Chapter 1 Outline
As a whole, this chapter was meant to depict the differences in the creation of
cultures in the Americas and the changes that took place in these cultures after the
Europeans arrived. Beginning with the formation and shaping of the continents, and
then leading into the Ice Age, the authors described the theories of how people came
to the Americas. The most common belief is that they crossed a land bridge
connecting Siberia to Alaska, which does not exist currently, and came into North
America. They then spread across the Americas after the glaciers of the Ice Age
melted. After beginning to cultivate corn, the cultures of Latin and South America
began developing and societies such the Incas of the western coast of South America
and the Aztecs of Mexico could now be found. The native peoples of North America
were less developed, for they preferred to live nomadically rather than
agriculturally. The majority of the natives were polytheistic, at least before the
European appearance.
Upon the Spaniards’ arrival, the American Indians were found as a fairly
civilized people who possessed ridiculously large amounts of gold and goods. And
so, in the name of their country and in the name of religion, the Spanish conquered
the Incas of South America and the Aztecs of Mexico. The natives were conquered
with relative ease, for the guns and diseases of the Europeans were far greater than
the Native Americans could withstand. Soon, more Spanish conquistadores arrived,
exploring the newly conquered lands and converting the natives to Christianity. It
was the Roman Catholic mission that was to become the main establishment in the
colonies, and in the name of the Church, many of these “missionaries” adopted the
practice of slavery as well as other brutalities. The Spanish conquistadores forever
changed the fate of the Americas the moment Christopher Columbus landed on the
shores of the West Indies. But this fate was not all together good, for while the
Spanish brought over new animals, new culture, new laws, new religion, and new
language onto a large amount of native civilizations, they also had a hand in bringing
slavery to the Americas, they brought over diseases that condemned the biologically
susceptible natives, and they severed the contact the natives had with their original
cultures.
Chapter 1 Vocab
Aztecs
The Aztecs were a Native American Empire who lived in Mexico. Their capital was
Tenochtitlan. They worshipped everything around them especially the sun. Cortes
conquered them in 1521.
Pueblo Indians
The Pueblo Indians lived in the Southwestern United States. They built extensive
irrigation systems to water their primary crop, which was corn. Their houses were
multi-storied buildings made of adobe.
Joint Stock Companies
These were developed to gather the savings from the middle class to support
finance colonies. Ex. London Company and Plymouth Company.
Spanish Armada
"Invincible" group of ships sent by King Philip II of Spain to invade England in 1588;
Armada was defeated by smaller, more maneuverable English "sea dogs" in the
Channel; marked the beginning of English naval dominance and fall of Spanish
dominance.
Conquistadores
Spanish explorers that invaded Central and South America for it's riches during the
1500's. In doing so they conquered the Incas, Aztecs, and other Native Americans of
the area. Eventually they intermarried these tribes.
Renaissance
After the Middle Ages there was a rebirth of culture in Europe where art and science
were developed. It was during this time of enrichment that America was discovered.
Canadian Shield
Geological shape of North America; 10 million years ago it held the northeast corner
of North America in place and eventually was the first part of North America to
come above sea level.
Christopher Columbus
An Italian navigator who was funded by the Spanish monarchy to find a passage to
the Far East. He is given credit for discovering the "New World," even though at his
death he believed he had made it to India. He made four voyages to the "New
World." The first sighting of land was on October 12, 1492, and three other journeys
until the time of his death in 1503.
Hernan Cortes
He was a Spanish explorer who conquered the Native American civilization of the
Aztecs in 1519 in what is now Mexico.
Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1494 Spain and Portugal were disputing the lands of the new world, so the
Spanish went to the Pope, and he divided the land of South America for them. Spain
got the vast majority, the west, and Portugal got the east.
“By the time Europeans arrived in America in 1492, perhaps 54 million people
inhabited the two American continents. Over the centuries they split into countless
tribes, evolved more than 2,000 languages, and developed many diverse religions,
cultures, and ways of life.” (Pg. 6)
“Unlike the Europeans, who would soon arrive with the presumption that humans
had dominion over the earth and with the technologies to alter the very face of the
land, the Native Americans had neither the desire nor the means to manipulate
nature aggressively.” (Pg. 10)
“Europe provided the markets, the capital, and the technology; Africa furnished the
labor; and the New World offered its raw materials, especially its precious metals
and its soil for the cultivation of sugar cane. For Europeans as well as for Africans
and Native Americans, the world after 1492 would never be the same, for better or
worse.” (Pg. 14)
“During the Indians’ millennia of isolation in the Americas, most of the Old World’s
killer maladies had disappeared from among them. But generations of freedom
from those illnesses had also wiped out protective antibodies. Devoid of natural
resistance to Old World sicknesses, Indians died in droves.” (Pg. 15)
“It [the encomienda system] allowed the government to “commend,” or give, Indians
to certain colonists in return for the promise to try to Christianize them. In all but
name, it was slavery.” (Pg. 17)
“Moctezuma treated Cortes hospitably at first, but soon the Spaniards’ hunger for
gold and power exhausted their welcome. ‘They thirsted mightily for gold; they
stuffed themselves with it; they starved for it; they lusted for it like pigs,’ said one
Aztec.” (Pg. 20)
“The Spanish invaders did indeed kill, enslave, and infect countless natives, but they
also erected a colossal empire, sprawling from California and Florida to Tierra del
Fuego. They grafted their culture laws, religions, and language onto a wide array of
native societies, laying the foundations for a score of Spanish-speaking nations.”
(Pg. 23)
Chapter 2 Outline
Summary:
Chapter two of The American Pageant focuses on the first colonies in America.
The first English settlement established was Jamestown in 1606. After arriving, the
settlers of Jamestown struggled mightily to survive. They were not used to having to
capture their own food and produce everything that they needed. The settlers had decided
to return home when Lord de la Warr arrived. He was sent by the English government to
be the new leader of Jamestown. Under the strong leadership of de la Warr, the
settlement was able to survive and eventually prosper. The settlement was greatly helped
by John Rolfe, who perfected his method for growing tobacco. This led to a rush of
tobacco growing across Virginia. Around the time that the settlement had begun to
prosper was when problems with the local Indians arose. After several decades of losing
land to the settlers, the Powhatan Indians attacked Jamestown in 1622. The attack left 347
settlers dead and caused the Virginia Company to declare war upon any hostile Indians.
A second Anglo-Powhatan War erupted in 1644 as once again the Indians attempted to
drive the settlers out. The Indians were defeated in 1646 and banned from their ancestral
lands.
Settling America continued as Lord Baltimore founded Maryland in 1634. He not
only wanted to reap the financial benefits of having a colony, but wanted to create a
refuge for Catholics like himself. More settlers arrived in Carolina in 1670. They brought
with them slaves and the Barbados Slave Code. Caroline officially adopted the code in
1696 and Carolina would serve as a staging area for slavery that would eventually take
hold of North America. The colonists in Carolina needed cheap labor and decided to
make an alliance with the Savannah Indians. The Savannah Indians would capture
members of rival tribes and give them to the colonists as slaves. When the Savannah
Indians decided to end the alliance in 1707 and leave, the colonists massacred the
majority of the tribe. To replace the Indian slaves, the colonists in Carolina purchased
slaves from West Africa. These slaves were excellent rice-growers and had a lot of
experience. The Tuscarora Indians angered by the loss of their land, attacked North
Carolina settlements in 1711. Aided by colonists from South Carolina, the Tuscaroras
were badly defeated. Most were sold into slavery while the rest were left alone. The
colony of Georgia was formally founded in 1733. Named after King George II, it was
intended to serve as a buffer to protect the valuable Carolinas.
Key Terms:
Virginia Company: Founded to find gold and a more direct route to India, financed the
journey to America and helped build Jamestown.
Iroquois Confederacy: Powerful group of tribes made up of Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas,
and Senecas.
Slave Codes: Provided rules of slavery, denied slaves basic fundamental rights, and gave
their owners permission to treat them as they saw fit.
Lord De la Warr: Englishman who came to America in 1610. Helped Jamestown survive
and fought Indians.
Royal Charter: Document given to the founders of a colony by the monarch that allows
for special privileges and establishes a general relationship.
Quotes:
Page 29: “Once ashore in Virginia, the settlers died by the dozens from disease,
malnutrition, and starvation. Ironically, the woods rustled with game and the rivers
flopped with fish, but the greenhorn settlers, many of them self-styled ‘gentlemen’
unaccustomed to fending for themselves, wasted valuable time grubbing for nonexistent
gold when they should have been gathering provisions.”
Page 30: “But the Indians, pressed by the land-hungry whites and ravaged by European
diseases, struck back in 1622. A series of Indian attacks left 347 settlers dead, including
John Rolfe. In response the Virginia Company issued new orders calling for ‘a perpetual
war without peace or truce,’ one that would prevent the Indians ‘from being any longer a
people.’ Periodic punitive raids systematically reduced the native population and drove
the survivors ever farther westward.”
Page 32: “John Rolfe, the husband of Pocahontas, became father of the tobacco industry
and an economic savior of the Virginia colony. By 1612 he had perfected methods of
raising and curing the pungent weed, eliminating much of the bitter tang. Soon the
European demand for tobacco was nearly insatiable. A tobacco rush swept over Virginia,
as crops were planted in the streets of Jamestown and even between the numerous graves.
So exclusively did the colonists concentrate on planting the yellow leaf that at first they
had to import some of their foodstuffs. Colonists who had once hungered for food now
hungered for land, ever more land on which to plant ever more tobacco. Relentlessly,
they pressed the frontier of settlement up the river valleys to the west, abrasively edging
against the Indians.”
Page 34: “Lord Baltimore, a canny soul, permitted unusual freedom of worship at the
outset. He hoped that he would thus purchase toleration for his own fellow worshipers.
But the heavy tide of Protestants threatened to submerge the Catholics and place severe
restrictions on them, as in England. Faced with disaster, the Catholics of Maryland threw
their support behind the famed Act of Toleration, which was passed in 1649 by the local
representative assembly.”
Page 37: “In 1707 the Savannah Indians decided to end their alliance with the Carolinians
and to migrate to the backcountry of Maryland and Pennsylvania, where a new colony
founded by Quakers under William Penn promised better relations between whites and
Indians. But the Carolinians determined to “thin” the Savannahs before they could depart.
A series of bloody raids all but annihilated the Indian tribes of coastal Carolina by 1710.”
Main Idea: The main idea of Chapter two is that whenever settlers and Indians lived close
to each other, they could not get along. At the very first settlement of Jamestown, the
settler and Indians could not coexist. This also occurred in the Carolinas, where after a
short period of harmony, the settlers slaughtered the Indians. The failure to coexist was
due to the settlers’ tendency of continuously taking land which drove the Indians to
violence.
Review Outline Chapter 3 – Settling the Northern Colonies
Summary:
The Puritan religion was formed by a group of people who wanted to “purify”
King Henry VIII’s Anglican Church in the 1530’s, and Puritan Separatists (extremists
now known as the “pilgrims”) were kicked out of England and forced to migrate to
the New World. The Separatists arrived in New England, signed the Mayflower
Compact, which later became an influence on the Constitution, and lost 60% of their
population to the first winter. Another colony was formed in Massachusetts by
another group of Puritans with a royal charter, and John Winthrop was elected
governor. The Bay Colony extended suffrage to all adult male Puritans. Rules in the
Bay Colony were very puritanical as the Puritans were a God-fearing people with a
very unpleasant concept of Hell. These rules were generally obeyed, but religious
dissenters like Quakers, Anne Hutchinson, and Roger Williams were persecuted.
These people fled to the colony of Rhode Island, which acquired a royal charter in
1644.
The English Colonies spread out quickly as colonies like Connecticut, New
Haven, Maine, and New Hampshire were founded. Unfortunately, this expansion
brought them into direct conflict with Native Americans, resulting in wars such as
the Pequot War, which ended in a Puritan annihilation of the natives, and King
Philip’s War, a desperate attack by neighboring tribes that was also a failure. While
old England was wrapped up in Civil Wars, the colonies banded together to form the
heavily-Puritan New England Confederation in 1643. When King Charles II was
restored to the throne, he revoked the charter of insolent Massachusetts and
granted charters to Connecticut and Rhode Island. Further British attempts to
control the colonies came in the form of the Dominion of New England, headed by
Sir Edmund Andros, who instated heavy taxes, enforced the Navigation Laws, and
restricted local democratic meeting. The Dominion was toppled by the Glorious
Revolution in England, which raised William and Mary to the throne.
The Dutch West India Company bought Manhattan Island and set up the
colony of New Netherland there. New England was hostile to its new neighbors, New
Sweden and New Netherland, and the Dutch were kicked out of New Netherland,
renamed New York, by the British army. Meanwhile, the Quaker William Penn set up
Pennsylvania, the first of the Middle Colonies. Pennsylvania was tolerant of religious
diversity and kind to the Native Americans, it was against slavery and it had relaxed
naturalization laws. The Middle Colonies, which later included New York, New
Jersey, and Delaware, were very fertile and had a high output of grain. As Americans
became more prosperous, they began to realize that they were not merely surviving,
but truly thriving.
Key Terms:
Mayflower Compact – A contract signed by the white male Separatists aboard the
Mayflower agreeing that they would set up a democratic government.
Navigation Laws – A set of English Laws restricting colonial trade with countries
other than England. These laws were defied through smuggling and were often the
focus of colonial dissatisfaction with British rule.
New England Confederation – Made up of the Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony,
Connecticut Colony, and New Haven Colony. Purpose was to defend New England
against its enemies in the absence of British Troops (which were fighting Civil Wars
in England).
King Phillip’s War – A massive attack of neighboring tribes against New England led
by Metacom. Although the Native Americans lost the war, they destroyed over fifty
Puritan settlements and halted westward expansion for decades.
Charles II – An English King restored to the throne after the English Civil War. He
revoked Massachusetts’s charter and gave charters to Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Important Quotes:
“The Pilgrims’ first winter of 1620-1621 took a grisly toll. Only 44 out of the
102 survived. At one time only 7 were well enough to lay the dead in their frosty
graves. Yet when the Mayflower sailed back to England in the spring, not a single one
of the courageous band of Separatists left. As one of them wrote, ‘it is not with us as
with other men, whom small things can discourage.’” (45)
“When Charles II was restored to the English Throne in 1660, the royalists
and their Church of England allies were once more firmly in the saddle. Puritan
hopes of eventually purifying the old English church withered. Worse, Charles II was
determined to take an active, aggressive hand in the management of the colonies…
As a slap at Massachusetts, Charles II gave rival Connecticut in 1662 a sea-to-sea
charter grant, which legalized the squatter settlements. The very next year, the
outcasts in Rhode Island received a new charter, which gave kingly sanction to the
most religiously tolerant government yet devised in America. A final and crushing
blow fell on the stiff necked Bay Colony in 1684, when its precious charter was
revoked by the London authorities.” (53)
“Residues remained of Charles II’s effort to assert tighter administrative
control over his empire. More English officials – judges, clerks, customs officials –
now staffed courts and strolled the wharves of English America. Many were
incompetent, corrupt hacks who knew little and cared less about American affairs.
Appointed by influential patrons in far-off England, they blocked, by their very
presence, the rise of local leaders to positions of political power. Aggrieved
Americans viewed them with mounting contempt as the eighteenth century wore
on.” (55)
The Days of the Dutch on the Hudson were numbered, for the English
regarded them as intruders. In 1664, after the imperially ambitious Charles II had
granted the area to his brother, the Duke of York, a strong English squadron
appeared off the decrepit defenses of New Amsterdam. A fuming Peter Stuyvesant,
short of all munitions except courage, was forced to surrender without firing a shot.
