Events leading to a National Split
Chapter 2 Section 1
Reform and Westward Expansion
• Reform: to change/make better, improve.
• 1820’s-Voting laws change-all males over 21
(even if they don’t own property) can now
vote.
• In some states even free black men can vote.
• Women, Native Americans, and slaves still
unable to vote.
President
Andrew Jackson
• 1828-landslide win!
• Seen as the common man, “Hero of New
Orleans” and “Old Hickory”
• Supported territorial expansion at whatever cost.
– Presidential issues #1
• Disregarding a Supreme Court decision, he
ordered all Native Americans relocated across the
Mississippi to the West. Removal Policy
• Labeled the “Trail of Tears”-one of the cruelest
episodes in man’s history. Jackson’s view: Better
to move them than slaughter them.
Jackson Continued
Presidential Issue #2
• Growing frustration between state and federal power.
– Example: The federal government imposed high
tariffs(taxes) on imported products.
– The tariffs protected Northern manufacturers by
raising the price of foreign produced goods.
– Southerners were mad about paying higher prices for
imports.
– S.C. John Calhoun argued tariffs gave too much
authority to federal government and states should
have right to nullify, or cancel any fed. Law not in
state’s best interest.
Jackson…Nullify a Federal Law-No
Way!!
• South Carolina passed a law nullifying a
federal tariff. Nullification Crisis!
• Jackson furious!!! Wants Federal troops sent
to S. C. to repeal such actions.
• Congress- eased tensions by lowering the
tariff.
• Major distrust of the federal government is
expressed by Southerners.
Religion and Social Reform
• 1820’s Second Great Awakening:
As popular as the first. Attracted
thousands of religious converts
for days or weeks.
• Great religious expansions and
new religions formed.
• Important: This 2nd awakening
encouraged the belief that people
“could and should work to
achieve a state of moral
perfection.”
• Helped bring religious fervor to
social reform!!!
Religious Reforms
• People who now have strong religious beliefs want the government to
encourage morality by supporting religion.
• But what about separation of Church and State?
• 1830-Sabbatarians urged our government to observe Sunday, the Christian
day, as a day of rest.
• Post office ends service on Sundays.
• Minority religious groups (like, Roman Catholics, Jews and Mormons)
faced discrimination, violence and persecution.
• People considered “non-Christians” were prevented from holding public
offices.
• Mormons were persecuted and their leader Joseph Smith was murdered.
They fled Illinois in search of a safe haven-which they found in Utah.
The Second Great Awakening found people passionate about what seemed
right or wrong- And their actions spoke volumes.
Reform in everyday Society
• Religious zeal worked its magic on society:
– Dorthea Dix worked to improve treatment of
prisoners and the mentally ill.
– Horace Mann worked to improve education
– Great authors like Ralph Waldo Emmerson and
Margaret Fuller taught that man should follow his
conscious.
– Henry David Thoreau-people should peacefully refuse
to obey laws they considered immoral-called Civil
disobedience.
– Example: a Sit in, A boycott, A peaceful demonstration, etc.
– Thoreau even went to jail for refusing to pay a tax to support a
war that he felt encouraged the spread of slavery.
Abolitionists at work
• What is an abolitionist?
– A reformer who sought a gradual or immediate end of
slavery.
– Why? Because owning another human being was
morally wrong and it harmed both the slave
(physically and mentally) and the slave owner
(eternally)
– But…Many Americans, even those who opposed
Slavery, knew their prosperity rested on slavery.
– Remember: Cotton produced in the South benefitted
the textile mills in the North.
Slavery Facts
• Over 2 million African
Americans were human
property.
• Treatment: labored at
difficult/backbreaking
tasks-sun up to sun down,
picking cotton or tobacco,
loading freight onto ships,
taking care of their master’s
needs(on the plantation and
at the homes)
• Slaves could be whipped,
tortured and sold from their
families-all on a whim.
Slaves fight back
• Over 200 revolts staged by
enslaved African Americans
between 1800-1850.
• Nat Turner’s Revolt: 60 White Virginians lay dead
• Turner later captured, tried (fairly?) and
executed.
• Slave revolts terrified Slave owners and statesthis led to harsher treatment.
• Against the law to teach a slave to read or write.
Abolitionists Say Freedom Now!
• Hero’s of the abolitionist movements:
Frederick Douglas-a former slave who ran away and found freedom in
North. Started an anti-slavery newspaper, became a powerful speaker at
meetings. Told stories of awful treatment by masters.
Harriet Tubman-fled for freedom from Maryland but returned to help
others escape using the underground railroad. She was a conductor and
was called the “Moses of our People”, she led over 300 people to
freedom. She worked for the Union army as a cook, a nurse and spy.
William Lloyd Garrison
• Like Tubman and Douglas, White Bostonian William Lloyd
Garrison sought to end slavery. In 1831 Garrison began
publishing The Liberator, the most influential abolitionist
newspaper.
• Garrison called for not immediate freedom of all slaves, but
full political and social rights for African Americans.
• Garrison published The Liberator for 35 years and finally
stopped after Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation.
• People questioned Garrison’s idea of immediate
freedom…what will we do with all of these freed black
men? Garrison’s answer… They will assimilate into our
societies and be equal in every war…
Women also wanted Reform
• Women frustrated by limited rights.
•
•
•
•
•
Can’t own property
Can’t vote or hold offices
If divorce occurred-husbands got children
If working, pay went to fathers or husbands
Colleges and most professions closed to women
Organized Women
-Women fight for slave rights-1830’s Philadelphia Female AntiSlavery Society.
• Women organize for Women’s rights:
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s
rights convention in 1848.
