CED Unit Five
5.2 Explain the causes and effects of westward expansion from 1844 to 1877
5.3 Explain the causes and effects of the Mexican-American War
5.4 Explain the similarities and differences in how regional attitudes affected federal
policy in the period after the Mexican-American War.
5.5 Explain the effects of immigration from various parts of the world on American
culture from 1844 to 1877
Explain how regional differences related to slavery caused tension in the
Years leading up to the Civil War
5.6 Explain the political causes of the Civil War
5.7 Describe the effects of Lincoln’s election
5.8 Explain the various factors that contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War
5.9 Explain how Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War impacted American ideals over the course of the war
5.10 Explain the effects of government policy during Reconstruction on society from
1865 to 1877
5.11 Explain how and why Reconstruction resulted in continuity and change in
regional and national change in regional and national understandings of what
it meant to be an American
Context: Unit Five
The main context for unit five is the increasing sectionalism that dominated America. After the first Industrial Revolution and Market Revolution, as well as the development of farming equipment, the West, North and South each had different regional needs and political leanings. The invention of the cotton gin greatly expanded how much of the South became dominated by King Cotton, as well as their utter dependence on enslaved persons to grow and harvest cotton. Interchangeable parts let to a great increase in industry and factories throughout the North. The West grew grain crops, aided by the development of McCormick’s reaper and other implements. The increase in funding in infrastructure, from turnpikes, roads, canals and railroads helped connect the West to the Eastern markets. This connection allowed those who pushed the frontier further and further towards the Pacific Ocean to both be able to buy goods they needed, as well as sell goods on the market.
Slavery, more than any other issue, caused the ever increasing sectionalism in America during the 19th century to demand creative compromise solutions to avoid violence. A political tightrope Congress walked the first half of the 19th century was to maintain an equal balance of free and slave states, so that there would be equal numbers in the Senate of those who supported and those that opposed, the expansion of slavery into new territories and states. Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser from Kentucky, and a self-identified Westerner who was never able to win the presidency, kept the union together through his Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850.
Slavery, changing working conditions, shifting family dynamics to the rise of the Market Revolution and an ever increasing population, both from natural increase as well as from immigration, led a massive religious and reform based response. Temperance, abolition, education, women’s rights, and salvation were central concerns of many Americans, specifically in the North, during the first half of the 19th century. These reforms will be overshadowed by the sectionalism and violence of the Civil War which broke out in 1861.
Overview: Unit Five
1844-1877
Why 1844?
With the presidency of James Polk, the idea of Manifest Destiny became the official policy of the United States. This next wave of western expansion from sea to shining sea would expose the deep rift of the morality of slavery as new territories such as Texas, California and those acquired in the Mexican American War would divide the nation over whether or not slavery should be allowed in the new territories. This rift would ultimately lead to the Civil War.
Manifest Destiny – Western Expansion 1845 – 1860
President’s: William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan
Although part of the American experience since the arrival of the first English settlers in the 17th century, America continued the push westward across the North American continent. As the first half of the nineteenth century progressed many believed that there was a divine impulse, Manifest Destiny, driving the eventual settlement of the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. Notable to this end was the election of John Polk to the Presidency in 1844 who called for the annexation of Texas into the U.S. and pushed for a war with Mexico in order to claim what is now the America Southwest. The discovery of gold in California caused a rush of people to the soon to be named Golden state. Expansion accentuated the sectional divide, which intensified the differences over politics, economics, and slavery. The intensity of the nation’s growing division over slavery came to a boiling point as the policy of popular sovereignty replaced the 36’ 30’ line established in the 1820 compromise and led to a surge in violence in Bleeding Kansas. Opposition to slavery ranged from free-soilers to abolitionists and an underground railroad grew in spite of fugitive slave laws and the Dred Scott decision. These expansionist impulses only heightened the nations tension as the new territories and the nation had to come to grips with the institution of slavery and whether or not it would be allowed to expand west along with the rest of the country.
