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America: 1800 1870

1800 to 1820: Events and ISSUES


September, 1789 the first Congress of the United States wrote and passed the Bill of
Rights
First 10 amendments to the Constitution
Provided individual rights and protected Americans from actions of their government.
1791 Alexander Hamilton won passage of a bill creating the first National Bank of the United
States.
He argued that a bank allow the United States to pay off debt and efficiently fill its duties as stated
in the Constitution
Connected Issue: The powers given to Congress in the Constitution are called enumerated powers.
But the enumerated powers also include a paragraph that allows to do what is necessary and proper to
fulfill its obligations.
Actions taken on the basis of this necessary & proper clause (elastic clause) were called implied powers.
Creating a Bank of the United States fell under the implied powers and caused much discussion over the
roll of government.

1800 to 1820: Events and ISSUES


First Political Parties During George Washingtons
presidency two factions emerged.
Those who thought that business and industry would be the
financial basis of the country (manufacturers, bankers &
merchants of the north east).
They also believed in a strong national government and
supported things like the Bank of the United States
They became known as Federalists.
The other factions believed that independent, land-owning
farmers would be the bedrock of the nation
They favored a limited national government with protections
for states rights.

1800 to 1820: Events and ISSUES


Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798 Laws that made it illegal to criticize the government.
Louisiana Purchase, April, 1803 President Thomas Jefferson purchased a large
section of the continent for $4 million. He sent explorers to gather information about
the land.
The War of 1812 The political crisis began in 1809. President James Madison and
Congress objected that British ships would stop American ships at sea and kidnap
American sailors to serve in the British Navy. They also saw an opportunity to push
the British back beyond the Canadian border and, possibly, conquer Canada.
The war began in 1812 but in 1813, when the Napoleonic Wars were ending in
Europe, veteran British troops came to America, overwhelmed American troops, and
burned Washington and Baltimore.
The Napoleonic Wars re-ignited in 1815 and Britain had no will to continue war in the
Americas. A treat was signed.

1800 to 1820: Events and ISSUES


Second Bank of the United States The law that created the First Bank
of the United States expired in 1811.
The Democratic-Republican blocked the renewal of the Bank in Congress but
uncontrolled activity by state banks caused a financial crisis.
The Second Bank of the United States was established by law in 1816
Protective Tariffs Taxes placed on imported goods to give a financial advantage to
American-made items.
The southern states opposed these tariffs because leading southerners exported their
agricultural products and imported almost everything else.
The norther states supported tariffs because they were the center of American
manufacturing and wanted their companies protected against foreign competition.