New Amsterdam was thereupon renamed New York, in honor of the Duke of York…
With the removal of this foreign wedge, the English banner now waved
triumphantly over a solid stretch of territory from Maine to the Carolinas.” (57-58)
“By the time Franklin arrived in the City of Brotherly Love, the American
Colonies were themselves ‘coming to life’. Population was growing robustly.
Transportation and communication were improving. The British, for the most part,
continued their hands off policies, leaving the colonists to fashion their own
governments, run their own churches, and develop networks of intercolonial trade.
As people and products crisscrossed the colonies with increasing frequency and in
increasing volume, Americans began to realize that – far removed from Mother
England – they were not merely surviving, but truly thriving.
Main Idea/Thesis:
The Plymouth Colony and its sister colonies were founded to allow Puritans
the freedom to worship without persecution from the Anglican Church. Religious
dissent in these intolerant colonies led to the foundation of other colonies like
Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. The New England colonies were hard pressed for
survival and banded together in the New England Confederation, the first step
toward continental unity. The Middle Colonies of New York and Pennsylvania
established themselves as much more tolerant than the New England Colonies, and
had fertile valleys in which they could grow a lot of grain. The English Colonies in
the New World were very successful by the 18th Century.
Ch. 4 Outline
Settlement in the Chesapeake Bay -- located in modern day Virginia -- was
harsh at first. There was terrible diseases that the English settlers were not immune
to such as malaria and typhoid. In addition, male immigrants outnumbered females
6 to 1 which resulted in very slow family growth. However, the Chesapeake Bay was
a very fertile region with flat lands and rivers which were perfect for tobacco
growth. As southern farms grew, they needed more a larger source of labor. This
resulted in an immigration of indentured servants who gained freedom after a few
years of service. The "head-right system" allowed for masters to receive 50 acres of
land if they pay for the voyage of their servants. As a result of unhappy planters that
were pushed to the outskirts of the colony in search of land and threatened with
Indian attacks, an uprising known as Bacon's Rebellion occurred. Led by Nathaniel
Bacon, these small planters rebelled against Virginia's Governor Berkley -especially because of his friendly Indian policy -- causing chaos in the colony. The
South -- particularly Virginia -- began importing African slaves in larger numbers by
the 1680s; mostly as result of better wages in England. A greater importation of
slaves resulted in a growing slave culture that contributed to American culture. This
can be seen in the development of Gullah -- a mixture of English and several African
languages -- and jazz. In the 1700's the social structure of the South widened as a
result of slave importation creating a wealthy planter class.
In New England, conditions were much better for the settlers. On average,
New Englanders lived 10 years longer than those in England. In addition, settlers
usually immigrated with their families which resulted in greater population growth.
However, the New England soil was filled with stones and many of the rivers were
short and fast; this caused New Englanders to look for work as traders, fisherman
and shipbuilders. Slavery was introduced early in New England settlement, but it
never flourished as a result of a society not centered around agriculture like in the
South. The New England society was based around their Puritan beliefs which was
reflected by western settlements created by New Englanders. As a result of colonial
expansion and the pass of time, the Puritan religion began to dampen down. In
order to enter the Church, individuals had to profess conversion -- the claim that
they witnessed God's grace and they deserved admittance into the Church. As a
result of a decrease in membership the Half-Way Covenant was created; this
arrangement allowed for unconverted individuals to receive baptism, but not full
membership.
Chapter 5 Outline
This chapter primarily features the economic opportunity, arts, and religion
of the colonies. The main occupation of the time was farming, though fishing and
merchantry were also common in the North. The most respected members of
society were clerics, physicians, and jurists, while the lowest members were
African slaves and indentured servants. During this time, the First Great
Awakening occurred, notable for being the first mass movement in American
history. There were many different sects of Protestant Christianity in colonial
America, notably the Anglican, Congregational, Calvinist, and Methodist
churches. Arts also flourished in colonial America, mainly in the forms of
literature and painting. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were great writers
of the time while John Trumbull, Charles Wilson Peale, Benjamin West, and John
Singleton Copley were notable painters.
From all of the opportunity of the American colonies came immigrants,
mostly Scots-Irish and Germans. These groups fled from religious persecution,
economic oppression, and war. The Germans’ Lutheran faith increased religious
diversity even more. None were more accepting of these newcomers than the
Quakers of Pennsylvania, thus many Germans and Scots-Irish felt welcome in
the Middle colonies. With these beginnings of cultural mixing, America started to
form its unique multicultural American national identity unlike anything known in
Europe.
Key Terms:
● First Great Awakening - An evangelical and revitalization movement;
certain Christian groups began to use more emotion and persuasive
speaking to get their points across. Was led by Jonathan Edwards and
George Whitefield.
● Triangular Trade - Ships would leave with products from America, take
them to Africa in return for slaves, and bring the slaves to West Indies in
return for raw materials to make more products; made a large profit for
traders
● Molasses Act - Almost limited trade with French West Indies; would have
crippled economy of America; got around it through smuggling
● Anglican Church - Church of England founded by Henry VIII; ceremonies
were lax and reserved
● Congregational Church - Strict and intense; believed that people were
not devout enough, so many persuasive measures were taken, including
vivid descriptions of Hell and passionate speakers yelling at heathens.
Important Quotations:
● “In 1700 they contained fewer than 300,000 souls, about 20,000 of whom
were black. By 1775, 2.5 million people inhabited the thirteen colonies, of
whom about half a million were black” (84).
● “In comparison to contemporary Europe, eighteenth-century America
seemed like a shining land of equality and opportunity--with the notorious
exception of slavery. No titled nobility dominated society from on high, and
no pauperized underclass threatened it from below” (89).
● “Agriculture was the leading industry, involving about 90 percent of the
people. Tobacco continued to be the staple crop in Maryland and Virginia,
though wheat cultivation also spread through the Chesapeake, often on
lands depleted by the overgrowth of tobacco. The fertile middle (“bread”)
colonies produced large quantities of grain, and by 1759 New York alone
was exporting eighty thousand barrels of flour a year...Overall, Americans
probably enjoyed a higher standard of living than the masses of any
country in history up to that time” (91).
● “Some ministers, on the other hand, worried that many of their
parishioners had gone soft and that their souls were no longer kindled by
the hellfire of orthodox Calvinism. Liberal ideas began to challenge the
old-time religion. Some worshipers now proclaimed that human beings
were not necessarily predestined to damnation and might be saved
through good works. Even more threatening were the...Arminians...who
preached that individual free will, not divine decree, determined a person’s
eternal fate” (96).
● “Perhaps most significantly, the Great Awakening was the first
spontaneous mass movement of the American people. It tended to break
down sectional boundaries as well as denominational lines and
contributed to the growing sense that Americans had of themselves as a
single people, united by a common history and shared experiences” (97).
Main Idea/Thesis:
● Though it had its own inequality in the form of slavery and indentured
servitude, America was a land of opportunity for many, compared to the
oppression and poverty of many European nations.
Chapter 6: The Duel for North America
1608-1763
Main Idea:
War shaped the landscape as a great power struggle took place.
Summary:
Ambition, fighting and the planting of Old World civilization in the New World filled
much of the era. Nations like England, Holland, Spain and France were all fighting for a
strong presence in the New World. The Native Americans were looked down upon and
pushed out of the way to make way for the new inhabitants. This ambition for expansion
created tension between the various nations, resulting in numerous wars that shaped the
power of the New World. English colonists fought the French colonists, with the British
winning in the Ohio Valley and winning King George’s War. Britain then attempted a
large-scale invasion of, French controlled, Canada. The French and Indian created a great
situation for British advancement as after the Indians, with British assistance, were
victorious. Britain gained land in Florida.
While Britain was fighting to secure more land in North America, the American colonies
were becoming restless. The British did not recognize the militia commission and halted
American exports. The enraged colonists called for their rights, but because of disunity
between the colonies the British did not take this seriously. This forced the colonies to
look past their differences in religion and society and talked about how their voice.
Key Terms:
Edward Braddock—The first British commander in the Seven Years War. He failed to
capture Fort Duquesne. Caused opposing side to take a wider warpath and expose the
entire frontier from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.
William Pitt—A British commander from 1757-1758. He was more successful than
Braddock. Dispatched powerful expedition against Louisbourg and Quebec successfully.
James Wolfe—Was chosen by William Pitt to head the expedition against Quebec.
Succeeded in conquering Quebec and ending French control of Canada.
French and Indian War (Seven Years War)—War with France and its Native American
allies against Britain and its colonies. Resulted in an English victory. Britain received
land in Florida and Spain received Louisiana and Cuba in the peace settlement for the
war.
Albany Congress—A congress that advocated British unity during the Seven Years War.
The congress was meant to ensure that Britain’s colonies would support Britain in the
war.
Proclamation of 1763—Proclamation that enraged British-American colonists. Declared
that colonists couldn’t settle beyond the Appalachian Mountains.
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution Summary
The American colonists were pushed towards thoughts of independence, separation, and
revolution by the increasing influence of the British government in their daily lives.
Taxes that were levied by the British government as well as certain laws like the
Navigation Laws set limits on the rights of the colonists. The colonists believed that their
natural rights were being restricted and that they were not receiving adequate
representation within the British government. The phrase “no taxation without
representation” became a common outcry among the discontented colonies. The Sugar
Act, which placed a duty on all imported sugar as well as the Townshend Acts, a series of
taxes on other household goods, enraged the colonists even more. These provocations
along with emerging ideas of government like republicanism helped to ignite a spark of
revolution. The philosophies of mercantilism led Britain to use its colonies as merely
sources of revenue and a market for the goods it produced. The people of the colonies felt
that they were being used by their mother country and that their naturally earned rights
were being revoked. Although the odds were against them, the colonists decided that they
could no longer withstand the ignorance and oppression of England. Certain individuals
started to take action in showing their discontent. The Sons of Liberty, led by patriot
Samuel Adams enacted what came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. On December
16, 1773, a hundred Bostonians climbed aboard docked ships filled with tea, and dumped
them all into the harbor. Another demonstration of the worsening relationships between
Britain and the colonies was the Boston Massacre where a fight between British soldiers
and colonists escalated into a shooting in which eleven citizens were killed or
wounded. The situation grew turbulent as Britain employed military force in order to
keep the grieving colonists in check. The Intolerable Acts were passed by Britain in an
attempt to suppress the growing spirits of revolution. They closed off the Boston Port
until all the damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid for, the new Quartering Act
was enforced in which British soldiers could lodge anywhere, and many of the rights of
Massachusetts colonists were taken away as well. In response to these Intolerable Acts,
the Continental Congress of 1774 took place and twelve of the thirteen colonies,
excluding Georgia, sent delegates in an attempt to find a way to address the their
grievances. Congress drew up some petitions to offer to the British crown, but King
George III flatly rejected these terms. In April of 1775 a British commander in Boston
sent a detachment of troops to Lexington and Concord in order to seize the colonial stores
of gunpowder and bullets. They were also ordered to capture the leaders of the rebellion,
Samuel Adams and John Hancock. At Lexington, colonial minutemen stood their ground
and the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired, plunging the colonies into war.
Key Terms:
1 Mercantilism: The belief that a country’s wealth is derived from its wealth and the
amount of gold and silver that it has in its treasury. In order to achieve this,
mercantilist philosophy was that one must export more than one imported.
Possessing colonies was therefore an advantage because they provided a
guaranteed market for exports as well as raw materials that could be imported into
the mother country.
2 Navigation Law of 1650: The Navigation Law was part of a series of laws that were
issued in order to regulate and control the mercantilist system. It was aimed at
rival Dutch shippers who were trying to join in on the American carrying trade;
the law stated that all commerce flowing to and from the colonies could only be
transported by British vessels
3 Stamp Act: The Stamp Act was imposed in 1765 and mandated the use of stamped
paper or the affixing of stamps certifying payment of tax. The stamps were
required on bills of sale for over fifty items as well as on legal documents, playing
cards, and newspapers
4 Stamp act Congress of 1765: The Stamp Act Congress was a bringing together of
twenty-seven distinguished delegates from nine colonies in New York. They drew
up a statement of their rights and grievances and beseeched the king and
Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. It was largely ignored in England and didn’t
make too much noise in America, but it was important because it was another step
towards colonial unity and trust
5 The Townshend Acts: The Townshend Acts were passed by Parliament in 1767 under
the persuasion of Champagne Townshend. The Townshend Acts placed a light
import duty on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea; the taxes however were
made an indirect customs duty payable at American ports.
6 The Boston Massacre: On the evening of March 5, 1770 a crowd of about sixty
townspeople began taunting and throwing snowballs at a squad of ten British
soldiers. The British soldiers were provoked and nervous and ended up open
firing at the crowd and wounded or killed eleven citizens. Both sides were to be
blamed to some degree and in the trial, only two soldiers were found to be guilty
of manslaughter. The Boston Massacre was significant because it grew feelings of
hatred and hostility towards the British troops stationed in America, further
promoting a rebellious spirit among the colonists
7 Intolerable Acts: The Intolerable Acts were a series of acts that were passed by Britain
in attempt to control the upstart colonists. The most drastic of them all was the
Boston Port Act; it closed the harbor until damages were paid for and the order
could be restored in the area. Many of the Intolerable Acts were aimed directly at
Massachusetts to punish them for the Boston Tea Party and many of the chartered
rights were swept away
Important Quotes:
1 “The London government looked on the American colonists more or less as tenants.
They were expected to furnish products needed in the mother country, such as
tobacco, sugar, and ships’ masts; to refrain from making for export certain
products, such as woolen cloth or beaver hats; to buy imported manufactured
goods exclusively from Britain; and not to indulge in bothersome dreams of
economic self-sufficiency, or worse, self-government” (123)
2 “The Americans made a distinction between “legislation” and “taxation.” They
conceded the right of Parliament to legislate about matters that affected the entire
empire, including the regulation of trade. But they steadfastly denied the right of
Parliament, in which no Americans were seated, to impose taxes on Americans.”
(126)
3 “The Stamp act Congress, which was largely ignored in England, made little splash at
the time in America. Its ripples, however, began to erode sectional suspicions, for
it brought together around the same table leaders from the different and rival
colonies. It was one more halting but significant step towards intercolonial unity.”
(127)
4 “American dissenters responded sympathetically to the plight of Massachusetts. IT had
put itself in the wrong by the violent destruction of the tea cargoes; now Britain
had put itself in the wrong by brutal punishment that seemed far too cruel for the
crime.” (!33)
5 “The revolutionaries were blessed with outstanding leadership. George Washington
was a giant among men; Benjamin Franklin was a master among diplomats.”
(136) Thesis/Main Point
The American colonists were enraged by continuous wrongdoings from the British
motherland. Britain, under mercantilist ideals, merely utilized the colonies as sources of
raw materials and as a guaranteed market to sell its goods. Taxes and limitations such as
the Stamp Act and Intolerable Acts that were placed on the colonists incited them to
rebellion, which in turn bloomed into an all out war for independence.
