Senator Charles Sumner (R) (MA) § ► ‘Crime Against Kansas’ Speech Rep. Preston Brooks (D) (SC) § Becomes a Southern hero
The Republican Party ► Makeup § Disillusioned Northern Democrats § Frustrated Conscience Whigs § Free Soil Party members ► Platform: § Increasingly against expansion of slavery § Protective tariffs § Homestead Act/sale of federal lands § Funding for transcontinental railroad
Scott v. Sandford (1857) Pro-slave Chief Justice Roger B. Taney rules that Africans are not citizens and can’t sue ► Slaves have no rights (merely property) ► Congress cannot prohibit slavery in territories (thus the Missouri Compromise was determined to be unconstitutional) ► Decision inflamed abolitionists and many Northerners, while lifting the hopes of pro-slavery forces ► Tensions increase even more ► [14 th Amendment (1868) declares blacks to be citizens, thus overcoming Dred Scott] ►
Election of 1856 ► James Buchanan (D) § “Doughface” ► John Fremont (R) § Election results establish Republican Party as legitimate national party ► Millard Fillmore (KNP)
Sectionalist Presidents James Buchanan (D) (1857 -1861) ► “Doughface” § Supported Kansas. Nebraska Act § Involved himself in Dred Scott decision
Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) ► Freeport Doctrine § Dred Scott decision and popular sovereignty ► “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. ”
John Brown and Harpers Ferry (1859) ► "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done. "
Election of 1860 ► ► Abraham Lincoln (R) Stephen Douglas (D) § Northern Democrats § Southern Democrats § Coalition of Cotton Whigs and Know-Nothing John Breckinridge (D) John Bell (CU)
Union vs. Confederacy
Free and Slave States (1789 -1861)
- Slides: 52