1800 to 1820: Events and ISSUES


Marbury vs. Madison, 1803 An early case before the Supreme
Court that established the principle of judicial review (the right
of a court to declare a law unconstitutional) . This case gave
the Supreme Court equal standing with the Congress and the
Presidency.
McCulloch vs. Maryland, 1819 - This case has two important
outcomes: 1) That the federal government had the right to
create a Bank of the United States, and, 2) that states had no
power to interfere with the activity of that Bank. This case was
expanded to include all federal institutions. It established the
supremacy of the federal government over the states.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Monroe Doctrine, 1823 This has to do with foreign nations interfering in the affairs of
countries in the Americas. European countries (especially Spain) wanted to get back
the colonies that had declared independence from them. President James Monroe
stated that any interference in newly independent countries would be seen as an act of
war.
Slavery: The importation of slaves from Africa ended in 1808, but a high birthrate
among slave women kept the population growing. Between 1820 & 1850 the slave
population in the south doubled to become 37% of southern society.
Most slaves worked on farms or plantations. Some became domestic servants, working in the
homes of whites. A smaller number were specialized craftsmen who were used to enhance their
masters wealth but which could, depending on the situation, allow them to earn their way to
freedom.
Slave laws forbid them leaving their masters property without permission, forbid them owning
property, testifying in court against whites, or learning to read or write.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Slavery: Slaves found ways to express their African cultures but as
they adopted Christianity those cultures became mixed. Slave culture
represented a unique mix of African and European practices.
Slaves also found ways to resist their captivity They staged work slowdowns and sabotaged projects. Some broke tools and even burned
down barns and warehouses. A few incited revolts and killed whites.
Free Blacks: The biggest groups lived in the northern states, though
there were a few in the south. Some were prosperous business people
(even had their own slaves), while most were craftsmen and farmers.
Northern states had banned slavery but prejudice remained. Despite
that free blacks developed their own religious, social, and economic
communities.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Sectionalism the division of a loyalties between areas of different social, cultural or
economic practices. Specifically, the slow but steady division that came between the
industrialized, urban north and the agricultural, slave-holding south.
Missouri Compromise In 1819 Missouri requested statehood as a slave state (where
slavery was allowed). In 1820 Maine requested statehood as a free state (no
slavery).
Congress created a bill that admitted the two states as requested but drew a line along
Missouris southern border, stating that no slavery would be allowed in the Louisiana Purchase
north or that line.
The Nullification Crisis: In the early 1800s some southern states began an economic decline and blamed
it on tariffs which made imported goods so expensive. In 1828 Congress passed a new tariff which
enraged southerners.
South Carolina threatened to secede (leave) from the United States. To avoid secession, Vice-President
John C. Calhoun (from South Carolina) argued that states had the right to nullify (declare invalid) any
federal law.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Nullification A war of words developed that lasted into 1832. After another tariff
was passed in 1832 which the South Carolina legislature also nullified, President
Andrew Jackson sent a warship to Charleston harbor to force the issue if
necessary.
Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky pushed a compromise through Congress that
would gradually decrease tariffs over the next 10 years. South Carolina was
satisfied and repealed its nullification acts.
New Political parties: With the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 the
Democratic-Republicans were renewed by support from the farmers in western
states.
Old barriers were broken as voting laws changed that allowed any adult white man to vote.
This caused the Democratic- Republicans to evolve into the Democratic party.
The other new political party grew out of opposition to President Andrew Jackson. They
were called the Whigs

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Women: In the early 1800s a trend showed up in popular magazines and books
that described the role of true womanhood. It went like this:
1. Women were intellectually inferior but morally superior to men. She needed a
man to
guide her but her purity had to be carefully protected. Her sins were
much worse than a mans.
2. Women wanted children but were asexual. She endured her husbands sexual
demands because it was her duty.
3. A womans natural interests were her household and church. Charitable
service should be her only activity outside the home.
Unknown to the supporters of true womanhood, doing charity work awakened
women to the problems of society and a desire to fix them.
It also caused women to take a good look at their own legal and economic situation.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Women: Womens legal rights were extremely limited in the
1800s.
A woman could not control property even if it was in her name. It was
under the control of first her father, then her husband.
A women could not have a bank account, get a loan, or sign a contract.
Any wages she earned belonged to her husband.
Divorce was very hard to get she had to prove abandonment or
extreme physical danger. It was easier for a man.
A woman could not testify against her husband in court.
If she was divorced, she lost her children.
If her husband died, she was given a legal guardian to take care of her.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Social Reform
Temperance: Americans drank an average of 11 gallons of hard liquor per
person, per year. That did not include beer and wine.
The effects of high consumption of alcohol were the catalyst for the temperance
movement.
Advocates of temperance sought to shut down bars and taverns, and, to convince states
to ban the sale of alcohol.
The movement grew throughout the century but did not have its full impact until the
1920s.
Abolition: The movement to end slavery
Certain religious groups had opposed slavery since the 1700s but it grew stronger in the 1800s.
Some wanted to allow Africans to return to their homelands.
Others simply wanted to put a stop to the practice

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Abolition
The movement really boomed in the 1820s and 1830s.
William Lloyd Garrison produced The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper that had a
wide readership in the north.
The Grimke sisters, raised in the south, went about the country giving abolitionist
speeches.
There were African-American abolitionists as well, all former slaves who had escaped their
captivity
Frederick Douglas became a powerful voice (both in writing and speaking) against slavery
Sojourner Truth spoke against slavery and in favor of womens rights.
Harriet Tubman returned to the south repeatedly to lead escaped slaves north.