They created the Declaration of Sentiment-modeled after the Dec.
of Indep.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are
created equal…”
• Susan B. Anthony: For 5 decades worked to give women the right
to vote. She illegally cast a ballot in the 1872 Presidential electionarrested, fined and would not say sorry!
Anthony, Stanton and Mott
Back to Expansion
• Time has passed and Americans expand
westward to:
–
–
–
–
Seek good farmland
Find gold
Find animal furs
Or just for the adventure!!!
–1850 Missouri became the starting point for
westward travel using the Santa Fe Trail, the
Oregon Trail, The Mormon Trail and the
California Trail
Manifest Destiny
• Journalist John O’Sullivan, observing the massive
travel west reported that American expansion
was “Manifest Destiny.”
• Manifest= obvious, clear, plain
• Destiny= Pre-determined
• Manifest Destiny came to mean that the United
States was intended to touch from the Atlantic to
the Pacific Ocean, as GOD intended.
Manifest Destiny, well ok let’s take it
all!!!
• Conflict with Mexico: In 1820 the Mexican
government had encouraged Americans to move
into Texas-they did, especially Southerners. (with
slaves)
• 1830-American Texans wanted independence
from Mexico. In 1836 they got it after a short war.
Now Republic of Texas!
• But what about the Mexican citizens in Texas-they
now live in another country!!! Instead of equals
they were now 2nd class citizens.
The Great State of Texas
• Texas becomes state in 1845.
• Boundary issues with Mexico leads to war,
which we win and this time get more land for
southwest States and California.
• This is the first time America doesn’t fight for
National independence, foreign provocation
or global politics!
Mexican War
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• We get:
• 500,000 square miles of Mexican
territory
• California
• Arizona
• Utah
• Most of New Mexico
• Parts of Wyoming and Colorado
• Texas!!!
Mexico gets $15 million dollars and its citizens lives are
changed forever.
Soldiers (American and Mexican)who had known each other
and fought together in Texas would soon face each other
in battle-on opposite sides!
Gold!!!
• 1848 Gold discovered in California.
• 1849-”49ers” had quickly established campsites and
makeshift towns as they staked claim to land plots
believed to make them rich.
• Emigrants from all over the world came to California.
• Because of the massive population boom, California
had enough people to apply for Statehood. Choose to
enter as a Free State(no slavery)
• South was mad!!! This request would inflame the
national conflict over slavery.
California Free State, Now who
will be Next Slave State
• Land received from Mexico was massive• The Wilmot Proviso was proposed by a Penn.
Congressman.
• The Wilmot Proviso stated that although slavery
could continue in the South, it would not be
allowed in any new territory received from
Mexico.
• House of Reps. Passes (North had majority) but
Senate defeats(Some Northern congressman did
not agree)
New political parties emerge
• Because of the Wilmot Proviso, a rise of Antislavery political parties emerge.
• Free-Soil Party with motto, “free soil, free
speech, free labor, free men”
• Compromise of 1850-Again trying to ease rising
tensions allows California to enter as a Free State,
but in the rest of Mexican territory, voters could
decide if they would be Free or Slave states.
• This political approach is called Popular
sovereignty –people choose their status.
Compromise of 1850
• Fugitive Slave Act-REQUIRED citizens to help
apprehend runaway slaves.
• North was opposed and presented an intense
resistance. North had to use their resources to help
apprehend slaves-cost money and time-and morally,
they didn’t want to participate in re-enslaving an
African American.
• Some slaves that had been freed for years were subject
to seizure and transport back to the South.
• Tensions between the North and South were rapidly
rising.
More Fuel to the Fire
• Harriet Beacher Stowe writes maybe one of the most important
books of our time, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
This anti-slavery novel was a best seller in North, but South said it
presented an unfair picture…? Really?
• Dred Scott Decision: Supreme Court Rules, Slaves are not people,
but property. Slaves-even if moved to a free state are still slaves.
Slavery can exist anywhere!!! South happy, North Mad.
• 1859- John Brown leads a small group of Black and White
abolitionists to seize an arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Believed “Violence
is the Only Answer to ending slavery”-His mission was to inspire
others to revolt. His mission failed and he was hung for treason.
The Real Start of The Civil War
• The Kansas Nebraska Act- remember the
Compromise of 1850 said that state citizens
could vote for slave or free. Also remember
that voting age and requirements were
lowered to 21, so many more voters.
Kansas/Nebraska Act
• Written by Stephen Douglas
• Divided Nebraska territory into Kansas and
Nebraska.
• People who believe in slave or free flock to vote
their belief. “Majority Decides”
• Kansas has two governments-1 pro-slavery, 1
against.
• For months violence (riots, fighting) took hold of
Kansas making it known as “Bleeding Kansas.”
• 1861 Kansas enters the Union as a free state
A new political party emerges
– Republican Party
» Views:
» Opposed the extension of Slavery
» Abolitionist party: Slavery immoral, slavery stifles business,
and the Fugitive Slave Act disrupted state politics.
Democratic Party (Started by Andrew Jackson)
-Party of Slavery
-Ideas of Majority rule
-The average person can run and serve in government.
Lincoln-Douglas
Debate
• 1858 Debate in Senate
Republican Abraham Lincoln vs.
Democrat Stephen Douglas
• Lincoln: Intention was never to end slavery,
but it would not expand!
• Douglas: let the people choose what they
want-popular sovereignty. Douglas wins
debate
And the South Secedes
• Presidential ticket: Rep. Lincoln VS.
Northern democrat Stephen Douglas and Southern
democrat John Breckinridge.
The outcome? Well the democrats are divided and the
majority of votes goes to Lincoln.
*Won 18 north and western free states. Only 40% of Popular
vote and 60% of electoral vote.
South so mad it secedes(breaks away) on December 20, 1860.