Summary
Chapter 8
The second continental congress met in May of 1775, where they were not yet
looking for independence, rather than a leader by the name of George Washington. That
month, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the British at Ticonderoga and Crown
point where gunpowder and artillery were stored. The next month, colonists seized
Bunker Hill, where they slaughtered British thanks to sharpshooters. However, they ran
out of gunpowder and were forced to retreat. In July 1775, the colonists developed the
Olive Branch Petition where they declared loyalty to the crown in order to prevent further
hostilities, but King George had his mind set. He was able to get German forces
(Hessains) to provide as soldiers for the redcoats. That October, the colonists did not do
well, as they attempted to invade Canada to destruct a base for British. However, when
they attacked that December, Arnold was shot and Montgomery was killed (the two
leaders), they were forced to retreat. In January of the next year, British set fire to
Norfold Virgina, but then were evacuated from Boston taking loyalists. Then the
Southern colonies were able to get victories, one in Moore’s Creek (February) and the
other in Charleston Harbor (June). Thomas Paine then published Common Sense which
became largely popular, as well as spread the idea for republicanism, which leveled
social ladders. Then, on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia said that they
ought to be independent, and the idea was adopted July 2nd, where they gave the job of
drafting it to Thomas Jefferson. It was approved by congress on July 4, 1776, and was a
shout heard around the world. During this revolutionary war, the Americans were in two
groups. 16% were loyalists (also called Tories) who were loyal to the crown, others were
rebels, and others were neutrals. However, rebels produced revolutionary ideas
convincing neutrals to spend money on Patriotic efforts. After the declaration, many fled
to Britain, or were even hung. Hundreds were put in prison and had their land
confiscated. Many Scottish and Irish resented plantation owners in the south and served
as Tories, as well as other English minorities. Additionally, British promised African
Americans freedom (although several actually were tricked and were not freed), where
they served as a large group. London officials devised a plan to capture the Hudson
River, which could potentially win them the war. However, Benedict Arnold was able to
give colonists time when he was in the way with troops at Lake Champlain. At the same
time, Howe (British) invaded Philadelphia, making Washington retreat to Valley Forge
where Baron von Steuben of Germany whipped the weak militiamen into shape. Then,
when Burgoyne began north of Albany, militiamen trapped them, making them surrender
at Saratoga in October of 1777. France lost their power and prestige when losing to the
British after the seven years’ war, making them want to get revenge on Britain by helping
the rebels. At home, rebels wanted to end colonialism and mercantilism, where they
could have free trade. This resulted in the drafting of a “Model Treaty” in which they
were to dispatch to the French court. In this treaty, John Adams said there would to be no
political or military connection, but only a commercial connection. This made a turning
point in history as commercial interest would bring peace among states. Although this
was very “impractically utopian,” it brought a sense of idealism to Americans. Franklin
was sent to France to negotiate with them in 1776, where France then offered a treaty of
alliance and military support. The war between British and the motherland became
larger, as Spain and Holland soon stepped in to help the Americans. Catherine the Great
of Russia formed the Armed Neutrality which lined up European Neutrals in hostility
against British forces. British soon evacuated Philadelphia due to French blockades and
focused on their strength in New York. In June of 1778, rebels attacked redcoats in
Monmouth New Jersey, where they escaped to NY. Then in 1780, French sent in six
thousand troops under Rochambeau. However, that year, Benedict Arnold turned traitor
after feeling under-appreciated, almost selling the Hudson River until he got caught.
British then had a new strategy to take over the south, where Georgia and S Carolina fell.
However, American riflemen wiped out British at King’s Mountain and Cownpens, and
Nathaniel Greene exhausted British, resulting in clearing most British from Georgia and
S Carolina. At the frontier, most Indians sided with British hoping they would help save
their land. However, they were forced to sign the treaty of Fort Stanwix, giving up most
of their land. On the coast, privateers helped the American cause by gaining gold,
harassing British naval forces, and decreasing British shipping. After a dark period for
rebels in 1780-81, they gained a victory. British General Cornwallis went to Chesapeake
Bay for supplies and reinforcements. There, Washington led men on land to Chesapeake,
and French beat British forces by sea, resulting in redcoats being cornered. There, they
surrendered their entire force of 7,000 men. In 1783, the official Treaty of Peace at Paris
recognized the United States as independent, gave large boundaries, and Yankees were
given a share of Newfoundland.
Key Terms
Common Sense: Published in 1776, by the author of Thomas Paine, a man who had
just come from Britain a year earlier, it is one of the most influential pamphlets ever
written. He wrote that never in the world did such a small island such as Britain
control the large lands of America. It called not only for independence, but for a new
political strategy, a republic. This was the idea that power came from the people,
and not from a monarch. Authority from popular consent.
Declaration of Independence: The Declaration of Independence was approved by
Congress on July 4th, 1776. As young Thomas Jefferson was given the task of
drafting it, he wrote on ideas such as humankind’s “natural rights,” and since the
King had denied Americans such rights, a long list of tyrannous misdeeds was
written on King George III. Lastly, he affirmed that “all men are created equal,” a
term that Americans would continue to hold close. This declaration became known
as the “shout heard round the world” as it inspired other declaring documents.
Loyalists: Loyalists commonly viewed themselves as the “better sort of people” and
were usually conservative, wealthy, and well educated. These identified strongly to
and were loyal to Britain, and consisted of British veterans of the Seven Years’ War,
immigrants of the non-English regions of the British Isles, and other ethnic
minorities such as the Dutch, German, and French believed religious tolerance
would be greater under British.
Second Continental Congress: Meeting on May 10, 1775, all thirteen colonies were
represented. Although there was no desire for independence, there was a desire to
keep fighting GB. Of the most important actions of this congress was the selection of
George Washington to lead the army.
Treaty of Paris 1783: The British formally recognized the U.S. as independent, and
gave large boundaries stretching to the Mississippi, Great Lakes, and Spanish
Florida, and retained Newfoundland. However, Americans were not to persecute
Loyalists.
Quotes:
-Page 140: “The conservative element in Congress was still strong, despite the
shooting in Massachusetts. There was still no well-defined sentiment for
independence—merely a desire to continue fighting in the hope that the king and
Parliament would consent to a redress of grievances.”
-Page 141: “The clash of arms continued on a strangely contradictory basis. On the
one hand, the Americans were emphatically affirming their loyalty to the king an
earnestly voicing their desire to patch up difficulties. On the other hand, they were
raising armies and shooting down His Majesty’s soldiers. This curious war of
inconsistency was fought for fourteen long months—from April 1775 to July 1776—
before the fateful plunge into independence was taken.”
-Page 141: “Even at this late date, in July 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the
“Olive Branch Petition,” professing American loyalty to the crown and begging the
king to prevent further hostilities. But following Bunker Hill, King George III
slammed the door on all hope of reconciliation.”
-Page 144: “Paine’s passionate protest was as compelling as it was eloquent and
radical—even doubly radical. It called not simply for independence, but for the
creation of a new kind of political society, a republic, where power flowed from the
people themselves, not from a corrupt and despotic monarch.
-Page 155: “Jefferson’s pronouncement, couched in a lofty style, was magnificent.
He gave his appeal universality by invoking the “natural rights” of humankind—not
just British rights...he owned many slaves, and his affirmation that ‘all men are
created equal’ was to haunt him and his fellow citizens for generations.”
-Page 152: “At Trenton, on December 26, 1776, he surprised and captured a
thousand Hessians who were sleeping off the effects of their Christmas celebration.
A week later, leaving his campfires burning as a ruse, he slipped away and inflicted a
sharp defeat on a smaller British detachment at Princeton. This brilliant New Jersey
campaign, crowned by these two lifesaving victories, revealed “Old Fox” Washington
at his military best.”
-Page 155: “But the treaty with France also constituted an official recognition of
America’s independence and lent powerful military heft to the Patriot cause. Both
allies bound themselves to wage war until the United States had fully secured its
freedom and until both agreed to terms with the common enemy. With those
pledges, the American Revolutionary War now became a world war.”
-Page 159-160: “Three American peace negotiators had meanwhile gathered at
Paris: the aging but astute Benjamin Franklin; the flinty John Adams, vigilant for
New England interests; and the impulsive John Jay of New York, deeply suspicious of
Old World intrigue. The three envoys had explicit instructions from Congress to
make no separate peace and to consult with their French allies at all stages of the
negotiations…By the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the British formally recognized the
independence of the United States.
Thesis/Main Idea:
Although at first it was not the goal to secede from Great Britain and gain
independence, with influence from writers such as Thomas Paine and the growing
nationalistic attitude, after drafting a Declaration of Independence, wins and losses
in battle, and the alliance with France, America successfully gained recognition of its
independence and thus set forward to govern a new nation.
Chapter 9 Summary
As a feeble nation emerging from a war, the first priority of the United States was
not to deal with the issue of slavery, although tackled by the Quakers, but to establish a
government. This government would have to line up with the expectations of a people
who would not settle for another monarch who would take away their rights. To make
sure that the newly established government would not interfere with the states’, and
therefore the peoples’ rights, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution were
created.
The American Revolution did not overturn the social order. However, it did
produce significant changes in social customs, political institutions, and ideas about
society and government. Among the changes were the separation of church and state in
some places, the abolition of slavery in the North, written political constitutions, and a
shift in political power from the eastern seaboard toward the frontier. The first weak
national government, the Articles of Confederation, was unable to exercise real authority
over the states, although it did successfully deal with the western lands issue. The
Confederations weaknesses in handling foreign policy, commerce and Shay’s rebellion,
spurred a movement to alter the Articles: the Convention of Demigods. Instead of
revising the Articles, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention created a permanent
charter for a whole new government. In a series of compromises, the convention
produced a plan that provided for a central government, a strong executive branch, and
protection for property, while still keeping the republican principles and states’ rights.
The pro-Constitution Federalists, who
generally represented wealthier and more commercial forces, frightened other groups
who feared that the new government would undermine their rights and their interests. The
Federalists met their strongest opposition from Anti-Federalists in Virginia and New
York, but through effective organization and argument, as well as promises to incorporate
a bill of rights into the document, they succeeded in getting the Constitution ratified. By
establishing the new national government, the Federalists checked the Revolutionary
movement, but their conservative regime embraced the central Revolutionary values of
popular republican government and liberty.
Key Terms
Republican Motherhood: The idea that women held power and deserved great respect and
praise because they raise the children that will grow to become the working and voting
men of the nation and therefore held great power and responsibility with the future of the
republic.
Electoral College: The body of people representing the states, who formally cast votes for
the election of the President and Vice President.
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786): A measure enacted by the Virginia
legislature to prohibit state support for religious institutions and recognize freedom of
worship.
Confederation: A loose union of states where a federal and state level exist, yet the state
level retains the most sovereignty to rule as they saw fit.
Federalists: Were in favor of the 1787 Constitution, they wanted a strong national
government, arguing that the checks and balances in the new Constitution would
safeguard the people's liberties
Anti-Federalists: Opponents of the 1787 Constitution who cast the document as antidemocratic, objected to the subordination of the sates to a central government, and feared
encroachment on individual liberties in the absence of a bill of rights.
Land Ordinance of 1785: Provided for the sale of land in the old Northwest and utilized
the proceeds for repaying the national debt.
Three-fifths compromise 1787: An act determining that each slave would be counted as
three-fifths of a person to apportion taxes and representation; the compromise granted
disproportionate political power to the Southern slave states
Important Quotes
“The sorry truth is that the fledgling idealism of the Founding Fathers was sacrificed to
political expediency” (167).
“It is highly significant that in the United States, economic democracy, broadly speaking,
preceded political democracy” (169).
“All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and
wellborn, the other the mass of the people…. The people are turbulent and changing; they
seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent
share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot
receive any advantage by change, they therefore will ever maintain good government”
(170).
“Some citizens demanded, with more heat than wisdom, that the United States force the
British into line by imposing restrictions on their imports to America” (175).
“What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? ...The tree of
liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its
natural manure” (179).
Main Idea/Thesis
This chapter dealt with the two documents that the United States is built on: the Articles
of Confederation and the Constitution; outlining the strengths and weaknesses of each
and their effects on future legislature. Although the Articles of Confederation were weak
in many aspects, they were the stepping stone from which movements spurred that would
create the Constitution as well as the Bill of Rights. After it became evident that the
document did not serve its purpose due to inability to exercise real authority over the
states, the Constitution was created and with its ratification came two opposing political
parties: the Federalist and Anti-Federalist.
Chapter 10 Outline: Launching the New Ship of State
At the end of the 18th century, Americans regarded a central governing figure
as a necessary evil, and had overthrown the British rule and the Articles of
Confederation within 12 years. 90 percent of the people lived in rural areas. In 1789,
George Washington unanimously drafted as president by Electoral College. He
established a presidential cabinet made up of the head’s of department in Congress.
During this time, A majority of Anti-federalists criticized the Constitution, saying
that human rights were not protected enough. James Madison drafted Amendments
to the Constitution which preserved the idea of a strong central government, but
safeguarded some of Americans’ most important rights. John Jay became the first
chief justice of the United States. The Treasury Secretary of the United States,
Alexander Hamilton, took charge of controlling the economy. He envisioned creating
an economy which would favor the wealthier class, and money would trickle down
to the masses. This was the first step towards creating a capitalistic country with a
trickle-down economy. Hamilton urged Congress to fund the national debt at par,
which then would attach wealthy creditors to the federal government instead of the
states. Additionally, after intense and heated debates with the strict constructionist
Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton established the first Bank of the United States. He
placed tariffs on foreign goods and excise taxes of native products, which led to the
Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, during which George Washington was able to
demonstrate the growing power of the new government. All of these acts infuriated
many Americans, specifically James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Their
resentment to Hamilton’s actions led to the creation of the Democratic-Republican
Party, which has strengthened our government today, giving people a choice of
leadership during elections.
In 1789 The French Revolution erupted in Europe, which greatly affected
many Americans. At first, the Federalists were overjoyed and supported the
revolution; but as it turned bloody, they changed their ideas and disapproved of it.
In 1793, Washington issued his Neutrality Proclamation, which prevented the
newborn country from joining the war. However, many Federalists were discontent
with Wessington’s decisions, and wanted to join the war. John Jay was sent to
Britain to work out a treaty between the two countries, but this treaty on only
benefitted Britain. After serving two terms, George Washington stepped down and
warned the county against political parties and long-term alliances with other
countries. In 1797, John Adams was elected as president. During his presidency,
tensions built up with France (America’s former ally); Adams tried to resolve the
issue through the XYZ plan, but it did not work out; however, he did not go to war
with France, since he knew that it would have destroyed the country. In 1800, a
treaty was signed with France which ended the1788 alliance, but kept the two
countries at peace. During this time, the Federalists began to internally “attack” the
Jeffersonians by passing the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it really hard for
people to immigrate and assimilate into this new country. In response, Jefferson and
Madison wrote the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, which granted more power to
the states. However, they were brought down by the Federalists, who wanted a
strong federal government and to be ruled by the elite class, unlike the DemocratRepublicans, who appealed to the “common man” and wanted greater state rights.
Key Terms
Bill of Rights – The first ten amendments to the Constitution which protect the most
important aspects of human rights in the United States.
Judiciary Act of 1789 - the Supreme Court ruled that Congress cannot pass laws that
are contrary to the Constitution, and that it is the role of the judicial system to
interpret what the Constitution permits.
Strict construction/ loose construction – Different methods of interpreting the
Constitution, either literally and strictly, or loosely and broadly. Alexander Hamilton
embraced the idea of loose construction while Thomas Jefferson believed in strict
construction.