It is important to note that abolition did not mean acceptance of African-Americans as equals.
The abolition movement scared some northerners that a influx of freed blacks would move
north.
Southerners reacted with strong defenses of slavery as their peculiar institution.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Mexican War
In 1844 President James K. Polk was elected on a platform of aggressive expansion.
He followed through annexing Texas and pushing the British into dividing the Oregon
Territory.
Land connected to Texas was in dispute between the United States and Mexico. To
protect that land Polk sent General Zachary Taylor with troops.
In May, 1846, word reached Washington that Taylors troops had been attacked by the
Mexicans. The Mexicans were probably provoked to attack. Congress declared war.
The United States was equipped with new rifles and lighter cannon that gave them an
advantage over the Mexicans. With the support of Americans living in western
territories and victory in major battles, it was not difficult to win the war.
The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 gave the United States more than 500,000
square miles of land and set the Rio Grande River as Texas southern boundary.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Impact of the Mexican War
Northern and southern politicians immediately began to argue over
whether the new land would be slave or free.
Northerners wanted to ban slavery completely.
Southerners argued that settlers should be allowed to bring their property
with them, including slaves.
The idea that settlers in each region should decide whether they want to
allow slavery was introduced. They called it popular sovereignty.
There were 15 free states and 15 slave states each side afraid of the other
getting a majority.
Because of the number of people who rushed to California for gold, it soon
had enough voters to request statehood.

1820-1850: Events and Issues


Compromise of 1850
Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky worked out a series of laws that allowed
California to join the Union (United States) as a free state but that there would be
no restrictions on slavery in the rest of the Mexican Cession.
Fugitive Slave Act
He also promised a law that would help southerners get back slaves who had
escaped north.
The Fugitive Slave Act allowed a slave owner or slave catcher to point out an
African-American and submit an legal statement that the person was an escaped
slave. The individual would then be shipped back to the south. Escaped slaves
had no right to testify in their own defense.
Northerners refused to obey the Fugitive Slave Act in large numbers.
Abolitionists declared the law immoral and oppressive.

1850-1860: Events and Issues


Further divisions
Kansas-Nebraska Act. as both territories requested
statehood, southern members of Congress demanded that the
anti-slavery portion of the Missouri Compromise be repealed
and slavery become an option in the west.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act admitted Nebraska as a free state
and left the slavery decision to the vote of Kansas settlers .
Both anti-slavery and pro-slavery groups rushed into Kansas.
Conflicts between the two became so violent that the
newspapers called it Bleeding Kansas.

1850-1860: Events and Issues


Dred Scott vs. Sandford, 1857 A slave from Missouri had been
taken north by his owner to work. When he was returned south,
the slave, Dred Scott, sued his owner arguing that being in the
north had made him a free man.
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and the Supreme Court ruled against
Scott because African-Americans were not citizens and therefore
could not sue in court.
The new Republican party, which was anti-slavery, declared the
decision a perversion of the Constitution.
The Democrats, now dominant in the south, cheered it.

1850-1860: Events and Issues


John Brown & Harpers Ferry
John Brown was a radical anti-slavery activist. He had been involved in
bloody confrontations in Kansas.
In October, 1859 he attempted to take the federal arsenal (weapons
storage) at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). He intended to arm
local slaves and start a revolt.
Brown was defeated and arrested by a company of Marines under Colonel
Robert E Lee.
He was sentenced to death by a Virginia court and hung.
Anti-slavery forces saw Brown as a martyr to the cause.
Southerners saw him as evidence of a dangerous movement that would
destroy their way of life.

