APUSH Notes Ch. 13 - Expansion of slavery to new states is big issue!
1821 – Mexico becomes independent from Spain Map – Page 465
Westward expansion continues – Oregon Trail; Mormons to Salt Lake, Utah
Expansion to “Old Northwest” Foner podcast #2
Texas expansion
led by Moses and Stephen Austin
By 1830, Americans outnumber Tejanos (Spanish non-Indians)
1835 – Mexicans start to clamp down, Slavery illegal in Mexico, but Americans bring slaves
with them
Mexican President/General Santa Anna tries to control Texas with Mexican troops
March, 1836 – Battle of Alamo (San Antonio) Mexican troops wipe out American “fort”
April, 1836 – Battle of San Jacinto (near Houston) Texans win, become independent nation
Sam Houston new Texas president
Election of 1844 Elect. votes
James Polk (Dem.)
170
(Polk is the poster child for Manifest destiny)
Henry Clay (whig)
105
Polk’s issues: Get California; annex Texas; gain control of Oregon (54° 40 or fight); reduce
tariffs
1845 – Congress annexes Texas
Mexican War
Polk tries to buy land from Mexico for $30 million – they refuse
Polk stations US troops on disputed land on Texas/ Mexico disputed border; He knows Mexico
will attack them.
He blames Mexico; Starts war with intention of winning land.
1846-48 Mexican-American War - Most fighting in Central Mexico
Page 470
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends war
 Rio Grande River is official border (more land for US)
 US pays Mexico $15 Million
 Property rights of large Spanish land owners is protected
 Indians referred to as savage tribes
 Blacks have no rights on land gained from Mexico – only whites can buy land
 No free blacks can enter area
Gadsden Purchase - 1854
California Gold Rush
1848 – gold discovered; 200,000 new settlers by 1852
White miners use “extralegal groups” to exclude non-whites
1850-Calif. becomes a state
Calif. State legislature taxes foreign miners $20 per month; limits voting rights to whites
California Indian population: 1848 = 150,000
1860 = 30,000
Expansion of slavery to new western land becomes huge national issue Foner podcast #1
1846 – Wilmot Proviso – Congressional action would have banned slavery in territory acquired
from Mexico, but fails in Senate – issue divides North and South
March, 1849 – Zachary Taylor (whig) becomes new President; he dies in July, 1850
Millard Fillmore (whig) (New York) new President
1848 – Free Soil Party created
Free Soil Goals:
 Prevent slavery in new lands
 Free homesteads for white settlers in West
 Reduce political power of southern states
(slavery ban will allow more employment opportunities for white men; they won’t have to
compete against slave labor)
Compromise of 1850 – Issue is how to admit California – slave or free?
Another political compromise results:
 Calif. becomes free state
 Better federal enforcement of fugitive slave laws
 In the rest of Mexican lands, slavery will be decided by popular sovereignty
Election of 1852
Elect. votes
Franklin Pierce
(Dem.)
Winfield Scott (Whig)
42
254
1854 – New slave state policy – Kansas Nebraska Act
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Missouri compromise repealed
Allows popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska
This causes HUGE shift in national political parties!
Splits Democratic Party between north and south
Whig Party collapses – Northern Whigs and anti-slave Democrats combine to form new
Republican Party
1854 - American Know-Nothing Party forms
Nativist, anti-immigrant party; begins as a secret group
Members,if questioned, are told to answer by saying, “I know nothing”
Republican Party ideology:
 Based concept of free labor on the
 Opposed to spread of slavery to new territories; not necessarily abolitionists!
1854-56 Bleeding Kansas – popular sovereignty causes riots and violence; each side tries to
rig elections
Election of 1856
Elect. Votes
Rep. John C. Fremont
114
(free labor; no expansion of slavery)
Dem. James Buchanan
174
(supports popular sovereignty)
Know-Nothing Millard Fillmore
8
March, 1857 - Buchanan inaugurated → two days later – Dred Scott Decision!
Dred Scott changes 50 years of political compromises on slavery issue!!!!!!!!
Dred Scott – Supreme court decides that:
Page 487
 Scott can’t sue for freedom because he’s not a citizen; only white people can be citizens
 Residence in a free state doesn’t make a person free
 Congress has no power to ban slavery from a territory. Missouri Compromise and any
attempts to limit slavery are unconstitutional
 Popular sovereignty is probably unconstitutional as well
 Reputation of Supreme Court becomes greatly diminished in North
1858 – Mid-term elections
Illinois Senate Race:
Stephen Douglass – Dem.
 Staunch supporter of popular sovereignty
 Believes freedom is based on local control
 Congress can’t force morality on local communities
 Argues Lincoln’s proposals for Blacks are degrading to whites
A. Lincoln – Rep.
 Anti-slave philosophy; essential to idea of a nation based on freedom
 Against slave state expansion
 Free labor supporter
 Need a NATIONAL policy on slavery
 Against popular sovereignty
 Not for full Black equality – no black suffrage/ colonization supporter
Foner Podcast #3
At this time, Senate elections are not based on popular vote; Illinois Democrats win control of
state legislature, they pick Douglass
Southern Illinois = mostly Dem.
Northern Illinois = mostly Rep.
Nationwide, most Republican candidates in Northern states win
John Brown – Anti-slave radical
1856 – Brown and his group murder 5 pro-slavery settlers in Kansas
1859 – Brown and a fairly small group take control of a federal fort in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
(now WV)
Plan is to get guns to rebelling slaves. Federal troops regain control
Brown is hanged – becomes hero for anti-slavery cause
National political crisis !!!!
Throughout 1850s, some in South advocate forming a new nation – a slave empire!
→The South could expand to include Caribbean, Cuba, and Mexico
Election of 1860
Democratic Party splits into two groups – North and South. Southern Democrats refuse to
support Douglass
Candidate
Electoral votes
S. Douglass (Northern Dem) (Illinois)
12
Breckinridge (Southern Dem.) (Kentucky)
72
Lincoln (Republican) (Illinois)
180
Lincoln gets no votes in 10 southern states (not on ballot)
Election of Lincoln seen as hostile to South
Dec. 20, 1860 – South Carolina votes to secede (leave union) Six more states join SC Page
505 - map
Lincoln not president until March 4, 1861
President Buchanan and federal government are paralyzed
Confederate States formed before Lincoln’s inaugural
April , 1861 – war begins at Ft. Sumter, which South has blockaded
Lincoln notifies south he intends to ship food and non-military supplies to Ft. Sumter,
Charleston, SC
Lincoln’s strategy: if south attacks, they will be responsible for starting the war
South attacks; war begins; four more states join Confederacy
Jefferson Davis new CSA President
Confederate Constitution similar to North, but guarantees race-based slavery