Antebellum U.S. : Do Now  Agenda:
Reading Quiz
Antebellum Society
Towards War…
Homework:
•
•
Thesis statement for essay #12 submitted to turnitin.com by class on Wednesday.
Bring pre-work to class.
Quiz
• Transcendentalism
• Irish Immigration
• Utopian Communities
Transcendentalism
• =a philosophical and literary
movement of the 1800s that
emphasized living a simple life
while celebrating the truth
found in nature and in personal
emotion and imagination
• HENRY DAVID THOREAU
(“Walden”) and RALPH WALDO
EMERSON (“Self Reliance”)
were the leading
transcendentalists
Irish Immigration
 ½ of all immigrants
 Potato famine (1848)
 Roman Catholic (faced
discrimination)
 Competed with African
Americans for jobs
 Joined Democratic Party.
Utopian Communities
• Utopians shared a faith in
perfectionism – that is, the
belief that humans have the
capacity to achieve a better life
through conscious acts of will
• The best-known utopian
communities included Brook
Farm, New Harmony, and the
Oneida community
• Utopian communities strove to
escape the competitiveness of
American life, regulate moral
behavior, and create
cooperative lifestyles
Why did the U.S. become a leading industrial power in
the 19th century?
• Expansion of urban population: Millions of Americans abandoned farms for
the city in the mid19th c.
• Concentration of workforce in factories: Factory workers were about twice as
productive as agricultural workers # of factory workers went up, so did
national productivity
• Mechanization: Known as the “American system,” one of the techniques
used by American manufacturers to compensate for a relatively tight supply
of workers  increase production while using less labor.
• Shift from water to steam power: Steam engines and railraods allowed
settlements not on rivers or canals to participate in larger economies with
greater ease.
• Rising agricultural productivity: Farmers = 80% of the nation’s population in
1860
– During the 19th c., farmers almost doubled their level of productivity b/c:
• Federal policies to settle western lands, movement into the Midwest
• development of steel plows and mechanical reapers, all contributed to the rise in agricultural
productivity
Irish Immigration
• 1840-1860, almost 1.7 mil Irish came to U.S.
(4% of pop in 1860)
• Most Irish settled in port cities in NE (50%
pop of NYC & Boston in 1860)
• Causes:
– Desperate living conditions in Ireland,
very poor, potato famine (food lived off
of)
• Why remember?
– Transformed Boston, NYC, and
Philadelphia into densely populated
centers  high rates of crime/poverty
– Forced to work lowest paying jobs
(domestic servants, factories)
– Key role in growth of Catholic Church in
U.S.
– Aroused anti-Catholic prejudice 
Nativist (Protestants)
– Irish voters supported the Democrats as
the party of the “common man”  Irish
bosses soon played a key role in the
formation of big city political machines
German Immigration
• Failed democratic revolution
(1848)
• Over 1.5 mil b/n 1840-1860
• Unlike Irish, moved to Old
Northwest and homesteaded
(instead of East coast cities)
• Diversified group (exiled political
refugees & displaced farmers) 
some Catholic, Protestant, and
Jewish  difficult to stereotype
• Prosperous
• Limited political participation
• Supported public education
• Opponents of slavery
Nativists  Know
Nothings
• reacted against foreigners
• Anglo-Protestants
• Nativist leaders argued that Catholics
posed a danger to America’s republican
institutions b/c relied on the sovereignty of
the Pope
• Anti-Catholics from Ireland/Germany
• Political Party: “Supreme Order of the Star
Spangled Banner”
– Started as secret society w/ elaborate
handshakes including  when asked
about the group were supposed to
respond: “ I Know Nothing!”
– So called the “Know Nothing Party”
Sectionalism
“loyalty to a particular region”
Sectionalism divided the country and ultimately led the
nation into the Civil War.
The nation was divided
into 3 regions:
Improved transportation
High rate of economic growth (commerce, farming, industry)
Most populous region
•High birthrate
•immigration
The Old Northwest = Ohio to Minnesota
THE NORTH
The Northeast = New England & the mid-Atlantic
Industrial Area; factories manufactured:
 Textiles
 Farm implements, clocks, and shoes
Agricultural Area:
• Land ceded to the national government in the
1780’s.
• The Northwest Ordinance established the
procedure for turning territories into states.
• 6 states:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Immigration
1830’s-1850’s = a surge in immigration (4 million
immigrants); they moved everywhere except the
South.