1861-1865: Civil War


Beginnings:
In the election of November, 1860, the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln,
won all the free states except New Jersey. It was enough to give him the presidency.
In December, 1860 South Carolina became the first state to secede, followed in
February by 6 other southern states.
On February 8, 1861 delegates from the seceding states gather to create the
Confederate State of America and elect Jefferson Davis as President.
Lincoln was inaugurated in March, 1861, and despite efforts at compromise, soldiers
loyal to the Confederacy began to seize federal military bases in the south.
In April, the only hold-out was in Charleston Harbor. It was called Fort Sumter.
Southern forces shelled the fort until the commander gave up. No one died but it
pushed the Congress to declare war on the Confederacy.

1861-1865: Civil War


North vs. South
North:
Americas industrial & manufacturing base.
Access to raw materials like iron and coal.
Larger population
Multiple large ports that remained open to trade throughout
the war.
The army, until Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant in 1863,
was poorly led in spite of its resources.
Most early battles were Confederate victories.

1861-1865: Civil War


North vs. South
South:
Agricultural base
Few factories and little access to raw materials
All manufactures had to be imported.
Few ports the north was able to blockade them.
Smaller population & a constant worry over how slaves might
react.
Brilliant generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson,
Beauregard, Nathan Bedford Forrest to name a few.

1861-1865: Civil War


Turning points:
In the July of 1863, two battles took place within a few days that changed the course of
the war.
Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) A two day battle in which the Union turned back a
Confederate invasion of the north.
Vicksburg (Mississippi) The Union took the most important Confederate stronghold on
the Mississippi River.
Shortly afterward, President Lincoln appoint Ulysses S. Grant to lead the Union army.
Grant understood that he had time & resources on his side.
All he had to do was wear down the Confederate army. Which he did.
He finally cornered the Confederates in Virginia and the war ended on April 9, 1865.

1865-1870: Reconstruction
President Abraham Lincoln developed a moderate plan to bring the Confederate
states back into the Union, however his assassination on April 14, 1865 ended
all that.
He was replaced by his Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, who lost control of an
increasingly radical, Republican-led Congress.
These Radical Republicans pushed a harsh reconstruction program on the
South:
Adult, white males had to take an oath of allegiance to the United States
The south was divided into five military districts which governed until the state could be
re-admitted.
States could only be re-admitted into the Union after a state convention that
Was attended only by those who swore they never fought for or supported the Confederacy
Banned slavery by ratifying the 13th Amendment.
Guaranteed voting rights to former slaves

1865-1870: Reconstruction
For a short time things looked very good for former slaves
The Freedmens Bureau fed & clothed war refugees. It also helped former
slaves find work.
The 14th Amendment (1868) guaranteed citizenship to all persons born or
naturalized in the United States and equal protection of law. It also forbid
states from depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due
process of law.
African-Americans registered to vote by the thousands and ran for office.
Several were elected to Congress and many more to state or local office.
Communities built their own churches and established schools. Northerners
came south to teach in these African-American schools.
The 15th Amendment (1870) stated that no state might deny the right to vote
on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

1865-1870: Reconstruction
Southern Resistance
White southerners felt overwhelmed by suddenly freed slaves
& their prominence. They felt that northerners were forcing
huge social change on them.
With few legal resources for resistance, white southerners
joined secret societies. The most famous is the Ku Klux Klan.
The clan terrorized former slaves and their white supporters.
They burned churches and schools.
The Klan was outlawed in 1870 but because of white attitudes
only one quarter of those arrested were convicted and few
served prison time.

Reconstruction ends
By the mid 1870s support for Reconstruction had faded and Democrats (the party of
white southerners) had gained more seats in Congress. The country was ready to
move on.
The New South was different. They built railroads, roads, and factories but the
major business was still agriculture.
For African-Americans things took a backward trend. Most ended up as laborers or
share-croppers. Share-croppers rented land from white farmers and paid their rent
with their crops. Many ended up in debt to the white land-owners.
Through the 1880s & 1890s, white-dominated, southern state legislatures made it
more and more difficult for African-Americans to vote, move about freely, or get an
education
In many ways, African Americans life did not change much from the days when they
were slaves.

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