Neutrality Proclamation – formal announcement issued by George Washington
signifying America’s neutrality in the war involving France and Britain.
Alien and Sedition Acts – bills passed by the Federalists which limited further the
opportunities of immigrants and prevented them from quickly assimilating into this
country and culture.
Quotes
“[Hamilton] believed that within limits, a national debt was a “national blessing”—a
kind of union adhesive. The more creditors to whom the government owed money,
the more people there would be with a personal stake in the success of his
ambitious enterprise.” (194)
“Hamilton in general believed that what the Constitution did not forbid it permitted;
Jefferson, in contrast, generally believed that what it did not permit it forbade.”
(195)
“Hamilton’s high hopes for economic development depended on trade with Britain.
War with the world’s mightiest commercial empire would pierce the heart of the
Hamiltonian financial system.” (200)
“Above all, Washington had kept the nation out of both overseas entanglements and
foreign wars.” (201)
“The Federalist Congress raised the residence requirements for aliens who desired
to become citizens from a tolerable five years to an intolerable fourteen. This drastic
new law violated the traditional American policy of open door hospitality and
speedy assimilation.” (205)
Thesis/Main Idea
The end of the 18th century brought a lot of change to the United States. Alexander
Hamilton’s economic policies boosted the nation’s economy and trade, while
Washington’s clever governing prevented the nation from going to war. Although
the people divided into two separate political parties, the country was untied and
able to grow and progress, politically and economically.
Chapter 11: The Triumph and Travails of Jeffersonian Republic Summary
During the election of 1800, the Federalists suffered from various handicaps
that led to the victory (also known as “The Revolution of 1800”) of Thomas
Jefferson, a Democrat-Republican. Although after his inauguration, we soon learned
of how Jefferson went back on many of his pre-presidential goals. Through changes
such as a new naturalization law and ending the excise tax, Jefferson displayed
political and economic equality between the parties. Following the Judiciary Act of
1801, Chief Justice Marshall participated in the case, Marbury v. Madison (1803),
which resulted in the Supreme Court holding the power to determine the
constitutionality of laws (judicial review). By bargaining with Napoleon, Jefferson
was able to finalize the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, even though this purchase of
foreign land was not mentioned in the Constitution. In his second presidential term
(election of 1804), Jefferson decreed the Embargo Act of 1807 that eventually failed
leading to being replaced with the Non-Intercourse Act. After the election of 1809
resulting in James Madison as president, Congress adopted Macon’s Bill No. 2 in
1810, which permitted American global trade. With the numerous conflicts with the
Indians such as the War Hawks acting as a catalyst, war was eventually declared on
Britain in 1812.
Key Terms:





The Embargo Act of 1807: forbid all exportation of goods from the United
States but resulted in crippling our economy and was repealed in 1809
The Louisiana Purchase: In 1803, Jefferson acquired 828,000 square miles of
land for 15 million dollars from Napoleon. This land went from the Gulf Of
Mexico to the Rocky Mountains and Canada.
Non-Intercoarse Act: Replacing the Embargo Act in 1809, it reopened trade
with all countries except England and France.
Marbury V. Madison: Judicial review was established after Chief Justice John
Marshall dismissed Marbury’s suit demonstrating that the Supreme Court
had the final say in interpreting the Constitution.
The Judiciary Act of 1801: Passed by the federalist congress, allowed the
Federalists to maintain power even after becoming a minority party in
congress; resulted in the “midnight Judges”.
Important Quotes:



“The triumph of Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans and the eviction
of the Federalists marked the first party overturn in American history,” (pg.
217).
“But now his cousin [Marshall] on the Court had cleverly promoted the
contrary principle of “judicial review”—the idea that the Supreme Court
alone had the last word on the question of constitutionality,” (pg. 219).
“At the same time, the transfer [Louisiana Purchase] established valuable
precedents for future expansion: the acquisition of foreign territory and
peoples by purchase and their incorporation into the Union not as vassal
states but on a basis of equal membership,” (pg. 222).


“The real foundations of modern America’s industrial might were laid behind
the protective wall of the embargo, followed by nonintercourse and the War
of 1812,” (pg. 228).
“The Battle of Tippecanoe made Harrison a national hero. It also discredited
the Prophet and drove Tecumseh into an alliance with the British,” (pg. 231).
Main Idea: Although America experience various political hardships including
political party disagreements and foreign relations, the U.S. was able to positively
develop in terms of settling Constitutional confusion, industrial establishment, and
expansionism.
Chapter 12:
The War of 1812 was an unsuccessful war which brought little to both America and
Britain. The issues behind the war were largely cast aside with the Treaty of Ghent and it
was a war which was fought with little unity. However, the War of 1812 did bring a surge
of nationalism in America following the Treaty of Ghent and it also served as the
stepping stone for Andrew Jackson’s rise in popularity (which would later serve him
during his run for the presidency.) Along with the War of 1812 also came the downfall of
the Federalists (mostly due to the Hartford Convention.) As people continued to move
west, sectional tensions started to rise up even more between the North and the South.
One of the problems which arose was the question of slavery in Missouri. Henry Clay
lived up to his nickname as the “Great Compromiser” and proposed the Missouri
Compromise.
Key Terms:
Battle of New Orleans - Huge victory for American forces over the British. It propelled
Andrew Jackson to the status of a national hero.
Hartford Convention - Meetings which were held to discuss and address the grievances of
New England Federalists. The convention marked the fall of the Federalists.
Andrew Jackson - Led American troops at the Battle of New Orleans to victory and
subsequently became a national hero. He became the 7th president of the United States.
Missouri Compromise - A compromise which prohibited slavery in the remaining land of
the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36° 30’ line. This compromise was meant to help
keep the balance between the North and the South.
Monroe Doctrine - Prohibited further colonization of the Americas by European Powers
and also warned against foreign intervention.
Quotes:
“The results of this heroic naval battle were momentous. The invading British army was
forced to retreat. Macdonough thus saved at least upper New York from conquest, New
England from further disaffection, and the Union from possible dissolution. He also
profoundly affected the concurrent negotiations of the Anglo-American peace treaty in
Europe.” (Page 234)
“The United States had fought for honor as much as material gain. The Battle of New
Orleans restored that honor, at least in American eyes, and unleashed a wave of
nationalism and self-confidence.” (Page 236)
“The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve in 1814, was essentially an armistice.
Both sides simply agreed to stop fighting and to restore conquered territory. No mention
was made of those grievances for which America had ostensibly fought: the Indian
menace, search and seizure. Orders in Council, impressment, and confiscations. These
discreet omissions have often been cited as further evidence pf the insincerity of the war
hawks. Rather they are proof that the Americans had not managed to defeat the British.
With neither side able to impose its will, the treaty negotiations―like the war
itself―ended as a virtual draw.” (Page 237)
“Manufacturing prospered behind the wooden wall of the British blockade. In both an
economic and a diplomatic sense, the War of 1812 bred greater American independence.
The industries that were thus stimulated by the fighting rendered America less dependent
on Europe’s workshops.” (Page 239)
“Marshall’s decisions are felt even today...He buttressed the federal Union and helped to
create a stable, nationally uniform environment for business. At the same time, Marshall
checked the excesses of popularly elected state legislatures...Marshall almost singlehandedly shaped the Constitution along conservative, centralizing lines that ran
somewhat counter to the dominant spirit of the new country.” (Page 250)
Thesis:
The 19th century was a chaotic time for the United States. People were flowing into the
West and the question of slavery was becoming a big problem which threatened the
balance between the North and the South. One of the key points during the 19th century
was the Second War for Independence. Although the War of 1812 was an unsuccessful
war, it resulted in a rise in nationalism, led to a less dependent America (and stimulated
industry growth), and it also elevated Andrew Jackson to a position in which he was later
able to become the 7th president of the United States.
Chapter 13 The Rise of a Mass Democracy, 1824-1840
The 1820s and 1830s were years highlighted by Andrew Jackson's presidency and
the new form of democracy that developed in America. In the election of 1824, all four
candidates failed to win a majority of the electoral vote. The House of Representatives
was forced to decide between the top three candidates: William H. Crawford, John
Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, was able to
persuade the House of Representatives to vote for the candidate of his choice, John
Quincy Adams. After Adams won the election, Henry Clay was chosen as the new
secretary of state. Many citizens at the time believed that a corrupt bargain had been
made between Adams and Clay to ensure Adams' victory in the election. Adams turned
out to be one of the least successful presidents. This allowed Andrew Jackson to easily
defeat Adams in the election of 1828. Jackson's simple, popular beliefs and frontier style
appealed to the masses and reinforced the belief that an ordinary citizen could hold public
office. Jackson however, was no ordinary citizen. Although Jackson's upbringings had its
shortcomings, he was able to rise from the masses and become a frontier aristocrat. He
owned many slaves, oversaw many acres of land, and lived in one of the finest mansions
in America.
During his time as president, Jackson implemented the spoils system. He gave
public office positions to political supporters rather than qualified individuals. Under
Jackson, office positions were now maintained by illiterates, incompetents, and crooks
that bought their way into the government. Sectionalism and an anxiety about slavery
continued to grow after the "Tariff of Abominations" was passed and the nullification
crisis occurred in South Carolina.
Jackson's democrats were strong believers in western expansion. Expansion
however, was difficult because large amounts of Native Americans were living in the
forests and prairies east of the Mississippi. In order to open this land up to settlement,
Jackson proposed the Indian Removal Act. Over 100,000 Indians were forced to leave
their lands and head west to established Indian reservations.
During his presidency, Jackson was able to exercise the powers of the presidency
against his opponents. One of his many goals as president was to destroy the Bank of the
United States. He believed it was a direct threat to American democracy because it only
benefited the wealthiest members of society. Jackson vetoed the recharter bill and the
bank was officially buried in 1833. The destruction of the national bank left the country
without an effective financial system causing the economy to become unstable.
Andrew Jackson did not run for president in the election of 1836 because he
believed he was too old to consider a third term. Instead, Jackson chose Martin Van
Buren as his successor. Van Buren attempted to maintain and continue many of Jackson's
policies; however, the panic of 1837 and the economic depression that ensued created
many problems for president Van Buren. In 1836, Texas, which was largely populated by
Americans, declared its Independence from Mexico. Following Texas' victory, the
territory was recognized as a republic, but because of the slavery controversy, was
refused its annexation into the United States. In the election of 1840, Whig candidate
William Henry Harrison defeated Martin Van Buren. The Whig victory signaled the
emergence of a new two-party system.
Key Terms
The "Corrupt Bargain" of 1824: The corrupt bargain was an agreement that many
Jacksonians believed occurred between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams during the
election of 1824. They believed that Adams promised Clay the position of secretary of
state if Clay persuaded the House of Representative to vote for Adams.
The Trail of Tears: The Trail of Tears was the path that many Native Americans took in
order to reach the established reservations set up by the American government in the
Oklahoma territory. Over 100,000 Indians, mostly from the Five Civilized Tribes,
marched to this new territory.
The Bank War: The bank war was a political battle between president Jackson and the
National Bank. Jackson believed that the bank was unconstitutional because it only
benefited the elites of society. In 1832, Jackson vetoed a bill proposed by Henry Clay that
would renew the National Bank. The bank was officially destroyed by Jackson in 1833.
Panic of 1837: The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis that led to an economic
depression in the United States that lasted until the mid 1840s. The depression was partly
due to the destruction of the National Bank by Andrew Jackson.
The Lone Star Rebellion: The Lone Star Rebellion was Texas' war for independence.
Texas, which was heavily populated by Americans, called for independence in 1836.
Following their victory, the Texans were refused annexation because of the issue of
slavery in the United States.
Important Quotes
"Although a considerable part of Jackson's support was lined up by machine politicians in
eastern cities, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania, the political center of gravity
clearly had shifted away from the conservative eastern seaboard toward the emerging
states across the mountains" (p 261).
"Jackson's policy led to the forced uprooting of more than 100,000 Indians. In 1830,
Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, providing for the transplanting of all Indian
tribes then resident east of the Mississippi" (p 266).
"But the death of the Bank of the United States left a financial vacuum in the American
economy and kicked off a lurching cycle of booms and busts" (p 271).
"Antislavery crusaders in the North were opposing annexation with increasing
vehemence. They contended that the whole scheme was merely a conspiracy cooked up
by southern 'slavocracy' to bring new slave pens into the Union" (p 280).
"The second dramatic change resulting from the 1840 election was the formation of a
vigorous and durable two-party system" (p 283).
Thesis
The election of Andrew Jackson brought in the new idea of mass democracy and popular
involvement, which swept through American society bringing energy, conflict, and
corruption to public life.
Chapter 14 Outline
Forging the National Economy 1790-1860
Summary
Americans, half of them being under the age of thirty, were restless and
continually moving westward. Although legend portrays pioneer families as being strong
and successful, in reality life was extremely hard for the settlers of the west. Pioneers
were subject to disease due to the fact that they were poorly fed with an inadequate
amount of clothes for the weather conditions they were facing and their hastily made
housing arrangements. Careless pioneers often exhausted the land of the tobacco regions,
leaving barren fields in their wake. By the 1820s, fur-trapping became a very large and
profitable industry, causing beavers and buffalo to become almost extinct in the west.
Yet Americans at this time were also admiring the natural wonders of America, inspiring
literature and paintings that sparked a conservation movement.
As Americans began to expand westward, they began to rapidly multiply as well,
the population doubling every 25 years. The United States was the fourth-most populous
nation in the western hemisphere. Urban growth exploded as well; in 1790 there had
been only two American cities that had a population of 20,000 or more, but by 1860 there
were 43. This rapid urbanization led to many problems such as inadequate policing,
improper garbage disposal, impure water, infestation of rats and other rodents, and foul
sewage. Although the high birth-rate accounted for most of the population increase,
immigrants were coming to America rapidly as well. The influx of immigrants tripled
from 60,000 a year in the 1840s and quadrupled in the 1850s. Immigrants came to
America partly because Europe was overcrowded, but mostly in hope of finding success
in America. Immigrants, especially the two large groups-Germans and Irish, were
heavily discriminated upon because of their looks, the way they talked, their customs, and
mostly because of the fact that Americans saw them as competition for jobs.
Eli Whitney created the cotton gin in 1793, causing the production of cotton fiber
to become highly profitable and tying the South to King Cotton. Both the North and the
South prospered with this invention, as the South provided the cotton and the North made
textiles with it. Samuel F. B. Morse invented the telegraph, revolutionizing
communication in America. The factory system created by inventions such as the cotton
gin and the sewing machine caused relationships between employer and employee to
diminish, causing “wage slaves” to be created. These workers were forced to work long
hours with little pay and meager meals in unsanitary, unsafe conditions including poor
ventilation, lighting, and heating. These “wage slaves” were forbidden to form unions
and to strike, as it was seen as criminal activity. Children were also abused by this
system, causing them to be physically and mentally stunted as well as emotionally
starved. Eventually, laborers learned that if they wanted anything to change with their
conditions or rights, they must refuse to work, even at risk of prosecution under the law.
They protested for ten-hour work days, higher wages, and improved working conditions,
as well as demanding public education for their children and an end to the practice for
imprisonment for debt.
Factory jobs allowed for greater economic independence for women by allowing
them to become self-supporting. Job opportunities for women were few and far between,
with only certain professions being open to women, including teaching, nursing, and
domestic service. The vast majority of workingwomen were single, as when they became
married they left their paying jobs to take up their new jobs as wives and mothers.