Causes:
1. Inexpensive & rapid ocean transportation
2. Famines & revolutions in Europe
3. U.S. was seen as offering economic
opportunity and political freedom.
1.
2.
Ohio(1803)
Indiana (1816)
Illinois (1818)
Michigan (1837)
Wisconsin 1848)
Minnesota (1858)
Relied on Mississippi River at first to send grain
to the South.
Later was linked to other northern states via
acquisition of Native American land, canals, and
railroads (established a common market).
The Old Northwest
Agriculture
• Large grain crops (corn &
wheat) were profitable.
Grain…
• was shipped quickly to
urban centers for sale.
• was fed to cattle & hogs
The Steel Plow (John Deere) and the
Mechanical Reaper (McCormick) made the
family farm more efficient. It could cover
more acres with fewer workers.
New Cities
Small villages became cities.
• Along the Great Lakes:
–
–
–
–
Buffalo
Cleveland
Detroit
Chicago
• Along major rivers:
– Cincinnati, St. Louis
The cities were transfer points for
farm products and delivered
manufactured goods from the
East.
The West: Native Americans
• Native Americans were the original settlers of the West.
• Native Americans were forced to move westward as white settlers took their
homelands.
• By 1850: most Native Americans lived in the West
– Those from the East had been killed off, forced to move by treaty, or forced to move by
the military.
Life on the Great Plains
• Some farmed in villages.
• The HORSE (introduced by the Spanish) led some tribes to become nomadic
hunters, following the buffalo.
The West
The Frontier
THE MYTH OF THE FRONTIER
It supposedly represented:
• A fresh start
• New opportunities
• Greater freedom for all ethnic groups
(Native Americans, African Americans,
Europeans, Asian Americans)
MOUNTAIN MEN
Lived in the Rocky Mountains (wilderness
at the time)
• Were the earliest whites, who followed
Lewis and Clark.
–
–
Trapped for furs
Acted as guides and pathfinders for
settlers in California and Oregon in the
1840’s.
White Settlers on the Frontier
Daily life
was similar to that of early colonists:
•
Worked form sunrise to sunset
•
Lived in log cabins
•
Died young from disease and malnutrition (NOT Indian
raids)
Women
•
Performed many tasks:
–
–
–
–
–
Doctors
Seamstresses
Teachers
Cooks
Assistants to husbands in the fields.
Isolation + Endless work + Dangerous Childbirth  limited
lifespan for women
Environmental Damage
(didn’t understand fragility of nature and wildlife)
•
Cleared entire forests
•
Exhausted soil with poor farming methods
•
Decimated the beaver and buffalo (near extinction).
Hudson River School
• = a group of artists led by Thomas
Cole, who painted landscapes
emphasizing nature’s beauty
• =America’s 1st coherent art school
• First Natural Landscapes
• Power of Nature
• Sublime (feeling of awe, feeling of
wonderment)
• Grandeur of Nature
• Nature offers promise
• Sense of Nostalgia in nature
Romanticism in Painting
Transcendentalism
• =a philosophical and literary
movement of the 1800s that
emphasized living a simple life
while celebrating the truth
found in nature and in personal
emotion and imagination
• HENRY DAVID THOREAU
(“Walden”) and RALPH WALDO
EMERSON (“Self Reliance”)
were the leading
transcendentalists
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Henry David
Thoreau
Transcendentalist Thinking
•
The infinite kindness of God.
•
The importance of and goodwill of nature (truth can be found in
nature)
•
The divinity of man (God lives in the individual)
•
Individuality/Nonconformity
•
Value of human intuition (condemn logic and reason)
 They instinctively rejected all secular authority and the authority
of organized churches and the Scriptures, of law, or of
conventions
A Transcendentalist Critic:
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
•
Their pursuit of the ideal led
to a distorted view of human
nature and possibilities:
* The Blithedale Romance
•
One should accept the world
as an imperfect place:
* Scarlet Letter
* House of the Seven
Gables
Utopian Communities
• Utopians shared a faith in
perfectionism – that is, the
belief that humans have the
capacity to achieve a better life
through conscious acts of will
• The best-known utopian
communities included Brook
Farm, New Harmony, and the
Oneida community
• Utopian communities strove to
escape the competitiveness of
American life, regulate moral
behavior, and create
cooperative lifestyles
Secular Utopian Communities
Individual
Freedom
Demands of
Community Life
• spontaneity
• discipline
• self-fulfillment
• organizational
hierarchy
The Oneida Community: NY, 1848
• Rejected traditional family and
marriage values
• All residents were married to all
other residents
• No permanent marriage ties
• Sexual behavior was monitored
to prevent abuse
• Children raised communally
• Liberation from the demands of
male lust
John Humphrey Noyes
 Millenarianism --> the 2
nd
coming of Christ had already occurred.