Overview: Unit Five
1844-1877
Civil War (1860-1865)
President: Abraham Lincoln
The issue of slavery had long been a dichotomy of the American experiment in democracy. For close to 80 years, the issue of slavery had been resolved through a continual process of negotiation and compromise. As the southern states became increasingly dependent on the growing of cotton, the region entrenched itself in the economic necessity of the slave labor force and in the cultural distinction of the plantation lifestyle. The rising abolitionist voices in the northern parts of the country caused a growing divide between the north and the south as the south felt that their economic well-being and way of life were being threatened. The nation eventually reached a point at which compromise could no longer resolve the growing division over the issue. With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, southern slave owning states began the process of seceding from the union and joined together to form the Confederate States of America. For the next five years the nations fought a brutal military campaign against each other as the north fought to end slavery and preserve the union, while the south fought to maintain state supremacy over federal power and to preserve the slave culture. The ultimate northern victory, while not a certainty in the beginning, was in large part attributed to the significant advantage the north had in manpower and industrial capacity.
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
President’s: Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, U.S. Grant
After the most violent conflict fought on American soil, the U.S. looked to rebuild and reunite the nation. Lincoln’s plan to reunite the nation was thwarted by an assassin’s bullet leaving the reins of power to the untrusted vice-President Andrew Johnson. Johnson sought to follow the Lincoln 10 percent plan for southern readmission but was checked by the Radical Republicans who favored harsher terms for the re-admittance for the seceded southern states. The republican congress pushed through a series of amendments to the constitution that forbade slavery (13th), granted citizenship to those born in the U.S. (14th), and granted the right to vote to citizens (15th). Despite the Radical Republican call for harsher standards of admittance, the new Presidential administration of Ulysses S. Grant, the former commanding general of the Union Army, settled on what was essentially Lincoln’s plan of a 10 percent loyalty oath along with required changes to the states constitutions to forbid slavery and protect the rights of blacks in Southern states. Initially numerous former slaves were elected into state legislatures and it appeared that the war had achieved its objective of ending slavery and incorporating its black citizens fully into equal participation in politics and society. Over time, however, as Northern will waned, the antebellum elites regained control of Southern organizations and aided by new groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, and reasserted white control over the region and re-subjected blacks back into the labor force with the advent of the new system of sharecropping. New laws such as the black codes placed literacy tests on blacks in order to vote and in many cases required black citizens to pay a poll tax to vote. In the absence of a standing army to enforce equality, former slaves were again segregated into a life of second-class status.
Overview: Unit Five
1844-1877
Why 1877?
With the ending of Grant's presidency and the election of Rutherford B. Hayes the reconstruction era in the southern U.S. came to a distinct end as the states that had rebelled had been admitted into statehood and all national pretenses of a different kind of southern region were removed. Southerners claimed to have “Redeemed” the South. The nation tried to move past the bitterness of the Civil War and in essence abandoned the cause of equality for African Americans in the south.
Core
Content
Unit Five
5.2-5.11
5.4 The Compromise of
1850
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by HArriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
"And now," said Legree, "come here, you Tom. You see, I telled ye I didn't buy ye jest for the common work; I mean to promote ye, and make a driver of ye; and tonight ye may jest as well begin to get yer hand in.
Now, ye jest take this yer gal and flog her; ye've seen enough on't to know how." I beg Mas'r's pardon," said Tom; "hopes Mas'r won't set me at that. It's what I an't used to, never did, and can't do, no way possible."
"Ye'll larn a pretty smart chance of things ye never did know, before I've done with ye!" said Legree, taking up a cowhide, and striking Tom a heavy blow cross the cheek, and following up the infliction by a shower of blows. "There!" he said, as he stopped to rest; "now, will ye tell me ye can't do it?"
"Yes, Mas'r," said Tom, putting up his hand, to wipe the blood, that trickled down his face. "I'm willin' to work, night and day, and work while there's life and breath in me; but this yer thing I can't feel it right to do; and, Mas'r, I never shall do it, never!"
Tom had a remarkably smooth, soft voice, and a habitually respectful manner, that had given Legree an idea that he would be cowardly, and easily subdued. When he spoke these last words, a thrill of amazement went through every one; the poor woman clasped her hands, and said, "O Lord!" and everyone involuntarily looked at each other and drew in their breath, as if to prepare for the storm that was about to burst.