Women’s changing roles led to the shrinking of families, and birth control was becoming
more widely used, showing that women had a bigger part in deciding how many children
they wanted.
Transportation methods increased and improved, with the notable creations of the
steamboat and highway. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825, with it bringing the
lowering of the cost and time to ship products. The most important addition to
transportation in America, however, was the railroad. The first railroad appeared in the
United States in 1828 and by 1860, the United States boasted 30,000 miles of railroad
track, three-fourths of it in the North.
Key Terms
Antiforeignism-The policy/practice of showing hostility towards foreigners, their
customs, etc.
Mechanization-To introduce machinery to something, especially to replace manual labor
Cotton gin-A machine built by Eli Whitney in 1793 that revolutionized the spinning of
cotton thread. This machine made cotton much more profitable and tied the South to
King Cotton.
“Wage Slaves”-Laborers who worked under extremely harsh conditions, including long
hours and skimpy meals, for very low pay. These workers were forbidden from forming
unions or striking.
“Factory girls”-Women, usually young, who worked in factories six days a week for 1213 hours a day, earning very little pay but hoping to find some economic stability
Commonwealth v. Hunt-In 1842, the supreme court of Massachusetts ruled that labor
unions were not illegal conspiracies, provide that their methods were “honorable and
peaceful.” This ruling started the legalization of strikes.
Erie Canal-Canal that linked the Great Lakes with the Hudson River; completed in 1825.
This lowered the price and time needed to ship items from Buffalo to New York City and
the canal also raised the value of land along the route as well as raising the industry in the
state.
Important Quotes
“During these two feverish decades [1840-50], over a million and a half Irish and nearly
as many Germans, swarmed down the gangplanks.” (291)
“Forced to live in squalor, [Irish immigrants] were rudely crammed into the already-vile
slums. They were scorned by the older American stock, especially “proper” Protestant
Bostonians, who regarded the scruffy Catholic arrivals as a social menace.” (292)
“Not only sis the newcomers take jobs from “native” Americans, but the bulk of the
displaced Irish were Roman Catholics, as were a substantial minority of the Germans.”
(296)
“’Nativists’ agitated for rigid restrictions on immigration and naturalization and for laws
authorizing the deportation of alien paupers.” (296)
“Human bondage had been dying out, but the insatiable demand for cotton reriveted the
chains on the limbs of the downtrodden southern blacks.” (301)
“Ironically, the Yankee Eli Whitney, by perfecting the cotton gin, gave slavery a renewed
lease on life, and perhaps made the Civil War more likely.” (303)
“Chugging steamboats played a vital role in the opening of the West and the South, both
of which were richly endowed with navigable rivers. Like bunches of grapes on a vine,
population clustered along the banks of the broad-flowing rivers.” (311)
Main Idea/Thesis
Industrialization in the United States, although providing greater means of transportation
through the railroad and the steamboat and providing easier and quicker communication
through the telegraph, also caused many problems in American society. Exploitation of
workers, especially through the idea of “wage slavery,” took away people’s
Constitutional rights, and the extremely rapid urbanization of cities caused problems such
as rodent infestation, improper garbage disposal, and impure water. Also, the influx of
immigrants, mostly Irish and German, provided for increased tension between “native”
Americans and foreigners, causing antiforeignism to take root in the United States.
Chapter 15 Outline
Through the 1790s up until the Civil War, the ferment of reform and culture
plagued the country. The first of these changes was aimed towards religion during
the Second Great Awakening, which began in the early 1800s. Its main objective was
the revitalization of religion through mass conversions and large public religious
revivals. New York became so populated by these revivals that it became known as
the “Burned-Over District.” Charles Grandison Finney participated as a preacher and
an influential speaker. The public school system also expanded during this time as
Horace Mann argued for better schoolhouses and a more rigorous school
curriculum. With this reform aimed towards education came women who wanted to
attend universities, despite the fact that coeducation was seen as “unfit” for a
woman, tightly entangled in society’s “cult of domesticity.” Women still worked to
find ways of influencing society through not only their own movement, but through
others. They found a spot among avid evangelicals, fervent foes of alcohol, and
through literature as well. One of the most well-known novels of the time was
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852. Other prominent
women of the time were Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Margaret
Fuller, who contributed to the transcendental newspaper, The Dial. Reform could
also be shown through the radical “bloomers” of the time, designed by Amelia
Bloomer and acting as a means of physical liberation. Aside from the advancements
of women’s rights, literature, art and science reached a new era of profound
improvement. Medical schools in America were becoming more common and
anesthetics were invented. In the world of literature, the transcendental movement
was formed. The most well-known transcendentalists were Henry David Thoreau
and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau would later become a radical abolitionist in
fact. As seen throughout these movements, reformers were usually involved and
affected by other movements, greatly aiding the momentum of progress in the
course of the years leading up to Civil War. All of those who took part in the reform
movement during this time contributed to great advancements that have had an
influential role in the shaping of American culture.
Key Terms
Oneida Community- Utopian society based in New York and founded by John
Humphrey Noyes. They believed in a shared property and polygamy.
Deism- Liberal, intellectual movement that rejected original sin and Christ’s divinity.
Tenets sparked anger among staunch religious followers, partly accounted for the
Second Great Awakening and the Unitarian faith.
Seneca Falls- Held the Woman’s Rights Convention of 1848. Among those present
was Elizabeth Cady Stanton who read the “Declaration of Sentiments,” demanding
equality.
Second Great Awakening- Religious movement which occurred in the early 1800s
and promoted large, camp-like revivals. It had a large effect on later moral reform
movements.
Joseph Smith- Founds Mormon church and published the Book of Mormon, he was
later killed by those who opposed his faith.
Dorothea Dix- Reformer who played a key role in reforming the system of
maltreatment pertaining to the mentally ill.
American Temperance Society- Organization formed in Boston in 1826. Held over
one thousand members and fought the evils of alcohol through pamphlets and
lectures.
Five Key Quotes
“As the young Republic grew, reform campaigns of all types flourished in sometimes
bewildering abundance. Some reformers were simply crackbrained cranks. But
most were intelligent, inspired idealists, usually touched by the fire of evangelical
religion then licking through the pews and pulpits of American churches.” Pg. 328
“The home was the woman’s special sphere, the center-piece of the ‘cult of
domesticity.’ Even reformers like Catharine Beecher, who urged her sisters to seek
employment as teachers, endlessly celebrated the role of the good homemaker. But
some women increasingly felt that the glorified sanctuary of the home was in fact a
gilded cage.” Pg. 331
“The religious zeal of the Great Awakening led to the planting of many small,
denominational, liberal arts colleges chiefly in the South and West. Too often they
were academically anemic, established more to satisfy local pride than genuinely to
advance the cause of learning.” Pg. 326
“These mystical doctrines of transcendentalist defied precise definition, but they
underlay concrete beliefs. Foremost was a stiff-backed individualism in matters
religious as well as social. Closely associated was a commitment to self-reliance, selfculture, and self-discipline.” Pg. 341
“During the nationalistic upsurge after the War of 1812, American painters of
portraits turned increasingly from human landscapes to romantic mirrorings of
local landscapes. The Hudson River school excelled in this type of art.” Pg. 339
Main Idea/Thesis
Following the Second Great Awakening, numerous reform movements sprouted as a
result, such as the temperance movement, women’s rights movement, and prison
reform.
Chapter 16 Outline
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin served to save the dying business of slavery in the South.
After the gin was invented, growing cotton became wildly profitable and easier, and
more slaves were needed; the problems of the South: depressed prices,
unmarketable goods, and over cropped-lands, seemed to disappear. The North also
transported cotton from the South to England and the rest of Europe, so they were
in part responsible for the slave trade as well. The South produced more than half
the world’s supply of cotton, and held an advantage over countries like England, an
industrial giant, which needed cotton to make cloth. As time progressed, the South
believed (incorrectly) that since England was so dependent on them that, if civil war
were to ever break out, England would support the South due to their dependence
on cotton.
The plantation system of the South shaped the lives of Southern women in ways that
lent them more power than their Northern counterparts did. Mistresses of the
house commanded a sizable household of mostly female slaves who cooked, sewed,
cared for the children, and washed things; they were either kind or cruel, but all of
them did at one point or another abuse their slaves to some degree; there was no
“perfect mistress.” It should also be noted that while the wealthy aristocracy of the
South, with big houses and huge plantations owned approximately 100+ slaves each,
they were sparse in number compared to the poor whites of the South. These
aristocrats widened the gap between the rich and the poor as well as aggravated
tensions by hampering public funded education by sending their children to private
schools. However, slaveless whites defended the slavery system because they all
hoped to own a slave or two someday, and they could take perverse pleasure in
knowing that, no matter how bad they were, they always “outranked” blacks.
Overall, cotton production spoiled the earth, and even though profits were quick
and high, the land was ruined, and cotton producers were always in need of new
land and sometimes new slaves as well. The economic structure of the South
became increasingly monopolistic because as land ran out, smaller farmers sold
their land to the large estate owners. Slaves were valuable, but they were also a
gamble, since they might run away or be killed by disease. Finally, the dominance of
“King Cotton” led to a one-crop economy whose price level was at the mercy of
world conditions.
During the 1800s, blacks whether free or enslaved, were treated poorly. Free blacks
were prohibited from working in certain occupations and forbidden from testifying
against whites in court; and as examples of what slaves could be, whites resented
them. In the North, free blacks were also unpopular, as several states denied their
entrance, most denied them the right to vote and most barred them from public
schools. Enslaved blacks were treated even more harshly as slave auctions were
brutal, with slaves being inspected like animals and families often mercilessly
separated. Harriet Beecher Stowe seized the emotional power of this scene in her
Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In general, slave life varied from place to place, but for slaves
everywhere, life meant hard work, no civil or political rights, and whipping if orders
were not followed. Rebellions did occur such as the 1800 insurrection by a slave
named Gabriel in Richmond, Virginia, and the 1822 Charleston rebellion led by
Denmark Vesey, and the 1831 revolt semiliterate preacher Nat Turner; however,
these rebellions were never successful. They did scare the whites, which led to
tightened restrictions for slaves and free blacks alike. whites became paranoid of
Black revolts, and they had to degrade themselves, along with their victims, as noted
by distinguished Black leader Booker T. Washington.
Some whites who saw the true nature of slavery took a stand to try to end the
“peculiar institution.” On January 1, 1831, William Lloyd Garrison published the
first edition of The Liberator triggering a 30-year war of words and in a sense firing
one of the first shots of the Civil War. Other dedicated abolitionists rallied around
Garrison, such as Wendell Phillips, a Boston patrician known as “abolition’s golden
trumpet” who refused to eat cane sugar or wore cotton cloth, since both were made
by slaves. The greatest Black abolitionist was an escaped black, Frederick Douglass,
who was a great speaker and fought for the Black cause despite being beaten and
harassed. By the conclusion of the 1850s and at the turn of the 1860s, the South
was viewed quite negatively for perpetuating slavery; aggravated tensions between
the North and the South would lead to civil war.
Key Terms:
1. cotton gin- Eli Whitney’s invention that enabled the cultivation of shortstaple cotton at unprecedented speeds
2. “Cotton is King!” - a metaphor held by Southern leaders, referring to cotton
as the king that brought the Southern elite power
3. poor whites- white farmers who were not the planter aristocracy. These
were often small farmers who were many times as poor as the slaves were.
(Also referred to as yeomen.)
4. Uncle Tom’s Cabin- a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that advocated for
abolition of slaves
5. Free blacks- sometimes known as a “third race.” These blacks purchased
their freedom in the South and sometimes owned property. Many times, they
were treated as poorly by whites as the slaves were.
6. slave auction- a place for slave-owners to buy and sell slaves. Slaves were
often separated from their families at events like these.
7. abolitionism- the movement to end slavery
8. William Lloyd Garrison- a prominent American abolitionist, journalist and
social reformer. He was the editor of the radical abolitionist newspaper The
Liberator, and one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
9. gag resolution- a strict rule passed by pro-Southern congressmen in 1836 to
prohibit all discussion of slavery in the house of representatives
Important Quotes:
“Southern leaders were fully aware that Britain was tied to them by cotton threads,
and this dependence gave them a heady sense of power” (350).
“What a stupendous…machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes,
imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next
moment…inflict on his fellow man a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with
more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose” (Thomas
Jefferson, 351).
“Only a handful of southern whites lived in Grecian-pillared mansions. Below these
1733 families in 1850 who owned a hundred or more slaves were the less wealthy
slaveowners. They totaled in 1850 some 345,000 families” (353).
“It was sometimes observed that white southerners, who were often suckled and
reared by black nurses, liked the black as an individual but despised the race. The
white northerner, on the other hand, often professed to like the race but disliked the
individual blacks” (357).
“[T]here is but one opinion of him. Wherever he goes he arouses sympathy in your
cause and love for himself... Our expectations were highly roused by his narrative,
his printed speeches, and the eulogisms of the friends with whom he has been
staying: but he far exceeds the picture we had formed both in outward graces,
intellectual power and culture, and eloquence” (366).
Main Idea: The profitability of cotton in the early 1800s led to a new Southern
society consisting of a large plantation hierarchy and wide-scale slavery,
which caused much chaos in the North and South about the future of the
nation; a rebellion against the social norms led by the abolitionists of the day
helped to show the nation slavery was truly evil.
Chapter 17
Summary
The 1840s was a decade root with expansionism and increased tensions with
European powers. The decade begins with the death of president Harrison after
only four weeks in office, ushering in the presidency of John Tyler. Tyler would go
on to espouse democratic stats-rights doctrine, while officially being under the Whig
banner. During his presidency, however, America would begin into assent into
expansionism, beginning with Main.
England and America were not on good terms at this time. Many Englishmen
and publishers saw the Americans as barbaric and unmannered. This was coupled
with an attack Britain made on an American vessel, the Caroline, which was sending
supplies to support a Canadian insurrection. The attack stayed fresh in the minds of
many Americans due to a man almost being executed for claiming to be apart of the
attack.
In both Oregon and Texas, influxes of Americans came before the American
government did. Large numbers of Americans, either being pushed by America as in
Oregon, or drawn by Mexico, as in Texas, settled by the thousands. In Texas
however, the Americans formed a new and independent nation before being
annexed by the states, something unique to their state (though something similar
happened in California, it was not to the same extent). The admittance of Texas
brought up the issue of balancing the senate with pro and anti slavery senators.
Ultimately the largest move for expanse, and the most controversial, would
be that of Polk’s Mexican-American War. This endeavor began with controversy.
Polk orders soldiers to move into Texas and to the Rio Grande, populated at that
time by Mexicans. Many Mexicans, seeing this as an invasion by America, attacked
the soldiers, giving Polk “justification” for war. The war would not claim many lives
(comparatively to other wars and the scope of this one), and it would result in
American gaining about a third more land then it already processed.
Key Terms
Webster-Ashburton Treaty: a signed august 9th, 1848. The treaty was put in place
to resolve border issues between the United States and the British North American
colonies.
The Mexican-American War: lasting from 1846-1848, the war was fought between
the U.S. and Mexico over the territories of Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico,
Utah.
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo: was the result of the Mexican-American War. The
treaty was signed on February 1848 and granted the U.S. large tracks of land.
Battle of Buena Vista: Fought on February 23rd, 1847. The U.S. army led by Zachary
Taylor, defeated Santa Ana’s army at Buena Vista.