 Become Seventh Day Adventist later
Brook Farm
• Massachusetts
1841-47
• George Ripley
• Transcendentalists
• Individual strives
for Self- Realization
• Communal
• Leisure is key
New Harmony
Robert Owen (Utopian Socialist)
“Village of Cooperation”
Original Plans for New Harmony, IN
New Harmony in 1832
New Harmony, IN
Antebellum U.S. : Do Now  Agenda:
Visual: Contested
Territories
The U.S. was/is
Greedy
Thesis Statement
& Reform Masters
Homework:
•
•
•
Review 2 peers and your own reform intro paragraphs on turnitin.com
Assignment name = Reform Thesis Peermark
This is due by 10PM tomorrow (Thursday) night
STREEEEEEEEEEEETCH.
Half way-ish through the chapter! 
Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United
States had a divine mission to extend its power and
civilization across America.
– 1840’s: this included
Mexico and Central
America.
– 1890’s: this included the
Caribbean and islands in
the Pacific Ocean.
• Forces: nationalism,
population increase,
economic development,
technological advances,
reform ideals
• Northerners saw Manifest
Destiny as a southern
attempt to spread slavery.
Conflict over Texas
AMERICANS IN TEXAS
•The Mexican government gave 18,000 mi2 of land to Moses & Stephen Austin to sell to settlers.
•American settlement was legal (contracts w/ Mexican gov’t)
–American settlers agreed to become Catholic & Mexican citizens
–Austin hand-picked settlers (prosperous southern slave-owners—cotton)
–Americans outnumbered Tejanos 2:1
•1828: Mexicans sought tighter control over the North
-restricted American immigration
-outlawed slavery
Americans were angry
-enforced taxes
-Mediation difficult; in 1836, Sam Houston revolted and declared Texas independent.
•
Americans & Tejanos were defeated by Santa Anna @ the Alamo (1836)
•
Sam Houston led an army in surprise attack of Santa Anna’s troops
•
A forced May 1836 treaty established the Rio Grande as the border of Texan Republic.
•
The Mexican Congress refused to honor the treaty; The United States was slow to
annex (agree to add) Texas due to protests in North and possible war with Mexico.
Boundary Disputes
Maine
• Lumbermen broke out into a
fight (Aroostook War)
• The Webster-Ashburton
Treaty
Oregon
4 countries had claimed Oregon
1.
Spain (rescinded in Adams-Onis
Treaty)
2.
Russia
3.
Great Britain
•
Hudson Fur Trading company’s
trade
4.
United States
•
Discovered Columbia River
•
Lewis and Clark’s expedition
•
Fur trading pose and fort in
Astoria
•
5,000 Americans had settled n
Oregon to farm.
Americans saw annexing Oregon as their
manifest destiny
– split the disputed territory
between Maine and Canada
– established Minnesota’s
boundary
Election of 1844
• James Polk won.
• Committed to expansion
and manifest destiny
• Favored annexation of
Texas, Oregon and
California.
• “fifty-four forty or fight”
Annexing Texas
• President Tyler pushed annexation of
Texas through Congress.
• Viewed as a mandate from election
•
•
•
Dividing Oregon
Polk agreed to the southern half of Oregon (49°)
Granted Vancouver Island AND Navigation rights to
Britain.
Did not want to fight a war with both Britain and Mexico
War with Mexico
Immediate Causes
• Polk directed Gen. Zachary Taylor to move his
army to the Rio Grande area claimed by Mexico.
• 1846: a Mexican general captured a US army
patrol.
• Polk sent his war message to Congress, and most
(except Northern Whigs) approved.
–
•
•
•
•
Lincoln’s spot resolutions challenged Polk’s
claims
Military Campaigns
The war was fought in Mexican territory with
small armies.
Gen. Kearney took Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
California.
John Fremont took over Northern California and
declared it an independent republic.
General Taylor pushed past the Rio Grande
(Buena Vista), and Gen. Winfield Scott took
Mexico City in 1847.
Consequences of the War
1.
2.
3.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Mexican Cession-1848)
•
Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas.