5.5 Sectional Conflict:
Regional Differences
Know-Nothing Party- est 1852
5.5 Sectional Conflict:
Regional Differences
5.5 Sectional Conflict:
Regional Differences
The cartoon, “Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler” was illustrated in 1856, a very turbulent time in American politics. The country had narrowly avoided Civil War through several congressional compromises. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed enabling territories above the Missouri Compromise line to become slave-owning states. Stephen Douglas proposed the use of popular sovereignty, allowing the citizens to vote to decide whether these territories would be free or not, leading to the mass migrations of Freesoilers, and slave supporting southerners to Kansas. Skirmishes in the Kansas territory, which lead to 56 deaths, gave it the nickname “Bleeding Kansas” (Lee, 2015). The tension over the issue of slavery in the territory was at an all time high when this cartoon was published. The cartoon itself depicts this controversial issue of the expansion of slavery into territorial grounds in the west.
In this cartoon, John L. Magee and Harper’s Weekly took the side of the Free Soil Party. The Free Soil party, which is represented by a giant man, ran on the platform that slavery should remain in the southern states, and the expansion of the institution should not be a viable option for the territories introduced into the union (Foner, 1965). Magee’s advocacy of the freesoil position is evident by the fact that the Freesoiler is represent by a giant, while the Democrats are much smaller, representing the small-mindedness of the Democratic Party at the time. The giant is being held down by force, as he screams out “Murder!!! Help- neighbors help, O my poor wife and children,” as the Democrats look on emotionlessly, and Cass even has a wicked grin breaking across his face (Harp Week).
http://www.historymaking.org/sources/exhibits/show/cw-cartoons/pre-cw/harpers-freesoil
African American
Voices
Frederick Douglass
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain't I A Woman?
Delivered 1851
Women's Rights Convention, Old Stone Church (since demolished), Akron, Ohio
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say. [1]
What is Sojourner Truth’s THESIS of this speech?
What is her PURPOSE?
What is the HISTORICAL SITUATION?
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too—great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory….
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?...
But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!
(1852) FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “WHAT, TO THE SLAVE, IS THE FOURTH OF JULY”
What is Douglass’ POV?
Who is his INTENDED AUDIENCE?
What is the HISTORICAL SITUATION?
Who is the INTENDED AUDIENCE?
5.6 Failure of Compromise
Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
Bleeding Kansas
5.6 Failure of
Compromise
Dred Scott Decision
“In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument...They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."
“The Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United States, through the action, in each State, of those persons who were qualified by its laws to act thereon in behalf of themselves and all other citizens of the State. In some of the States, as we have seen, colored persons were among those qualified by law to act on the subject. These colored persons were not only included in the body of `the people of the United States,- by whom the Constitution was ordained and established; but in at least five of the States they had the power to act, and, doubtless, did act, by their suffrages, upon the question of its adoption.”
Justice Clark, the one dissenting vote
Excerpts from the Dred Scott decision, 1857
What was Taney’s PURPOSE?
What was Clark’s PURPOSE?
What is the HISTORICAL SITUATION of the Dred Scott case?
Politics on the Eve of
the Civil War
Stephen Douglas
Illinois politician who became leader of Democratic party
Transcontinental railroad
supported this in Congress-wanted it to go through Chicago so to get Southern votes, endorses popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty- let ppl who live in the region/state decide for themselves about slavery
Supported Compromise of 1850 and repeal of MO Compromise with Kansas-Nebraska Act
Lincoln-Douglas debates; defeated Lincoln for Illinois senator in 1858
He lost presidential election to Lincoln in 1860
Abraham Lincoln
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favour of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, not to intermarry with white people.” There is, he added, “a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”
-speech to crowd in Charleston, Illinois (1853)
Abraham Lincoln
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.
Have we no tendency to the latter condition?
Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination -- piece of machinery so to speak -- compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted; but also, let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidence of design and concert of action, among its chief architects, from the beginning.
Excerpt from Lincoln’s House Divided Speech
June 16, 1858
5.7 Election of 1860 and Secession