Caroline Affair: The United States and Britain began to clash due to a series of
events in 1837. An American steamer carrying supplies was attacked across the
Niagara River to strenuous relations between the two powers.
Quotes
“Both the government of the United States and Texas are founded upon the same
political code… they will flourish side by side and the blight which affects the one
will surely reach the other.”
- Thomas j. Green (p.375)
“Yankee Doodle borrows cash,
Yankee Doodle spends it,
And then he snaps his fingers at
The Jolly flat [simpleton] who lends it.” (p.374)
“A British caricature of America rudeness and readiness with the pistol.” (p.373)
“The act of sending an armed force among the Mexicans was unnecessary, inasmuch
as Mexico was in no way molesting or menacing the United States or the people
thereof…” (p.382)
“Now we ask, whether any man can coolly contemplate the idea of recalling our
troops from the [Mexican] territory we at present occupy…and…resign this beautiful
country to the custody of the ignorant cowards and profligate ruffians who have
ruled it for the last twenty-five years?”
- New York Evening Post in 1848 (p.384)
Chapter 18 Outline
Summary
By 1850, the country remained divided on the issue of slavery, and the idea of
popular sovereignty, or allowing the residents of a territory to decide whether slavery was
to be permitted, took hold. However, California had experienced a gold rush and was
requesting to join the Union as a free state, which would upset the balance of free and
slave states. This was resolved with the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California
as a free state, opened Utah and New Mexico to popular sovereignty, and passed the
Fugitive-Slave Law, which placed harsher penalties on runaway slaves. Zachary Taylor
was elected President in 1848, but he died in 1850, leaving Millard Fillmore to take over.
Fillmore signed a series of compromises, ushering in the Era of Good Feelings. After
Whig candidate Winfield Scott lost the 1852 election to Democrat Franklin Pierce, the
Whig party came to an end. Pierce was an expansionist, and a spirt of Manifest Destiny
led the United States to pursue imperialist interests in Nicaragua and Cuba. Pierce created
a plan called the Ostend Manifesto, in which America would attack the Spanish in Cuba
if Spain did not sell Cuba for $120 million, but this document leaked and Pierce came
under harsh criticism from Northerners for the plan’s support for slavery. In 1854,
Stephen Douglas proposed a scheme that would split the Nebraska Territory into two
territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and their status regarding slavery would be decided by
popular sovereignty. This act would contradict the Compromise of 1820, which
prohibited slavery north of the 3630’ line, and as a result the plan was vehemently
opposed by northerners. Despite this, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed, dividing the
nation and eventually leading to the Civil War.
Key Terms
Popular Sovereignty- the concept that the people of a territory the people of a territory
decide whether slavery would be legal
Compromise of 1850- admitted California as a free state, opened Utah and New Mexico
to popular sovereignty, and passed the Fugitive-Slave Law, which set stricter penalties
for runaway slaves.
Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850- Part of Compromise of 1850, established harsher penalties
for runaway slaves and required slaves who had runaway previously to be returned south.
Outraged northern abolitionists.
Ostend Manifesto- Polk’s document calling for an attack against Spanish should Spain
refuse to sell Cuba. The plan drew heavy criticism for its pro-slavery and imperialist
themes, so it was not carried out.
Kansas-Nebraska Act- Split Nebraska Territory into two territories— Kansas and
Nebraska— and allowed them to decide slavery with popular sovereignty, voiding the
northern boundary set by the Compromise of 1820. It also made the Fugitive-Slave Law
be enforced more strictly.
Quotes
“Popular sovereignty had a persuasive appeal. The public liked it because it accorded
with the democratic tradition of self-determination. Politicians like it because it seemed a
comfortable compromise between the pro and anti-slavery forces.” Page 391
“Clay urged with all his persuasiveness that the North and South both make concessions
and that the North partially yield by enacting a more feasible fugitive-slave law.” Page
396
“As presiding officer of the Senate, [Fillmore] had been impressed with the arguments for
conciliation, and he gladly signed the series of compromise measures that passed
Congress after seven long months of debate.” Page 397
“Meeting initially at Ostend, Belgium, the three American envoys drew up a top-secret
dispatch, soon known as the Ostend Manifesto. The startling document urged that the
administration offer $120 million for Cuba. If Spain refused, the United States would be
‘justified in wresting’ the island from the Spanish.” Page 403
“The growing legion of antislaveryites gained numerous recruits, who resented the
grasping move by the ‘slavocracy’ for Kansas. The southerners, in turn, became inflamed
when the free-soilers tried to control Kansas, contrary to the presumed deal.” Page 408
Theme
After Taylor’s election, the United States continued to postpone the slavery issue with
compromises like popular sovereignty. However, as the country expanded, issues popped
up that caused the tensions between the North and South steadily grow tighter.
Chapter 19: Drifting Toward Disunion
Summary
This chapter addresses the final episode of the antebellum period that
pertains to the dissolution of the union and the subsequent creation of the
Confederate States of America and the causes that led to this event. Since slavery
had been a repressed issue by the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of
1850 and mentally overall, slavery reared its ugly head ostensibly in the mid-1850’s
and needed to be decided upon. Literary works such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Hinton R. Helper’s The Impending Crisis of the South brought
this controversial issue to the North revealing the truth of slavery to the North
which strained sectional tensions. Another conflict over slaver was Bleeding Kansas,
an event in 1856 that pitted Northern abolitionists and Southern pro-slaveryites in a
state that could decide on the issue of slavery by the voice of the people. This
difference led to the attack on the free-soil town of Lawrence; in reaction to this
attack John Brown massacred supposed pro-slaveryites in Pottawatomie. This
inflamed sectional ideas because the North applauded this man for his actions and
portrayed him as an equal of Jesus.
In a political instance of these feelings, Charles Sumner, an abolitionist, was
assaulted by a South Carolina Senator Preston S. Brooks on the Senate floor. North
and South both defiantly defended their candidates leading more to sectional
tensions. These sectional tensions were aided by the fact that the Democrats ceased
to be a national party since the Whigs had died and the Republicans were sectional.
This came into effect after the Election of 1856 when James Buchanan, blind to the
sectional differences in his party, strongly supported the Lecompton Constitution,
antagonizing the Douglas Democrats. Another issue between the North and the
South was the Dred Scott Case, which concluded unfavorably against the North with
the Court ruling that a slave was property and they could not hinder the master’s
right of property, and stated that the Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional.
The Panic of 1857 was a financial crisis that mostly impacted the North while
the South rode out practically unharmed with the blessings of King Cotton. This
placed famers into debt which lost their farms and business owners blamed the
plight on the low tariffs. Also, Abraham Lincoln emerged as a political factor in the
famous Douglas-Lincoln debates in which he professed his hatred for the spreading
of slavery, but did not outright say that slavery should be ended. These events all led
to the Election of 1860. With the Democrats hopelessly split between the North
Douglas Democrats and the South Democrats led by John C. Breckenridge. There
was also another party called the Constitutional Union led by John Bell; with these
several different parties, Lincoln was capable of becoming a minority president
through votes only from the North. With the sectional Lincoln in place of power the
South began to succeed because they abhorred “King Abe” starting with South
Carolina. They failed at any sort of compromise when Lincoln dejected the
Crittenden Compromise out of spite towards the aspect of allowing slavery the
chance to spread.
Key Terms
Bleeding Kansas: The district of Kansas in 1856 when popular sovereignty would
allow the inhabitants to decide on the issue of slavery in their district. With
abolitionists and pro-slaveryites implanted in the county, the people veritably went
to war before the Civil War starting with the beleaguered town of Lawrence and the
Pottawatomie massacre.
Sumner-Brooks Clash: A representation of sectional feelings on the Senate floor as
Preston S. Brooks attacked Charles Sumner with a cane. In retaliation, Sumner wrote
an inflammatory note to Brooks. Both sides defended their Senators obstinately.
Dred Scott Case: A case in which a slave – Dred Scott – was bound with his master
in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory, on free soil. The case reached the Supreme Court
– in which Dred lost – and also the North were dealt a blow. The court ruled that
Dred was private property and could be dealt with anyway the master wanted to as
a citizen with the rights of property; they also ruled that the Compromise of 1820
was unconstitutional and that government could not say if slavery should or should
not be allowed.
The Panic of 1857: A financial crisis that was caused by a constant inflow of gold
from California, the demands of the Crimean War, and the exorbitant amount of
speculation for land. South endured with King Cotton’s help, but farmers in the
North were hit hard along with business=men who blamed their distress on the
lower tariffs.
Lincoln-Douglass Debates: Debates between two political enemies to become the
Senator for Kentucky, in which Lincoln professed his beliefs on slavery. In the end
Douglas won with his superior speech prowess, but Abe won in moral prowess.
Secession: The act of breaking away from the country to become one’s own. In this
case the South broke away from the North to try and preserve their way of life and
to be let alone from abolitionists. They also detested Abraham Lincoln as a
representative of the sectional beliefs of the North.
Quotes
“Civil War in Kansas started in 1856 and continued intermittently until it merged
with the large-scale Civil War of 1861-1865. Altogether, the Kansas conflict
destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of property, paralyzed agriculture in certain
areas, and scores of lives.” – (p. 413)
“The Sumner-Brooks clash and the ensuing reactions revealed how dangerously
inflamed passions were becoming, North and South. It was ominous that the
cultured Sumner should have used the language of a barroom bully and that the
gentlemanly Brooks should have employed the tactics and tools of a thug. The blows
rained on Sumner’s head were, broadly speaking, among the first blows of the Civil
War.
“Foes of slavery extension, especially the Republicans, were infuriated by the Dred
Scott setback. Their chief rallying cry had been the banishing of bondage from the
territories. They now insisted that the ruling of the Court was merely an opinion,
and no more binding than the views of a ‘southern debating society’. . . Southerners
in turn were inflamed by all this defiance. They began to wonder anew how much
longer they could remain joined to a section that refused to honor the Supreme
Court, to say nothing of the constitutional compact that had established it.” – (p.
418)
“Lincoln flatly rejected the Crittenden scheme, which offered some slight prospect of
success, and all hope of compromise evaporated. For this refusal he must bear a
heavy responsibility. Yet he had been elected on a platform that opposed the
extension of slavery, and he felt that as a matter of principle, he could not afford to
yield, even though gains for slavery in the territories might be only temporary.” – (p.
430)
“Secessionists who parted company with their sister states left for a number of
avowed reasons, mostly relating in some way to slavery. They were alarmed by the
inexorable tipping of the political balance against them—‘the despotic majority of
numbers.’ The ‘crime’ of the North, observed James Russell Lowell, was the census
returns. Southerners were also dismayed by the triumph of the new sectional
Republican party, which seemed to threaten their rights as a slaveholding minority.
They were weary of free-soil criticism, abolitionist nagging, and northern
interference, ranging from the Underground Railroad to John Brown’s raid. ‘All we
ask is to be let alone,’ declared Confederate president Jefferson Davis in an early
message to his congress.” – (p. 430-431)
Thesis
With the rising feelings of Sectionalism, slavery could not be repressed any
longer and needed to be face by America. The obstinate sides were unwilling to
compromise, which was inevitable, and it was inexorable that secession would
occur. With the North hounding the South to abolish slavery, which was the
destruction of their lifestyle; they already felt as though the North was becoming
oppressive to the minority south. The North saw slavery as evil after the release of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and would not budge regarding slavery. The destruction of the
last national party, the Democrats became sectional, just as the Republicans, ending
any hope of compromise between the two halves.
Chapter 20 Outline
The North and South were brooding for war; southern states continued to
secede from the Union. As they left, they took their arsenals, mints, and public
property within their borders. Most importantly was the strategic Fort Sumter,
which the Union inevitably lost. However, the more important Border States were
needed to be absorbed back into the Union, as their addition to the Confederacy
would double their manufacturing capacity in the South. Lincoln used measures of
martial law in certain Border States in order to control the population, as well as
specifying that he was not fighting to free the blacks. His overall purpose was to
save the Union. Lincoln did lose factions to the Confederacy like the Five Civilized
Tribes- the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles. Some of these
tribes owned slaves themselves. The Confederacy also held many advantages in the
Civil War, apart from the allied forces of the Five Civilized Tribes. They held a
defensive measure, therefore fighting on their own, known land. The determination
and rallying cry of the Confederacy applied to almost all Southerners, building
driven forces behind the experienced Confederate generals and officers. However,
the advantages of the Confederacy were outweighed by its faults. The Confederacy
lacked factories to manufacture wartime materials, resulting in shortages of
weapons, blankets, and food. The small transportation system of distant railroads
were often destroyed by the invading Union as well. A smaller population and lack
of industries to provide wartime materials led to Southern demise. The North,
however, hosted multitudes of industries, railroads, and people to fight their war. A
bountiful harvest in the North of wheat and corn provided the soldiers as well.
Abraham Lincoln and the stable Union government outmatched Jefferson Davis and
his quickly- built constitution and government. The Northern naval blockades and
shipping provided the Union with wartime materials from foreign powers. But, the
naval blockades were often destroyed by British ships intervening on behalf of the
Confederacy. The Union lacked experienced leaders and generals, and relied on a
conscription to fight the Confederacy.
War always comes with a cost. Lincoln kept the Union at bay by declaring
martial law in some states, and hosting a mandatory conscription. The conscription
itself was flawed in the Union, as the rich could buy their way out of the draft,
therefore putting lower class men as their replacements. Economic stresses
followed as well, as the Morrill Tariff Act was passed to increase duties to 10%. The
sale of bonds and use of greenbacks led to a creeping interest rate, resulting in
higher debts to be paid. "Runaway inflation" occurred in the South, where poorly
backed treasury notes sank in value. However, the Northern factories soared
economically with protective tariffs, breeding a millionaire class. More legislations
like the Homestead Act of 1862, providing free gold nuggets and land in the West,
boosted the Northern economy. The Southern economy was inevitably destroyed by
the war. The Union blockade suffocated its economy, while the production of cotton
did little financially. Transportation was destroyed from the ruining of Southern
railroads by incoming Union forces as well.
"The issue of the divided Union came to a head over the matter of federal forts in the
SOuth. As the seceding states left, they had seized the United States' arsenals, mints,
and other public property within their borders." (435)
"The border group actually contained a white population more than half that of the
entire Confederacy. Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri would almost double the
manufacturing capacity of the South and increase by nearly half its supply of horses
and mules. The strategic prize of the Ohio River flowed along the northern border of
Kentucky and West Virginia." (437)
"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save
it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and
leaving others alone, I would do that."
-Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley in
August 1862 (437)
"Jefferson Davis was less able than Lincoln to exercise arbitrary power, mainly
because of confirmed states' righters who fanned an intense spirit of localism. To
the very end of the conflict, the owners of horse-drawn vans in Petersburg, Virginia,
prevented the sensible joining of the incoming and outgoing tracks of a militarily
vital railroad. The South seemed willing to lose the war before it would surrender
local rights- and it did." (447)
"The financial landmark of the war was the National Banking System, authorized by
Congress in 1863. Launched partly as a stimulant to the sale of government bonds, it
was also designed to establish a standard bank-note currency... Banks that joined
the National Banking System could buy government bonds and issue sound paper
money backed by them..." (449)
Border States: Slave States on the Union-Confederate Border.
Martial law: Temporary rule by military authorities; Used by Union to control states.
Conscription: Compulsory enrollment in the armed forces; Used by the Union to gain
soldiers.