•
The United States would take possession of California and New Mexico (The Mexican Cession) for $15 million.
Wilmot Proviso [slavery controversy]
•
David Wilmot attached an amendment onto a Bill prohibiting slavery in new territories. It was defeated in the
Senate. PROPOSED! NOT PASSED!!
Prelude to Civil War
•
The Mexican War increased tensions between North and South.
•
Acquisition of new land renewed the debate over slavery.
•
Northerners saw the war as a southern plot to extend slavery.
•
Ultimately, this debate led to Civil War.
Manifest Destiny in the South
Ostend Manifesto
• American diplomats met
secretly in Belgium to
negotiate purchasing Cuba
from Spain.
• Americans found out and
were angry, so the plan
was halted.
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850)
• This was an agreement
between the United States
and Britain that neither
country would take control of
a future canal route in
Central America.
• This treaty was replaced in
1901.
Walker Expedition
• William Walker took over
Nicaragua in 1855.
• He hoped to develop a
proslavery central American
empire.
• Central American countries
invaded and executed him.
Gadsden Purchase
• America paid Mexico an additional
strip of land for $10 million for
railroads.
• It included New Mexico and Arizona.
•
•
Post-Civil War Expansion
1867: William Seward acquired Alaska.
From 1850-1870, issues of the Civil War
overshadowed expansionism.
Settlement of Western Territories
•
•
•
•
Fur Traders’ Frontier
Fur traders (“mountain men”) were the first
settlers to move out West.
In the 1820’s, they held yearly rendez-vous in
the Rocky Mountains with Native Americans
to trade animal skins.
They provided early information about trails
and frontier conditions.
By the 1840’s the beaver population in the
West was mostly destroyed.
Overland Trails
A large group of settlers moved West hoping to farm in
California and Oregon.
They followed the Oregon Santa Fe, California, and
Mormon trails, which began at the Missouri River.
In 1845, 5,000 went to Oregon; in 1848, 3,000 went to
California.
Settlers travelled in “trains,” hired “pilots,” and drew up
constitutions.
They faced many risks:
• Drowning, dehydration, cholera, axe wounds,
children being run over, etc…
In 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was the end of
wagon trains.
Settlement of Western Territories
Mining Frontier
In January 1848, James Marshall found gold in a
stream; he and others started panning for
gold.
That fall, the East Coast heard of the gold, and
the following year, thousands (called “fortyniners” ) left their farms and jobs to seek
their fortune.
• 80% were American.
• Mexicans and Latin Americans, Europeans
and Asians all moved West.
• In 1852, 20,000 Chinese miners arrived in
San Francisco.
• Mining camps “boomed” to life, then
”busted” when gold was found elsewhere,
leaving ghost towns.
Farming Frontier
The government provided affordable land for
people to move out ad start homesteads
and begin farming.
Only the middle class could afford to move out
west, so the poor had to stay in the east.
Frontier life was isolated, but communities
developed over time, modeled after the
east coast or foreign communities for
immigrants.
Urban Frontier
From 1848-1850, San Francisco grew from 1,000 to 35,000.
From 1848-1852, California grew from 11,000 to 100,000 (whites)
• California became large, affluent, culturally sophisticated, and multicultural (though unequal).
• California Indians were exterminated.
• Californios’ land was taken away.
• Racism was consistently directed toward the Chinese.
The Women’s Movement
in Antebellum U.S.
• The movement was led by
middle-class women
• It promoted a broad-based
platform of legal and
educational rights
• It had close links with the antislavery and temperance
movements
• Followers held conventions in
the NE and MW but not in the
South
The Seneca Falls
Convention
• The Seneca Falls Convention was organized
and led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Lucretia Mott
• The “Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions” issued by the Seneca Falls
Convention demanded greater rights for
women
– “We hold these truths to be selfevident: that all men and women are
created equal.”
• The Seneca Falls Convention called for:
– Women’s suffrage
– Women’s right to retain property after
marriage
– Greater divorce and child custody rights
– Equal educational opportunities
• DID NOT call for liberal abortion laws or
equal pay for equal work!
American Colonization
Society
• The American Colonization Society worked
to return freed slaves to the west coast of
Africa
• The American Colonization Society was
primarily led by middle-class men and
women
Frederick Douglass
• = most prominent Black abolitionist during
Antebellum period
• Although best known as an abolitionist,
Douglass championed equal rights for
women and Native Americans  declared
“I would unite with anybody to do right
and with nobody to do wrong.”