Jefferson Davis: Confederate President
Morrill Tariff Act: Increased tariff rates from 5 to 10%
National Banking System: Established to create a standard bank-note currency,
allowing banks to join to buy government bonds and issue paper money.
Runaway Inflation: Rapid inflation that is impossible to squelch; A result of
Southern bank notes losing value from their extended use.
Although the South hosted defensive measures and a rallying cry in the Civil War,
the Union overpowered the Confederacy with its strong economy, bustling factories,
large population, and widespread use of naval warfare.
The Border States were a primary concern of Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln made
multiple concessions to keep them from seceding from the Union.
Ch. 21 The Furnace of Civil War 1861-1865
p. 453-478
Summary
The Civil War was waged between the Union and the Confederacy, the North
and the South, the industrialists and the plantation owners, the slaves and the slave
owners. President Lincoln fought the Confederate States in hopes of saving the
Union and restoring peace within the nation. Sectionalism between the northern
and southern economic and political systems, the issue of slavery, the growth of the
abolition movement, controversy between states’ rights versus federal rights, and
the election of Abraham Lincoln all resulted in the most destructive conflict in
American history—the Civil War. The Mason-Dixon line divided the North and the
South into sections. The border states around this line included Pennsylvania and
Delaware in the North and Maryland and Virginia in the South. Major controversy
occurred when Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state. Missouri was north
of the Mason-Dixie Line, so naturally the North wanted it to be a free state. This
only contributed to the building flames leading up to the Civil War.
In the beginning of the war, President Lincoln had no intention of settling the
dispute over slavery; instead he envisioned a short war to preserve the Union. In
the first major battle of the war, the Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, an illprepared Union army along with Northern civilians marched to Bull Run to show
Union superiority and attack the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
Confederate General Stonewall Jackson’s troops arrived unexpectedly and drove out
the Union troops. The Southerners became overconfident with this victory while
the Northerners began to prepare for a larger war than initially expected. The
Second Battle of Bull Run occurred August 28–30, 1862 between the Confederate
General Robert E. Lee and the Union General John Pope. Lee and his troops came
out victoriously and moved into Maryland to start a military campaign in the
northern states. The Confederates wanted to encourage foreign intervention and
annex the Border States into the Confederacy. Union general McClellan stepped in
to prevent these actions from occurring, thus resulting in the Battle of Antietam on
September 17, 1862. Fortunately for the North, a copy of Lee’s battle plans was
discovered and McClellan successfully stopped the Confederates from any further
advancement. This was the first battle in the North during the Civil War and the
bloodiest single day in American history. The Union victory at Antietam resulted in
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves within all of
the rebellious Confederate states, but excluded the slaves within the Union
protected Border States. Although Lincoln had no power within the Confederacy to
enforce this proclamation, it crippled the South as slaves heard of it and ran to the
shelter of the Union. The South lost a large portion of their population while the
North gained soldiers and a stronger moral cause. The Emancipation Proclamation
laid the foundations for the abolition of slavery, which was later stated in the
Thirteenth Amendment. Many blacks began to enlist in the Union army, thus
empowering the North. The South, on the other hand, refused to enlist the slaves
and its army dwindled in number.
From this point forward, the war focused its attention on the issue of slavery
in addition to the restoration of the Union. The Battle of Gettysburg on July 1–3,
1863 was a major turning point in the war and the single bloodiest battle in the Civil
War. General Lee and his Confederate army were advancing toward Washington D.
C. Fortunately for the Union, General Ulysses S. Grant stopped the Confederates and
halted their military campaign in the northern states, which forced General Lee to
retreat to Richmond. If the Confederates had won this battle, they could have
potentially invaded the Union capital and won the entire war. The Gettysburg
Address was given by President Lincoln after this famous Union victory. This
speech dedicated the battlefield as a national cemetery and acknowledged slavery
as the central conflict in the Civil War. He expressed to the public his new hope in
bringing equality to all men in addition to uniting the nation as a whole.
After a Union capture of the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia, General
Sherman led his troops on a ruinous march to capture the port of Savannah from
November 15 to December 21, 1864. He burned houses, destroyed railroad tracks,
blackened the crops, obliterated supplies that were headed for the Confederates,
and even stole valuable items from plantations. This technique, known as total war,
left many Southerners without a home and shortened the war by destroying the
southern infrastructure and weakening the Confederacy. During the election of
1864, the Democratic Party divided into the Copperheads, the Peace Democrats and
the War Democrats. The Republicans then joined with the War Democrats to
support Lincoln as president. Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat, became Lincoln’s
running mate in order to attract votes from the War Democrats. The Democratic
Party chose General McClellan as their presidential nominee. Lincoln came out
victorious--another harsh blow to the Confederacy. Unfortunately, Lincoln was
assassinated by John Wilkes Booth one week after the surrender of General Lee to
Union forces. Andrew Johnson, now the president-by-bullet, was neither kind nor
moderate like Lincoln. Reconstruction was entirely different in the hands of
President Johnson. The Civil War came to a close and opened up many
opportunities for the now freed African Americans. The Union was also restored,
allowing for the country to grow into a world power.
Key Terms
Antebellum era: pre-Civil War years, involved disputes between abolitionists and
slave-owners, various social reforms
Thirteenth Amendment: abolished slavery
Fourteenth Amendment: conferred citizenship and guaranteed civil rights to all
those born in the United States. (Reconstruction)
Reconstruction: post-Civil War years in which the Union attempted to restore the
southern infrastructure, re-assimilate the rebellious states, and introduce social
equality between the whites and the blacks.
Jefferson Davis: Confederate President with controversial leadership skills; wanted
states’ rights over federal rights; refused to enlist slaves in the Confederate army
Abraham Lincoln: Union President, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, gave the
Gettysburg Address; Savior of the Union, the Great Emancipator (abolition of
slavery), Martyr for the Union cause, led the Union to victory in the Civil War
Emancipation Proclamation: document issued by Lincoln that freed the slaves
within the Confederate states currently in rebellion, excluded the slaves within the
Border States in order to prevent them from seceding; issued after the Battle of
Antietam
Gettysburg Address: given by Lincoln following the Battle of Gettysburg, dedicated
the battlefield as a national cemetery, addressed slavery as the central
conflict=Lincoln hoped to create human equality
Ulysses S. Grant: Union general, went on to become an American president, met
Confederate general Lee at the Appomattox Courthouse to negotiate the surrender
of the Confederacy, which ultimately ended the war.
Copperhead: like the snake, extreme Northern Democrats who wanted to negotiate
peace with the Confederacy, obstructed the war. Ex: Clement L. Vallandigham
Peace Democrats: opposed the war, refused to support Lincoln in the election of
1864. Ex: George McClellan
War Democrats: joined with the Republicans to support the Lincoln administration.
They supported the war. Ex: Andrew Johnson
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War: radical Republicans on a
government panel in Washington, discussed the causes of Union battle losses.
Quotes
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save
or to destroy slavery.” –Abraham Lincoln, 1862 (p.453)
“The character of the war will be changed. It will be one of subjugation… The [old]
South is to be destroyed and replaced by new propositions and ideas.” –Abraham
Lincoln, 1863 (p.460)
“The hundreds of thousands, if not millions of slaves [the act] will emancipate will
come North and West and will either be competitors with our white mechanics and
laborers, degrading them by competition, or they will have to be supported as
paupers and criminals at the public expense.” –Cincinnati Enquirer/opponent of the
Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 (p. 461)
“You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for
you; but, no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union. I issued the
proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union.” –Abraham Lincoln, 1863
(p. 462)
“I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this
[nation] together. It was not the mere separation of the colonies from the
motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave
liberty not alone to the people of the country, but hope to the world, for all future
time.” –Abraham Lincoln, 1861 (p. 465)
“In the death of President Lincoln we feel the pressure of a heavy national calamity;
but the great and irrevocable decree of the loyal States that Union must and shall be
preserved will lose nothing of its force, but will be immensely if not terribly
strengthened. In striking Abraham Lincoln and his kindly disposed Secretary of
State the assassins struck at the best friends in the government to the prostrate
rebels in the South.” –New York Herald, 1865 (p. 474)
Main Idea/Thesis
The Civil War, although costly in lives and money, ultimately opened up
opportunities for African Americans through the establishment of the Thirteenth
and Fourteenth Amendments, extended the authority of the federal government
through the creation of the social welfare agency and the National Banking System,
and allowed for America to emerge as a powerful and modern nation.
Chapter 22 Summary
Summary
The end of Civil War brought four questions to the wearied American people:
How would the South, physically devastated by war and socially revolutionized by
emancipation, be rebuilt?; How would liberated blacks fare as free men and women?;
How would the Southern states be reintegrated into the Union?; and who would direct the
process of Reconstruction―the Southern states themselves, the President, or Congress?
Abolitionist had long preached that slavery was a degrading institution, but now
that the slaves were freed, they were faced with a brutal reality that the freedmen were
overwhelmingly unskilled, unlettered, without property or money, and with scant
knowledge of how to survive as free people. To cope with this problem, Congress created
the Freedmen’s Bureau on March 2, 1865. Church became the focus of black community
life where freedmen were able to receive some protection and mutual assistance; but
emancipation also brought a desire for education to many blacks, and it was in education
that the bureau’s greatest achievement was accomplished. However, President Johnson,
sharing the same white supremacist view as the Southern white slave masters, let the
bureau expire in 1872.
Even before the Civil War was over, Lincoln proposed his 10 percent
Reconstruction plan. It decreed that the Southern states had never legally withdrawn from
the Union and therefore, a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10 percent of
its voters had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States and pledged to abide by
emancipation. When a formal state government was erected, Lincoln would recognize the
purified regime. It revoked a sharp reaction from the Republicans, who feared such plan
would mean the restoration of the planter aristocracy to power and the possible reenslavement of blacks. They passed the the Wade-Davis Bill, which required that 50
percent of a state’s voters take the oath of allegiance before it could be readmitted to the
Union. The moderate Republicans agreed with Lincoln in that the seceded states should
be restored to the Union as swiftly as possible, though on the Congress’s term; the radical
Republicans, on the other hand, believed the South should atone more painfully for its
sins.
When Andrew Johnson became the President in place of Lincoln, issued his
own reconstruction proclamation. Johnson’s plan recognized several of Lincoln’s 10
percent governments, but it disfranchised certain leading Confederates. The fears of
Republicans came true when Johnson granted pardons in abundance to the Southern
aristocrats and the South’s planter elite government resurrected. The Jonson-sanctioned
Southern government passed the Black Codes, which intended to regulate the affairs of
blacks, much as the slavery had done in pre-Civil War days. The Codes aimed to ensure a
stable and subservient labor force. Dire penalties were imposed on blacks who broke their
labor contracts. Runaway workers could be captured and then hired out to pay their
fines―an arrangement that closely resembled slavery. The codes also restored preemancipation race relations by denying blacks to serve on a jury and to rent land. Even
when the worst features of Black Codes were repealed, capital-lacking blacks did not find
economic independence as they slipped into sharecropping.
The Reconstruction Act authorized the Military Reconstruction of the South in
order to force Southern states to guarantee in their states state constitution full suffrage
for their former adult male slaves. However, the government fell short of giving blacks
land or education at federal expense, and when the federal forces were removed from
Southern state politics, the solid Democratic South congealed. With the right to vote,
black men involved themselves in politics, and black political participation expanded
exponentially during Reconstruction. Some Southern whites resorted to savage measures
against radical measures. Most notorious was the Ku Klux Klan whose primary purpose
was to have blacks “kept in their place.” Although Congress passed the Force Acts to
stop such lawlessness, wholesale disfranchisement of blacks was achieved in the South
by intimidation, fraud, trickery, and literacy test. Therefore, white resistance undermined
the attempt to empower blacks politically.
Furthermore, even though women had played a prominent role in pre-war
abolitionist movement and had often pointed out that both women and blacks lacked
basic civil rights, they were not granted suffrage when black males were given suffrage.
The Republicans wanted to promote the fortune of their party. Therefore, they
proceded onto legally impeaching President Johnson for dismissing the Secretary of War
Edwin M. Staton. However, fears of creating a destabilizing precedent, principled
opposition to abusing the constitutional mechanism of checks and balances, and the
succession of Ben Wade as the President, and Johnson’s promise to stop obstructing
Republican policies in return for remaining in his office resulted in a not-guilty verdict
for Johnson.
The Reconstruction was radical compared to other slave-existing countries. It
upended the social and racial systems of the South, empowered blacks politically, and
insulted the principle of self-government with federal intervention in local affairs.
However, within the US, the Reconstruction conferred only fleeting benefits on blacks.
Key Terms Defined (at least five)
8 Thaddeus Stevens: the most powerful radical Republican of the House
9 Ex parte Milligan (1866): Supreme court decision that military tribunals could not try
civilians, even during wartime, in areas where the civil courts were open.
10
13th Amendment: freed the slaves
11
14th Amendment: citizenship for the freedmen (no franchise)
12
15th Amendment: suffrage to all male voters
13
Union League: originally a pro-Union organization based in the North, freedmen
turned it into a network of political clubs that educated members in their civic
duties and campaigned for Republican candidates. The League’s duties soon
included protection of blacks from white retaliation.
14
Scalawags: Southerners, often former Unionists and Whigs
15
Carpetbaggers: Northerners who had packed all their belonging into a carpet bag
suitcase at war’s end and had come South to seek personal power and profit.
16
Invisible Empire of the South (Ku Klux Klan): founded in Tennessee, it employed
savagery to restrict the freedom of blacks
17
William Seward: Secretary of State who purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2
million.
18
Tenure of Office Act: passed over Johnson’s veto, it required the president to
secure the consent of the Senate before he could remove his appointees once they
had been approved by that body. It was used to justify Johnson’s impeachment
when he dismissed the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
Important quotes (at least five with page number)
6 “The 150,000-member black Baptist Church of 1850 reached 500,000 by 1870, while
the African Methodist Episcopal Church quadrupled in size from 100,000 to
400,000 in the first decade after emancipation” (482).
7 “...the Republicans had rolled up more than a two-thirds majority in both houses of
Congress. The Republicans now had a veto-proof Congress and virtually
unlimited control of Reconstruction policy” (490).
8 “The Republicans acted from a mixture of idealism and political expediency. They
wanted both to protect the freed slaves and to promote the fortunes of the
Republican party. In the end their efforts backfired badly” (499).
9 “Drawing upon the work of Du Bois, Foner has emphasized the comparative approach
to American Reconstruction. Clearly, Foner admits, Reconstruction did not create
full equality, but it did allow blacks to form political organization and churches,
to vote, and to establish some measures of economic independence. In South
Africa, the Caribbean, and other areas once marked by slavery, the freed slaves
never received these opportunities. Many of the benefits of Reconstruction were
erased by white southerners during the Gilded Age” (501).
10
“If former slaves were being re-enslaved, people asked one another, had not the
Boys in Blue spilled their blood in vain? Had the North really won the war?”
(487)
Main Idea/Thesis
Although the Republican government’s attempts to promote interracial democracy were
truly radical compared with slave policies of other countries of the time, within the
United States, the deeply rooted racism, political interest, and loyalty to self-government
caused the Reconstruction to more resurrect the Southern culture than reconstruct it.
Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age, 1869-1896
Summary
While the population of post-Civil War America continued to grow, the aftermath of the
war caused waste, speculation, extravagance, and disillusionment. Politics were closely
aligned with scandal and corruption, including war hero Grant, while businesses closely
followed suit. Businessmen soon found ways to “cheat” the system where they could earn
more money for themselves by taking money away from honest businessmen or using
bribery, seen in cases such as “Jubilee Jim” Fisk and Jay Gould with the gold market.
Throughout the Gilded Age there were two main political parties competing for power.
They used all types of tricks and persuasion to get the nation’s support including the
farmer’s plights for better treatment, racial differences, and religion although they did not
always make large changes for each groups. Finally, reconstruction came to an end with
the Compromise of 1877 where the African Americans, who were already subjected to
the Jim Crow Laws, were unprotected and forced into jobs such as sharecropping. While
African Americans were being segregated, other races began to feel prejudice as well.
The Chinese immigrants were being terrorized by the Kearneyites and were finally
banned from coming to America with the Chinese Exclusion Act. Finally, civil service
reforms began to take place after Garfield’s death although it connected politics and big
businesses more closely. Cleveland proposed a lower tariff but it eventually led to the
Panic of 1893 where farmers and other laborers were being smothered by the power of
large corporations.
Key Terms
Credit Mobilier- It was a scandal involving Union Pacific executives who formed the
Credit Mobilier construction company. They hired themselves at inflated prices so that
they could build railroad line. They distributed stocks to key congressmen until a
newspaper released an article exposing congressmen and the vice president to show that
they had accepted bribes from the Credit Mobilier.
Jim Crow Laws- Started as an informal separation of white and blacks but changed into
systematic state-level legal codes of segregation in the 1890s. It also enacted literacy
requirements, voter-registration laws, and poll taxes which were all validated after the
Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896.
Farmers’ Alliance- It was an organization that replaced the National Grange as a group
that supported farmers across the nation. The Farmers’ Alliance later turned into the
Populist Party.
Panic of 1893- Businesses had produced more railroad tracks, sunk more mines, created
more factories, and had more grain fields than the existing market could handle. The
bankers were giving out large loans and when no profits were paid, the loans failed to be
paid causing he credit-based system to collapse.
Compromise of 1877- This was a compromise that was reached as an answer to the
Hayes-Tilden presidential election. The Democrats agreed to have Hayes, a Republican,
become president as long as action would be taken so that the federal troops would be
removed from areas in the South. Also, there was a promise to support a bill that
subsidizes the Texas and Pacific Railroad’s construction of a southern transcontinental
line.
Important Quotes
“Disillusionment ran deep among idealistic Americans in the postwar era. They had
spilled their blood for the Union, emancipation, and Abraham Lincoln, who had promised
“a new birth of freedom.” Instead they got a bitter dose of corruption and political
stalemate—beginning with Ulysses S. Grant, a great soldier but an utterly inept
politician” (504).
“The infamous Tweed Ring in New York City vividly displayed the ethics (or lack of
ethics) typical of the age. Burly “Boss” Tweed—240 pounds of rascality— employed
bribery, graft, and fraudulent elections to milk the metropolis of as much as $200 million.
Honest citizens were cowed into silence. Protesters found their tax assessments raised”
(505).
“The political seesaw was delicately balanced throughout most of the Gilded Age (a
sarcastic name given to the three-decade-long post–Civil War era by Mark Twain in
1873). Even a slight nudge could tip the teeter-totter to the advantage of the opposition
party. Every presidential election was a squeaker, and the majority party in the House of
Representatives switched six times in the eleven sessions between 1869 and 1891. In only
three sessions did the same party control the House, the Senate, and the White House.
Wobbling in such shaky equilibrium, politicians tiptoed timidly, producing a political
record that was often trivial and petty” (509).
“The Supreme Court validated the South’s segregationist social order in the case of
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). It ruled that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional
under the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. But in reality the
quality of African American life was grotesquely unequal to that of whites…To ensure
the stability of this political and economic “new order,” southern whites dealt harshly
with any black who dared to violate the South’s racial code of conduct. A record number
of blacks were lynched during the 1890s, most often for the “crime” of asserting
themselves as equals” (513).
“Taking to the streets, gangs of Kearneyites terrorized the Chinese by shearing off their
precious pigtails. Some victims were murdered outright. Congress finally slammed the
door on Chinese immigrant laborers when it passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882,
prohibiting all further immigration from China. The door stayed shut until 1943” (514).
“New York political “boss” Roscoe Conkling (1829–1888) denounced the civil-service
reformers in the New York World (1877):
‘[The reformers’] vocation and ministry is to lament the sins of other people. Their stock
in trade is rancid, canting self-righteousness. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Their
real object is office and plunder. When Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge
of a scoundrel, he was unconscious of the then undeveloped capabilities and uses of the
word ‘Reform.’’” (518).
Main Idea/Thesis
While America was highly successful with expansion and industrialization, they lacked
growth in political systems and had to continuously work hard to overcome the
corruption taking place in politics and businesses. Many reform groups were formed to
improve the life of the middle and lower class, but many lower class people did not reap
the benefit of reforms. Some were forced into sharecropping or other difficult tasks, and
African Americans could not gain equality in America, best seen by the creation of the
Jim Crow Laws.
Chapter 24 Review
This chapter basically introduces the transition to an industrialized society
with specifics on the expansion of railroads, insanely rich men, and the significance
of unions. After the Civil War, Congress funded railroad companies with money and
land to lay the tracks. In 1865, there were 35,000 miles of track and in just 35 years,
that number increased to almost 200,000 miles. This is important because the more
railroads a city had, the more useful the city was. Therefore, the towns without
railroads eventually became ghost towns and towns with railroads turned into
prosperous cities. Over time, railroads were built stretching across the nation, and
these were referred to as transcontinental railroads. Railroads were very important
because it brought a market with a variety of jobs available to America. It also
increased mining in the West because they were able to transport necessary items.
An interesting note is that our time zones today in the nation were determined by
the railroads. At that time, they split each time zone according to a railroad. It can be
inferred that with this huge increase in railroads, included much behind-the-scenes
work. This is how the idea of “trusts” was born. Railroad company owners were
defensive of their revenue so many companies actually united to be able to work
together. This was known as a trust. Even though people complained, there weren’t
many people who stood up and took action.
In larger terms of the economy of America, not just specifically railroads, the
US became the #1 manufacturer in the world by 1894. This was huge due to several
reasons: 1. America had a vast number of inventors who came up with brilliant
inventions included the telephone, light bulb, cotton gin, typewriter, etc. These all
contributed to communication and transportation. There was an enormous number
of immigrants to the US. This made labor very cheap as if the workers wanted to
rebel, the bosses would just threaten them by saying they can hire any other
unemployed person, since there were that many immigrants. Transitioning into the
industrial giants, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan all practiced
different techniques to get into the position they had. Carnegie mastered “vertical
integration,” which meant that he bought out an entire industry. For example, he
would control every part of the steel industry from the mining of it to the final
production. Rockefeller practiced “horizontal integration,” which meant that he
bought his competitors out so he would be able to make all the money. Morgan
placed his own pawns in the positions of other competitors so he could make money
at the same time. These three men along with many others had to climb the ladder
of success. They started from the bottom and now they’re here, at the top. This
developed into the idea of “The Gospel of Wealth,” which pretty much stated that
some people were destined to become rich; not everyone was meant to be.
Another important influence is the Knights of Labor. The Knights of Labor
was a huge labor union. It was home to over 80,000 people who joined the revolt to
more humane working conditions. It was led by Terence Powderly. This group
demanded an eight hour work day. Because this group was never well organized, it
split in the mid 1880’s. There was a bombing incident in Chicago and the members
of this group were lamed for it. This lost much support from the public. An
interesting quality of this group was that they accepted anyone, unskilled and
skilled. When the American Federation of Labor rose, the members of the Knights
decreased as well.
Key Terms:
1. Plutocracy- government controlled by the wealthy
2. Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890- forbade combinations in restraint of trade
without any distinction between good or bad trusts
3. National Labor Union- lasted 6 years and included 600,000 members; huge
union
4. American Federation of Labor- Consisted of an association of self-governing
national unions; like other unions, it asked for better wages, hours, and
working conditions
5. Pools- another term for trusts; agreements to divide the business in a given
area and share the profits
Quotes:
1. “The government-business entanglements that increasingly shaped politics
after the Civil War also undergirded the industrial development of the nation.”
(pg 528)
2. “The Union Pacific Railroad—note the word Union—was thus commissioned by
Congress to thrust westward from Omaha, Nebraska. For each mile of track
constructed, the company was granted 20 square miles of land, alternating in
640-acre sections on either side of the track. For each mile the builders were
also to receive a generous federal loan, ranging from $16,000 on the flat prairie
land to $48,000 for mountainous country” (pg 530)
3. “Railroad kings were, for a time, virtual industrial monarchs. As manipulators
of a huge natural monopoly, they exercised more direct control over the lives of
more people than did the president of the United States—and their terms were
not limited to four years.” (pg 535)
4. “Postwar industrial expansion, partly a result of the railroad network, rapidly
began to assume mammoth proportions. When Lincoln was elected in 1860, the
Republic ranked only fourth among the manufacturing nations of the world. By
1894 it had bounded into first place.” (pg 536)
5. “As late as 1900, the South still produced a smaller percentage of the nation’s
manufactured goods than it had before the Civil War.” (pg 543)
Main idea/Thesis:
This chapter introduces the Industrial Age, as the name suggests, through a series of
railroad building, giant monopolies and established labor unions.
Chapter 25 Outline
Summary:
America faced great urbanization and industrialization in the late 19th
century, and statistically 4 out of every 10 Americans lived in the city by the start of
the 1900’s. This move to the city provided many new opportunities for domestic
improvements, however, also at the cost of poor immigrants and lowly laborers.
Immigrants coming in a flurry from Southern and Eastern Europe faced many
challenges, even though they were the primary work forces of these city factories.
People from all over the nation flocked to these cities, yet this resulted in an
overcrowded city in which people lived with terrible living conditions. Just as well,
this chapter encapsulated a multitude of groups of people finally speaking out for
what they believe in. Priests and other religious spokespeople tried to promote and
implement their religion on others by relating it to urban problems. Women, with
their newfound independence in the city began to promote women’s equality and
ways for women to incorporate themselves into the cities. African Americans also
searched for and advocated ways in which fellow African Americans could engage in
society and rise from the lowest social class.
Key Terms:
 Louis Sullivan – Chicago architect, helped make sky scrapers popular, “form
follows function”
 Walking Cities – Cities in which people walked instead of using other modes of
transportation such as electric trolleys
 Urbanization – rural areas becoming more like a city
 Industrialization - process in which a society or country (or world) transforms
itself from a primarily agricultural society into one based on the manufacturing
of goods and services
 Dumbbell Tenement – High-rise urban buildings that provided barracks-like
housing for urban slum dwellers
 Birds of Passage - those who worked in America for a number of years and after
earning a decent amount of money, they would travel back to their home
country
 New Immigrants – immigrants who came to the United States during and after the
1880s; most were from southern and eastern Europe
 Nativism - a philosophy in which you hate immigrants and have much patriotism
 Walter Rauschenbusch– Leading Protestant advocated of the "social gospel" who
tried to make Christianity relevant to urban and industrial problems
 Social Gospel – the religious doctrines preached by those who believed the
churches should directly address economic and social reform
 Jane Addams – college educated woman who used her talents to teach and do
volunteer work, and ran the Hull house (American settlement home); won
Nobel Peace Prize in 1931
 Hull House – American settlement home; located in a poor area but gave help to
the poor in English; child-care, adjustment to big-city life, cultural activities
 Settlement Houses – helped immigrants get accustomed to life in a new place;
center of women's activism and social reform
 Social Worker – the profession established by Jane Addams and others that
opened new opportunities for women while engaging urban problems
 Lillian Wald - founded the Henry Street Settlement in New York after following
Addams's example
 Florence Kelley - fought for welfare of women, children, blacks and consumers;
moved to Henry Street Settlement; served 30 years as a general secretary of the
National Consumer League
 Roman Catholic – the church that became the largest American religious group,
mainly as a result of the "New Immigration"
 American Protective Association (APA) – created in 1887, it was a nativist
organization that attacked New Immigrants and Roman Catholicism in the
1880s and 1890s
 Cardinal Gibbons – urban Catholic leader; devoted to American unity; popular
with Roman Catholics and Protestants; used his liberal sympathy to help the
American labor movement
 Mary Baker Eddy - founded the Church of Christ; wrote a book called Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures
 Charles Darwin – English naturalists who wrote Origin of Species; thought higher
forms of life evolved from lower forms through mutation and adaptation; came
up with the theory of natural selection
 Fundamnetalist – those who rejected Darwin's beliefs
 Modernist - those who accepted Darwin's beliefs as well as Christianity
 Tuskegee Institute – Black educational institution founded by Booker T.
Washington to provide training in agriculture and crafts
 Booker T. Washington – ex-slave; worked hard to go to school; became the head of
a normal and industrial school at Tuskegee; believed that one should make
themselves useful in order to go against white supremacy
 W.E.B. DuBois – disagreed with Booker T. Washinton; earned a Ph. D. at Harvard:
demanded complete equality for blacks, both socially and economically; helped
found the NAACP; “talented tenth”
 National Association for the Advanced of Colored People (NAACP) – The
organization founded by W.E.B. Du Bois and others to advance black social and
economic equality
 Anthony Comstock – Vigorous nineteenth-century crusader for sexual "purity"
who used federal law to enforce his moral views
 Comstock Law – Federal law promoted by a self appointed morality crusader and
used to prosecute moral and sexual dissidents
 National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) – Organization formed
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others to promote the vote for white women
 Anti-Saloon League – Women's organization founded by reformer Frances Willard
and others to oppose alcohol assumption
 18th Amendment – passed in 1919; prohibition amendment
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Brilliant feminist writer who advocated cooperative
cooking and child-care arrangements to promote women's economic
independence and equality
 Henry Adams – Well-connected and socially prominent historian who feared
modern trends and sought relief in the beauty and culture of the past
6 Quotes:
“In 1860 no city in the United States could boast a million inhabitants: by 1890 New
York, Chicago, and Philadelphia had vaulted past the million mark. By 1900 New
York, with some 3.5 million people, was the second-largest city in the world,
outranked only by London.” (pg. 558)
“The jagged skyline of America’s perpendicular civilization could not fully conceal
the canker sores of a feverish growth. Criminals flourished like live in the teeming
asphalt jungles. Sanitary facilities could not keep pace with the mushrooming
population explosion.” (pg. 561)
“By 1890 the variety-loving Americans could choose from 150 religious
denominations...” (pg. 573)
“The success of the public schools is confirmed by the falling of the illiteracy rate
from 20 percent in 1870 to 10.7 percent in 1900. Americans were developing a
profound faith, often misplaced, in formal education as the sovereign remedy for
their ills.” (pg. 574)
“Rejecting all claims that biology gave women a fundamentally different character
from men, she argued that ‘our highly specialized motherhood is not as
advantageous as believed.’ She advocated centralized nurseries and cooperative
kitchens to facilitate women’s participation in the work force...” (pg. 586)
“Although race and ethnicity assigned urban Americans to distinctive neigborhoods
and workplaces, to an increasing degree they shared a common popular culture–
playing, reading, shopping, and talking alike.” (pg. 592)
Main Idea:
Although the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and the move to the city created
unsafe living and working conditions, these three ideas promoted improvement to
minority groups conditions and began to uniquely unite American people from all
differ